March 11, 2022 | By Bronwen Largier | Image: White Night Bendigo in 2018 | Source: Facebook
Following a two-year COVID-induced hiatus, the internationally conceptualised night festival will make its return to Bendigo and Geelong in 2022 and add a new event in Shepparton.
The Bendigo event will take place on September 3, with the date for the Shepparton event yet to confirmed but slated to be mid-year. A date for the Geelong iteration is also yet to be scheduled.
Artist Joseph O’Farrell will oversee the Bendigo event, while Andrew Walsh, who brought the White Night concept to Melbourne back in 2013, will oversee the Shepparton event.
Up to 40,000 attendees are expected at the Shepparton event, with an anticipated economic impact of $3 million. “Tens of thousands” are also expected to attend in Bendigo.
The last time the event was held in Bendigo, in 2018, the event attracted 60,000 people and made a $5.5 million contribution to the local economy.
There is no White Night event currently scheduled for Melbourne, with the last event held there in 2019 in a “reimagined” format, taking place over three shorter nights in winter rather than a full one-night-only 12-hour event in summer.
The event usually combines light projections and installations and performances through the destination city or town.