White Night: Festival and Event Management

This document explores the festival and event management of White Night, including assessment, involvement, organizers, importance, history, theme, market targeting, and marketing strategies. It also discusses the challenges faced, sustainability of the event, and the benefits it brings to the local community.

Running head: WHITE NIGHT
Festival: White Night
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Table of Contents
Festival and Event Management..........................................................................................2
Assessment of the event.......................................................................................................2
Involvements in the event....................................................................................................2
Organizers for the event.......................................................................................................3
Importance of the event.......................................................................................................3
Event history........................................................................................................................3
Event theme.........................................................................................................................4
Market targeted....................................................................................................................4
Marketing of the event.........................................................................................................4
Partners................................................................................................................................5
Management of the event.....................................................................................................5
Challenges faced..................................................................................................................5
Sustainability of the event...................................................................................................6
Benefits of the event............................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................7

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Festival and Event Management
Community festivals and different events aids in strengthening the development of
tourism and economy of the state. The community pride is galvanized by the help of celebrating
the different qualities of the community. Event management is described as the project
management which helps in developing festivals, conferences and various events. The theories of
event management studies the intricate of the brands associated with the event, identifies the type
of audiences associated with the festival and plans accordingly (Lambert 2015).
Assessment of the event
White night is an event which takes place in Melbourne, which is one of the most
exemplary after dark event of the state. This year’s White Night event occurred for a span of
three days, starting from 22nd august till 24th august. On 22nd and 23rd August white night ran
from 7pm until midnight, on 24th August the event ran from 7pm until 2am (Homan 2019). After
Melbourne, White Night will be continuing in the regional Victoria along with Balart hosting the
event for the third period on 21st September. White Night will be taking place in three different
venues namely Physical Realm at Birrarung Marr which is situated next to Federation Square,
Sensory Realm at Treasury Gardens situated next to Spring Street, Spiritual Realm at Carlton
Gardens which is around the Royal Exhibition Building (Ford,Laing and Frost 2019).
Involvements in the event
The revamped White Night event of this year comprised of visual and performing arts
from worldwide craftsmen. There was also opportunities for the local creators and performers of
Melbourne to showcase their talent. Lot of performers attended the event this year, more than
previous years. A total of 55 works were shown in the event which includes Heliosphere, Cyclo
Illuminato, and Circus of Inspiration to what lies Beneath, Waterlight Graffiti and many more
(Fedsquare.com. 2019).

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Organizers for the event
Different kind of resources for the event are provided by the partnered organizations such
as the different venues for the event, the event managers for helping in conducting the event,
crews for sites along with the necessary equipment like seats, furnishes and other different
amenities. One of the most important aspects during such gathering is the safety and the security
of the gathered masses which was taken care by the Homeland Department (Duff and Moore
2015). The coordination between staffs and volunteers was aptly followed.
Importance of the event
Events like black night not only gives an opportunity for the host community to attract
visitors from different parts of the country and helps in the adding extra income from the money
spent by the visitors in the transport, food as well the accommodation. Events of this magnitude
attracts a lot of people which befits the cultural and social aspects of the local community. The
expenditure of the visitors provides an additional income for the local community which adds to
their yearly revenue and covers a substantial amount of economic growth and activity in the local
community (White Night 2019 2019).
Event history
The white night was first celebrated in 1992 as an arts and music festival in Russia. The
festival is generally celebrated when the Northern lights shines during the dawn and dusk in the
season of the midnight sun. During that time the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak was
the head of the festival. White night in Melbourne is celebrated annually. During the festival the
city of Melbourne is converted in a city full of lights. The first white night festival in Melbourne
was celebrated on 2013 in 23rd February. An estimated crowd of 300000 people attended the
festival (Butt 2019).

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Event theme
The main elements that comprises white night are the projections and the light based
works which are depicted on different venues around Melbourne during the event. 4 elements is
the main theme of the projections which is across between the mapping of buildings and epic
films which are projected on the buildings (Melbourne Point 2019). The exhibition building is
used as a canvas on which the projections of different films which mainly comprises topics
related to the different qualities of water, air and fire is depicted. These kind of artwork also
involves dances which are projected digitally in the videos which are shown.
Market targeted
The main target audiences of White Night 2019 are the people residing in the local
community. An approximate of 300000 people attended the festival when it was first launched in
Melbourne on 2013 but this year there was an approximate of 700000 people attended the event.
A long program for alluring the food and different melodies were offered to the audiences for
accompanying the program which portrayed some of the best foods of the local community
(Warren 2015). These foods were spread in the different bards and diners of Melbourne which
showcased the richness of the local cuisine.
Marketing of the event
White night 2019 has been designed in such a way that visitors from different states can
come for the festival and enjoy it. Transport system was drastically improved for the event since
during the night it was hard in availing transport during the time when the event used to get over.
The different dines are also improved for the visitors for giving them the ethnic taste of the
community. Billboards all over the country were used for the advertisement of the event which
attracted the crowd during the event. Security for the event was also improved to a great extent
(Mercer and Mayfield 2015).

