I don't claim prescience, but about this time in 2012 and again in 2013 I thought Nuit Blanche was heading for, if not trouble, then certainly a turn for the worse. The reason was as obvious as some of the installations I've seen while traipsing around Hogtown during the overnight outdoor festival.
Here's what I posted in 2012: Also standing out were the Yahoos, or should that be yahoos? They were smoking dope, drinking, I dunno, vodka coolers? and generally behaving like jerks. Party hearty, boys and girls. But do it on your own patch.
The doper-vodka cooler crowd I saw on Yonge Street near Gould Street. I wish I hadn't.
Here's what I posted in 2013: I have nothing against fun, levity, high spirits, street theatre, drinking, and a general good time. Nor do I want the night to become just for the arty and the earnest, because the transformational power of art, even for those who don't "get it" there and then is enormous. But I get the distinct impression that Nuit Blanche is becoming a pretext for a certain stratum of cementhead to wander among the crowds being obnoxious simply because they can.
I'm not the only observer to wonder about where Nuit Blanche is going: drunks, pools of vomit, loud, exaggerated bonhomie that can seem threatening to some, and so on were all on display this year. As well, two young men were stabbed and one of them died, although it's not at all clear if these crimes were somehow related to the festival. So, what to do? Nuit Blanche needs a White Knight to come in and clean things up without becoming a killjoy. Because if a hero on a white charger doesn't show up soon to save Nuit Blanche then the police and city authorities will start bearing down, and that means the end of a brilliant art night in Hogtown.
I saw examples of this cementheadedness along King Street West, and again at the corner of King and Spadina Avenue. I wish I hadn't.
Now we know that a group or groups of the stupid and obnoxious (and criminal) attacked the police at Yonge Dundas Square this Nuit Blanche. From what I've seen on YouTube these losers look remarkably similar in age and appearance - almost exclusively male, not long out of high school, and dressed in the banal uniform of the street lout - to those I saw a few years ago. And we also know that Scotiabank has yanked its sponsorship of Nuit Blanche. I don't blame the bank at all. I'm not a fan of corporate arts sponsorship (it's just marketing otherwise writ), but without Scotiabank's cash - or some other sponsor to step in - it's hard to see how the festival can continue, at least at it's current size and scope. Hogtown and the province won't stump up, that much seems certain.
This city is a major arts venue, only bested by a few other places - New York, London, Paris - that have been in the game a lot longer. The drunken and the doped up can't be allowed to spoil it.
Here's what I posted in 2012: Also standing out were the Yahoos, or should that be yahoos? They were smoking dope, drinking, I dunno, vodka coolers? and generally behaving like jerks. Party hearty, boys and girls. But do it on your own patch.
The doper-vodka cooler crowd I saw on Yonge Street near Gould Street. I wish I hadn't.
Here's what I posted in 2013: I have nothing against fun, levity, high spirits, street theatre, drinking, and a general good time. Nor do I want the night to become just for the arty and the earnest, because the transformational power of art, even for those who don't "get it" there and then is enormous. But I get the distinct impression that Nuit Blanche is becoming a pretext for a certain stratum of cementhead to wander among the crowds being obnoxious simply because they can.
I'm not the only observer to wonder about where Nuit Blanche is going: drunks, pools of vomit, loud, exaggerated bonhomie that can seem threatening to some, and so on were all on display this year. As well, two young men were stabbed and one of them died, although it's not at all clear if these crimes were somehow related to the festival. So, what to do? Nuit Blanche needs a White Knight to come in and clean things up without becoming a killjoy. Because if a hero on a white charger doesn't show up soon to save Nuit Blanche then the police and city authorities will start bearing down, and that means the end of a brilliant art night in Hogtown.
I saw examples of this cementheadedness along King Street West, and again at the corner of King and Spadina Avenue. I wish I hadn't.
Now we know that a group or groups of the stupid and obnoxious (and criminal) attacked the police at Yonge Dundas Square this Nuit Blanche. From what I've seen on YouTube these losers look remarkably similar in age and appearance - almost exclusively male, not long out of high school, and dressed in the banal uniform of the street lout - to those I saw a few years ago. And we also know that Scotiabank has yanked its sponsorship of Nuit Blanche. I don't blame the bank at all. I'm not a fan of corporate arts sponsorship (it's just marketing otherwise writ), but without Scotiabank's cash - or some other sponsor to step in - it's hard to see how the festival can continue, at least at it's current size and scope. Hogtown and the province won't stump up, that much seems certain.
This city is a major arts venue, only bested by a few other places - New York, London, Paris - that have been in the game a lot longer. The drunken and the doped up can't be allowed to spoil it.
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