What you need to know about Nuit Blanche 2024

Toronto will be the city that doesn’t sleep for one night this weekend during the annual Nuit Blanche festival. It is the city’s all-night celebration of contemporary art produced by the City of Toronto alongside Toronto’s arts community.

This year’s theme is Bridging Distance and will feature almost 100 art projects and performances from close to 150 artists.

The exhibits will be concentrated along the downtown waterfront area from Sherbourne Commons in the east to Little Norway Park in the West.

“The waterfront is a place of revitalization and … it also relates very nicely to the ‘bridging distance’ theme. Water is a resource that we all share that connects us, the lake connects us,” explains Nuit Blanche artistic director Laura Nanni.

“But not just as a city do our rivers and streams flow to the lake, but also beyond. It’s one of the things that connects us with the rest of the world. And also having the geography of the exhibition zones close to together really emphasizes the ‘bridging distance’ theme too.”

Twelve projects will also be hosted at the Humber Polytechnic Lake Shore campus and more exhibits are scattered across the city including in Kensington Market and the Don Mills area.

New this year is a central event hub where people can gather, plan their route and enjoy various performances.

“The Event Hub is a place of connection convergence. It’s where you can start your night and seek information. You can meet your friends there. You can go there in between exhibitions or visiting some of our major institutions and independent projects across the city. There will be pop-up performances, installations, videos that give you a taste of some of the works and some of the artists that are elsewhere, so you can really choose your own adventure from there,” says Nanni.

Highlights of the show along the waterfront

The Weight of Levity

Located between Little Norway Park and HTO Park West, underscored by the cycles of sunset and moonrise, The Weight of Levity by Su-Ying Lee considers the interrelatedness of seemingly distant positions through the metaphors of gravity and ascension, ups and downs. Over Nuit Blanche’s 12-hour duration, opposing physical, perceptual and emotional states are deeply explored as counterparts.

And the spaces between us smiled

Located between HTO Park and Harbour Square Park West, rooted in resistance, love and celebration, this exhibition by Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware takes inspiration from the poem Stay on the Battlefield by Black artist and professor Sonia Sanchez, in which she writes “and the spaces between us smiled.” This exhibition draws from land, water and resistance movements that help to build community, fight for climate justice and work towards an interdependent and interconnected future.

Cat’s Cradle

Located between Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common, this exhibition by Danica Pinteric uncovers the material qualities of hidden networks that connect us. Inspired by the popular string game, Cat’s Cradle considers how our social fabric is formed through individual and collective activity. Seven artists echo the game’s fluid nature with a night of performance, interactive sound work and sculptural installations. Each project evolves throughout the night, emphasizing themes of collectivity, flux and interdependence as vital strategies for bridging distance.

Descriptions of the exhibitions provided by City of Toronto

When and where

From 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, to 7 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, three exhibitions and the official Event Hub will be located along the downtown waterfront, 12 projects will be staged at Humber Polytechnic Lakeshore Campus and a multitude of works will animate public and cultural spaces across Toronto. 

There are no art projects at City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square during Nuit Blanche this year due to essential maintenance works.

A full map of exhibitions can be found on the City of Toronto’s website.

Road closures

Road closures for the festival will go into effect on 7 p.m. Friday and are expected to end at 12 p.m. on Sunday.

In the downtown core, the east bound lanes of Queens Quay West from Bathurst Street to Spadina Avenue will be closed. On Queens Quay East, the eastbound lanes will be closed from Yonge Street to Lower Sherbourne Street and Dockside Drive from west of Nap Lane West to Queens Quay East will be closed to traffic.

In Etobicoke, the Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive Loop between Colonel Samuel Smith Park Road and Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive will be closed.

Barricades will be in place along these closures to separate pedestrians from live traffic lanes.

Extended TTC hours

On Sun., Oct. 6, Line 1 Yonge-University and Line 2 Bloor-Danforth will remain open past the usual 2 a.m. closing time. Subway service will run every 15 minutes from 1:30 a.m. until regular Sunday schedules resume at 8 a.m.

Several bus and streetcar routes will also run extended hours and with more capacity:

• 903 Kennedy Station-Scarborough Express buses will operate all night with additional buses along the route.
• Extra buses will be added to the 100 Flemingdon Park route for overnight service to the Agha Khan Museum art installations.
• 944 Kipling South Express buses will operate all night from Kipling Station to Humber College Lake Shore Campus.
• Extra streetcars will be in service on 501 Queen and 301 Queen Night, 503 Kingston Road and 303 Kingston Road Night, 504 King and 304 King Night, and 511 Bathurst. 511 Bathurst streetcar service will operate all night.

As part of the service adjustments for Nuit Blanche, some routes will be diverted to accommodate road closures, including 65 Parliament and 365 Parliament Night, 114 Queens Quay East, 202 Cherry Beach, 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina and 310 Spadina Night. Diversions will start at 7 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 5, until 8 a.m. on Sun., Oct. 6.