Why Is QVM Not Part of Melbourne’s White Night?

 White Night Melbourne is a celebration of music, art, food, theatre, sport, fashion, film, design, and performance in Melbourne’s CBD. It is an annual 12 hour event created and supported by the State Government of Victoria. But The Queen Victoria Market is not part of it.

White Night is inspired by Paris’ Nuit Blanche and duplicated in 20 global cities. In February 2013 it attracted 300,000 to Melbourne’s CBD and reportedly jammed mobile networks. But The Queen Victoria Market is not part of it.

The event has been significantly expanded this year to cope with huge crowds and a northern and southern hub introduced to help control crowd movement. The northern hub takes in parts of Franklin St. and Elizabeth St. but does not extend to The Queen Victoria Market.

White Night Melbourne says that events are held in major cultural institutions right across the city centre. The State Government recently announced their intent to make an expanded QVM precinct the hub of the city’s north. Wikipedia says “The Market is significant to Melbourne's culture and heritage.” But The Queen Victoria Market is not part of White Night Melbourne.

White Night 2014 started at 7:00pm this evening (Saturday) so QVM won’t be part of this year’s celebration but let’s hope the “cultural icon” of the city’s north gets a role in 2015.

(Thanks to Bob Andrewartha for raising this issue.)

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COMMENTS:
23/2/2014 14:24  White Night  - "I think it is because they want to have all events connected (geographically)." - Tony Pierrakos (Facebook)