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Partners
The government partners of White Night 2019 were The City of Melbourne and Creative
Victoria. The various program partners of the event included the Melbourne food and Wine
Festival which was presented by the Bank of Melbourne, Science Gallery and The Push. Vic
Health Singapore Airlines was the airways transport partner of the event. The education partner
of the event was Melbourne Polytechnic (White Night Melbourne 2019). The accommodation
partners for the event tourists was the Zagame’s House. Some of the cultural partners for the
event are the Arts Centre Melbourne and the National Gallery of Victoria. Fed Square was the
venue partner of the event. The media partner of the event id the Herald Sun (White Night
Melbourne 2019).
Management of the event
Under the technical managers of the event the staffs were recruited for running the event
of White Night. Staffs and volunteers with a minimum of 3 years of experience were recruited
for taking care of the event management quota (Camprubí and Coromina 2019). The key roles of
the staffs included assisting in the coordination in controlling the crowd bump during the event,
supporting the technical issues during the event, managing the performances of the artists during
the event, following all the safety practices for running the event smoothly.
Challenges faced
2019’s Whine Night in Melbourne took place without any mishaps and the state did not
face any kind of challenges for completing the event in a safe manner. But in 2017 it was
observed that a minor challenge was faced by the event management. A group of 50-100
homeless protestors came face to face with the visitors who were going to enter he state library
(Farndon 2019). It was found that some of the members of the group were not even homeless and

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they came just to sabotage the event. All it took to overlook the problem was by starting the high
quality projectors for the event.
Sustainability of the event
White Night of 2019 is considered to be heavily downgraded and the spectators have not
been impressed in comparison to the previous events in the state mainly due to the intervention
of state government. The event is going to be merged along with the Melbourne International
Arts Festival which will diminish the quality of the event by a great extent (Time Out Melbourne
2019). White Night has been shifted from summer to winter which resulted in a cut back version
of the event which was wrapped up by bedtime which saw a cut in the number of local people
attending the event.
Benefits of the event
White Night helped the artists to take the visitors from the present world to an alternate
virtual world by offering a glimpse into a creative world with the help of their artistic talent. The
event brings together people from all kinds of background together and also improve the
economy of the local community. The event facilitates the growth of arts, cultural aspects,
fashion, food and sport of the state by the art which will be depicted in the event with the huge
crowd.

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References
2019, W., 2019. White Night Melbourne 2019. [online] Onlymelbourne.com.au. Available at:
https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/white-night-festival [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Butt, C., 2019. White Night 2019 LIVE: Melbourne's first winter White Night. [online] The Age.
Available at: https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/white-night-2019-live-
melbourne-s-first-winter-white-night-20190822-p52jue.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Camprubí, R. and Coromina, L., 2019. Residents versus visitors at light festivals in cities: the
case of Barcelona. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, pp.1-14.
Duff, C. and Moore, D., 2015. Going out, getting about: atmospheres of mobility in Melbourne's
night-time economy. Social & Cultural Geography, 16(3), pp.299-314.
Farndon, D. and Burton, P., 2019. Avoiding the white elephants: A new approach to
infrastructure planning at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games?. Queensland Review,
26(1), pp.128-146.
Fedsquare.com. (2019). White Night Reimagined - Federation Square. [online] Available at:
http://www.fedsquare.com/events/white-night-reimagined [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Ford, A., Laing, J. and Frost, W., 2019. 9 Claiming space through events. Marginalisation and
Events.
Homan, S., 2019. Lockout’laws or ‘rock out’laws? Governing Sydney’s night-time economy and
implications for the ‘music city. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 25(4), pp.500-514.

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Lambert, A.T., 2015. False shadows & tactical spaces: Encountering transgressive participation
at White Night. In White Night: City as Event: Researching Melbourne's Festival of Illumination
(pp. 14-18). Research Unit in Public Cultures.
Melbourne Point., 2019. White Night Melbourne - 2019 Dates, Times, Buildings & Public
Transport. [online] Available at: https://www.melbournepoint.com.au/events/white-night-
melbourne/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Mercer, D. and Mayfield, P., 2015. City of the Spectacle: White Night Melbourne and the
politics of public space. Australian Geographer, 46(4), pp.507-534.
Time Out Melbourne., 2019. White Night | Things to do in Melbourne. [online] Available at:
https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/art/white-night [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
Warren, A., 2015. Knowledge, Movement, Technologies.
White Night 2019., 2019. Melbourne - White Night 2019. [online] Available at:
https://whitenight.com.au/melbourne/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].