White Night in Brighton & Hove - All Night Free Arts Festival

Essentials

• What: An all night arts festival to mark the end of British Summer Time, when the UK sets its clocks back an hour. More than seventy creative, and free, events, produced by the Brighton&Hove Arts Commission and City Council. The Brighton event is partnered with the Normandy town of Amiens which holds its own White Night - Nuit Blanche - earlier in October.
• Where: Indoors and outdoors, all over Brighton & Hove
• When: The last Saturday night in October when the clocks are turned back in Britain.
• Admission: Everything is free. Normal licencing laws apply to venues so some may ask for proof of age and deny admission to anyone under 18. Anyone visibly drunk or wearing face or body paint (yes, we wondered about that too) may be denied admission as well.
• Online:
  • Visit their website
  • Follow White Night on twitter
  • Follow White Night on Facebook
• Getting there: Brighton is easy to reach by train and coach from around Britain. If you are visiting London from abroad, Brighton is an especially easy day-trip (or in this case, night trip) from the capital. If you run out of steam, there is usually an early train back to London at 3:50a.m. and regular service from about 5:45 a.m.
• Find out how to get from London to Brighton by Train, Car or Bus
• Check National Rail Enquiries for a schedule or to book tickets
• Plan your travel from anywhere in Britain

What's It All About?

White Nights around the world were inspired by the famous summer celebrations in St. Petersburg, Russia around the time of the summer solstice. On the longest day of the year at latitudes that far to the north, the sun sets at 10 or 11 o'clock and twilight lasts pretty much all night long. The Russian celebration includes fireworks and celebrations that go on through the night.

Paris was next to pick up the thread with its own Nuit Blanche and other cities followed suit. Today, there are White Night celebrations all over the world, in places as far flung as Tel Aviv, Rome and Naples;Valetta in Malta; Leeds, York, Liverpool and Birmingham - where they call it Light Night;Iceland;Finland; Montreal and Toronto; Chicago, and Lima, Peru.

Depending upon where in the world they are held, White Nights serve to either celebrate the longest days, around the time of the Summer Solstice, or light up the nights as the days get shorter.

White Night in Brighton

The Brighton event is of the light-up-the-night-variety with the extra hour of darkness brought about by setting the clocks back being the excuse for an all night party - as if anyone in Brighton needed an excuse to party.

Mind you Brighton is full of creative types so this is a party with a distinctly cultural and arty slant. A quick look at the events that were scheduled in 2011 will give you a good indication of the spirit of Brighton's White Night.

In 2011, the theme was Utopia and events were grouped around topics physical, spiritual and theoretical ideas of utopias. A total of 33 indoor events and 40 outdoor events were scheduled. This small selection of 2011's events gives a flavor of what to expect at this annual event: La Lune Des Pirates at the Pavilion Theatre - a through the night rave staged by one of Amiens top music venues and featuring bands from both Amiens and Brighton.