People do not go to Nuit Blanche for the art.

People do not watch your shadow on a sheet with you barking in the background to understand your views on the human psyche.

People do not scream in your yellow booth for catharsis or relaxation.

People aren’t watching your video on the problem with beauty because they are trying to understand the cacophony of your brash sounds and complicated imagery.

People like aesthetic appeal.

They like your colourfully lighted thousands of globular beach balls because they’d look like a good background in one of their selfies. They shake their heads and laugh when they hear that the beach balls were all blown by human breath, and wonder why anyone would spend time on that.

They like your maze because of the way the way the light plays on the translucent cloth, and the fact that it is interactive, but mildly disappointing.

They think it’s so cool that the black light you’ve got on makes their teeth and eyes blue.

People go to Nuit Blache because it’s there.

People flock to interesting things because people are curious, and confused as to why you are wearing an orange beehive helmet.

People go with their friends so they can dance in front of tattoo shops and on top of traffic signs. People lie in the middle of the street, so that the next day they can laugh about it with their friends and say, you should have been there.

People smoke, and share smokes, and ask for smokes, and smell like smoke.

People laugh and stumble and complain and are cold.

Nuit Blanche is not about art, it’s about people.

Nuit Blanche is about that man who’s just shared his cigarette through the fence with another man.

Nuit Blanche is about that guy trying to tell you that there are ferns on top of the cherry picker, while you’re trying to tell him that they’re palm trees.

Nuit Blanche is about chasing that guy on that bike who are both completely lit up.

Nuit Blanche is about being genuinely concerned with those girls who look like they’re about to freeze to death.

Nuit Blanche is about trying to take a really great picture of that dude’s shoes without him noticing.

Nuit Blanche is about going to chinatown at 4 and getting gifts from god in the form of really good chinese noodles.