Hayley Goldfarb and Emily Dyer

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it wasn’t actually stormy. But it was dark, which is the entire point of Nuit Blanche. In case you didn’t know, Nuit Blanche is the one night in Toronto when the subway stays open until 7am, when art exhibits are displayed all over T.O. and when parents actually let their teenagers (for the most part) roam around downtown at their hearts content until any time.

For the past six years, the Scotiabank-sponsored event has drawn many hopeful teens and adults to Toronto’s downtown core. And for the past six years, many of these teens and adults have left anywhere from mildly disappointed to extremely outraged. That being said, some people who went to Nuit Blanche had a fantastic time. In general, the difference between these two groups is not the places they went or the art they saw, it’s the expectations they arrived with.

If you went to Nuit Blanche expecting to be wowed by the fantastic displays of original artwork, or if you went with a minute-to-minute plan and an entire evening mapped out, you were probably in for a severe disappointment. As usual, the artwork this year was mediocre, at best. There were a few gems such as the TTC streetcar exhibit and the installation Soon, a demonstration with flashing strobe lights and people wearing black running around like maniacs. However, over all, the installations were not all they were cracked up to be. We trekked an hour across the city to see our friend’s water conservation maze installation, which turned out to be a few hundred pop cans and beer bottles strewn outside a smoky tepee hut with a half dozen people roasting Marshmallows inside. Not really worth an hour’s walk down to Trinity-Bellwoods.

Nevertheless, it is entirely possible to have a great time at Nuit Blanche by going with the flow and making it fun. You simply have to learn to be amused by the drunk kids in the Eaton’s center at 9pm, laugh at the half-dozen awkward run-ins you have with people you’re not really friends with anymore, and joke about the people that almost vomit or spill beer on you.

And before you set out for the late night, make sure you dress warmly! Nothing puts a damper on your night like trying to talk through chattering teeth for 5 hours.

To top off your night and make it extremely memorable (I know this was what made our night) buy a delish and uber fattening funnel cake and share it with your closest friends… and maybe a few random people on the street, too (the funnel cakes were extremely massive).