Since Paris launched the first Nuit Blanche in 2002, London has developed its White NightBratislava sa Good nightValletta sa Lejl ImdawwalSão Paulo sa Cultural RoadBucharest sa Noaptea albaSpain and Latin America their White night. Rome also had its White Night and the event has spread to Kyoto. Even Alma has its Flashe Fête! Quebec, meanwhile, is fast asleep — even if some are daydreaming about a capital-style Nuit blanche.
Everywhere, parties attract night owls eager for the arts, discoveries and communion in a celebration of culture and creation. Cities are buzzing, and the party shines as brightly as a full moon: last winter in Montreal, some 200,000 night owls—a record—took part in the 21e White night and the hundred activities that were offered.
Quebec, for its part, has never embarked on this large-scale nocturnal experiment. However, there is no lack of appetite. The Duty contacted more than twenty cultural and economic organizations and institutions in the capital to gauge the interest in organizing such an artistic night. All (except two, for financial reasons) expressed their enthusiasm — from the Orchestre symphonique de Québec (OSQ) to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ), including the theatre ecosystem and the world of events.
“This type of event would undoubtedly resonate in Quebec, especially with the city’s enthusiastic public, which is passionate about music and culture,” writes BLEUFEU, a major player in the capital’s culture, who notably promotes the Summer Festival.
“The Grand Théâtre is open to this type of event, and we would certainly be the right place to host multiple shows and many people,” writes one of Quebec City’s largest cultural presenters. “Yes, it’s something we could enjoy!” enthuses Premier Acte, a hotbed of emerging theatre talent in Quebec City.
This type of event would undoubtedly resonate in Quebec, especially with the city’s enthusiastic public, which is passionate about music and culture.
“We would jump right in,” assure the circus artists of FLIP Fabrique. “We are massively capable, in Quebec, of turning around on a 10 cents and creating big events.”
OSQ director Astrid Chouinard is already imagining the possibilities of such a celebration. “It could be a big night concert, it could be our musicians playing in libraries all over the city,” she says. “It could also be an opportunity to explore new collaborations between disciplines and institutions of different sizes.”
Even the diocese of Quebec states bluntly that “this is the kind of project that can really [l’]”interest” and points out that his churches already host one-off events. “We have little or no budget,” explains his communications director, Valérie Roberge-Dion. “But I know that we can do great things with few resources.”
“It’s in the DNA of the Périscope to go off the beaten track,” emphasize Gabrielle Ferron and Samuel Corbeil, artistic coordinators of the De Salaberry Avenue creative theater. “A Nuit blanche would allow us to promote our very vibrant cultural scene and create an interesting network with the tourism industry.”
“Our league would be more than happy to contribute to such an event in the future!” writes the Quebec Improvisation League, convinced “that such an event could be a great success” in the capital. “In our opinion, Quebec City has everything it takes to hold such an activity,” adds Le Diamant.
Robert Lepage’s theatre is not the only one to believe this: some people in Montreal also share this certainty.
“Quebec has everything you need”
“I don’t see Quebec not being able to organize this,” says Maurin Auxéméry, programming director at Spectra, the production team behind Montreal’s Nuit blanche. “Any city with an interesting cultural background is capable of creating a Nuit blanche, and the capital, right now, has a lot to offer. You have museums, you have festivals, you have theatres. The music scene is very, very strong too, with Ariane Roy, Sarahmée, Hubert Lenoir, Lou-Adriane [Cassidy] who all come from there.”
Spectra founder Alain Simard originally wanted to offer a highlight to Montreal in lights. He had visited the very first Nuit blanche in Paris — and had come back enchanted.
“That’s exactly what he was looking for,” sums up Véronique Morel, project manager in the Spectra team who takes care of Nuit blanche like an “adopted child,” she says with a big laugh. “A way to thumb one’s nose at winter, to thwart the ambient gloom, to spark creativity during a lull and, also, to democratize culture. It’s one of our points of honor: 98% of Nuit blanche’s programming is free.”
The secret of such success is due to a few phone calls and, above all, to the collaboration of an infinite number of contributors who push the wheel to keep the city awake for one night. “It’s the sum of the parts that makes the beauty of the whole,” explains Maurin Auxéméry. “We act as… I wouldn’t say conductor, because everyone is very independent in their contribution to the Nuit blanche, but perhaps as the anchor point and the unifying element of the event.”
Each year, Montreal’s Nuit blanche revolves around a theme that runs like a red thread through the program. Last winter, for example, it was fantasy that kept the city awake. Once the theme is chosen, Spectra launches a call for applications, to which, year after year, about a hundred organizations respond.
The logistical costs are the responsibility of each contributor. Spectra has a budget filled with public funding and private partnerships to help some of them organize events, but the money is not necessarily enough for everyone. “No one makes money from Nuit Blanche,” says Spectra’s director of programming. “The idea of the event is to create a powerful moment. If all the participants don’t come together to collaborate, it simply doesn’t exist.”
In Quebec City, the Maison de la littérature as well as the musées de la civilisation and des beaux-arts have all been involved in nighttime events in the past. The former has organized literary evenings until the wee hours, while the latter has contributed to the Nuit des galeries, a very popular evening where art lovers can stroll through gallery owners’ homes and meet their artists until 11 p.m.
The MNBAQ, for its part, hosted a few musical nights in partnership with the Unïdsounds agency. Each attracted around 2,000 people. The only downside: despite its interest, the MNBAQ mentions that the construction of the pavilion dedicated to Jean Paul Riopelle will monopolize its resources until 2026. “We would have to evaluate the contribution required for this project by our teams before embarking on the adventure,” says Linda Tremblay, the museum’s press relations manager. “But if our staff allowed us to collaborate, we would certainly do so without hesitation.”
City ready to ‘explore the idea’
Quebec City’s cultural community is not the only one showing its appetite for a Nuit blanche. “We are very open to exploring the idea,” says Catherine Vallières-Roland, responsible for culture and major events on the executive council of Quebec City, before adding that with a cultural budget of $57 million, including $17 million dedicated to major events, the capital has the capacity to support a Nuit blanche within its walls.
“It would be very relevant to create an event similar to Montreal’s Nuit Blanche,” says Xavier Bernier-Prévost of the Société de développement commercial (SDC) du Vieux-Québec. “Our city is beautiful, but it sleeps, is dark and unattractive during the winter. Bringing it to life and lighting it up, in short, bringing a bit of life to it during this period, would give Destination Québec Cité the tools it needs to attract more local and foreign customers during this period.”
The SDC of Quartier Saint-Jean-Baptiste echoed the same sentiment. “We firmly believe in the potential of a Nuit blanche in Québec and are eager to contribute to its eventual success,” enthuses its communications coordinator, Mihanta Randria.