Nocturne: Art At Night

If I ever moved away from Halifax, this is the one thing I’d come back for every year. I cannot express how much I love Nocturne. I want to marry it. I wait for it to come around every year. Pro Tip: Download the app and plan out your night so that you hit up all the installations, performances and art exhibits that appeal to you the most, or you will miss something. I like going to the print shops because every year they have a new print to make which makes a great souvenir! I read a review that it’s like Halloween for adults. That’s the perfect description. Minus the candy, but hey, you’re an adult! You can buy as many full sized chocolate bars and cans of pop you want! Bring them along on your night of shenanigans. Start early and put your walking shoes on. Gear up for one of the best nights Halifax has to offer.

Honestly this is my favorite night in Halifax. It’s like Halloween for grown-​ups. The whole downtown is open with art exhibits and music everywhere. This year was a little cold but that didn’t stop us from visiting sites from Dalhousie all the way to Pier 21. Can’t wait till next year!

My wife and I have visited each Nocturne since the start of this event about 5 years ago. This one was by far the biggest and best. It would be hard to pick what event was the best. The drummer one down by the art gallery rocked. + if you want to experence more bike it! We did and got around to more events that would not have happened by foot.

Free art, one night only, family friendly, 6 pm to midnight. The galleries are open, there’s art and music in the streets, there are installations in some unusual spots like the Public Gardens and in 2012 a floating installation in the Harbour! One of my favourite nights of the year, and the rest of the year I love talking about it!

Something for everyone all over downtown. Art in many forms and a city full of people loving it. Go!

I absolutely adore Nocturne. So much so, that I ensure month’s in advance that my evening will be free, as I do not, under any circumstances, want to miss out on the fun.
For some, Nocturne means socializing downtown, for others it’s taking in unique gallery displays. For me, it’s a bit of column A and a bit of column B. I go because I love seeing the city come alive in the evening with families, friends, young and old all gathering downtown and because I love seeing public spaces transformed.
The festival is growing every year, and I find it pays to plan ahead. Know what you want to see and definitely plan a walking route. I was disappointed this year to miss out on a few of the hands-​on exhibits, because I got there too late. This year the iPhone app definitely aided our journey, but the paper versions of the programs do well, too.
Pro tip: Most exhibits that require a line (like the Happy Wash this year!) do have a wait, but it’s a short time than you think. So, stick around!
I’m already looking forward to next year!

Wow! How can you not give this event a strong five. The work alone that was put into it, I thought was fabulous. This was my first time being part of this event and what a night it turned out to be. I was amazed at the amount of people that filled out streets, around five thousand I believe.
My favorite was the «Car Wash», that song along brought back memories. The waterfront had a fabulous outdoor acrobatic event.
Also — we went to where you could talk on a cell phone to people around the world, our person was in Cambodia.
I will say, I think they need to make it a two day event next year. There was too much for us to cover and it had so many zones in all areas of the downtown core, it even expanded to Dartmouth which I hear had a roller rink, how cool is that.
One thing Please:
Put the map and details up sooner on the website for everyone to look at so you can map out your evening or you could do as us, roll the dice and hope you hit something you like.
I loved the DD bus to get from zone to zone.
See you on the streets!

Woo hoo! Forget New year’s Eve. Nocturne is the most magical night of the year in Halifax.
Wandering around Halifax looking at art with tons of other people is a feeling unreplicable during the rest of the year (I think of it as a cross between maybe New York on New Year’s and one of those Shakespearean carnival like feasts).
With one-​of-​a-​kind, one night only art installations all over the city (farmers’market, this year the Citadel, last year in Public Gardens, the North End, downtown and Dartmouth), there’s something for everywhere for everyone.
You can easily spend the whole six hours taking in art. This year I had the good fortune of taking my kids (4 and 7) from 6:30 to 9 and we saw a great deal of stuff including the Atlantic Cirque performances at the Farmers Market and a short film at the Khyber. The kids looooooved it. It’s a perfect family event. Then I joined up with adult friends to take in the carnival like atmosphere on Barrington with bubbles floating in the air and paper airplanes raining down.
You can spend as little or as much time as you like looking at the art and it’s lots of fun to stop and have a snack or drink while you’re browsing. And if you really want to maximize your time and art, you should take advantage of the website and print guide to plan a route.
Even if you don’t like art, venture out to see this. You’ll never seen Halifax so vibrant.
Well done Nocturne! I’m counting the days to next year already.

Okay, I admit it: I’m really impressed. I’ve heard about it for the last two years, but I’ve been too lazy to actually go. Third time’s the charm, and boy, was it ever!
Things I know for future:
–Bring a warm jacket and scarf and gloves if you’re going to be near the waterfront.
–Bring either as many friends as possible because groups are fun or just one friend so you don’t have the awkward «three people have already been to this but two haven’t and really want to go» moments.
–It’s worth bringing a water bottle of your own, to save money and avoid overwhelming the poor convenience store attendant who clearly hadn’t been informed about this event.
–Bring some money along, because pretty much everything is free but you might feel like a snack somewhere.
–Be prepared for five– or ten-​minute lineups for some attractions, particularly as it gets later.
–PLAN. A. ROUTE. Can’t say this enough. I didn’t, and we still had fun, but not as much as we could have.
–Bring a program along for last minute «prioritizing attraction» huddles. And maybe a second one if you’re feeling generous, because you’ll probably run into someone looking lost and trying to find the next attraction.
Oh yeah, and I really want Happy Wash back again. Like, seriously. That was probably the highlight of my entire week. My friend and I went through twice because we loved it so much.

Hooooooly cow. This was my first year of Nocturning and I have to admit, I was entirely unprepared for just about every aspect of Halifax’s new favourite festival.
Rather than spend the weeks leading up to the big night reading about what’s happening where (highly recommended… serendipity is not likely to work in your favour), we decided to wing it — only occasionally using the iPhone app (which rocks) or the program to figure out what we were looking at.
We hit the downtown core around 8:30pm thinking we had plenty of time to see most things before the clock struck twelve. Wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. We saw maaaaaybe 10 – 15 exhibits. Mostly because we didn’t know where to look, we wasted too much time on Spring Garden where not much of anything was going on, and had a hard time deciding whether to wait in the big line ups for things like the Happy Wash or to keep moving to cover more ground.
Also, hey HRM — can we make some downtown streets pedestrian only for this next year? It’d make it MUCH easier to get around and take in some of the things being projected onto buildings or incorporating storefronts. Just sayin’.
Still, we managed to find some gems. I fell in love with the letterpressing stations at Inkwell and Dawson, felt all weird and otherworldly at the Dalhousie Architecture campus, and generally confused everywhere else. This is not an easy event to ‘get’ art so much as it’s an amazing way to be exposed to lots of interesting creations all in one shot.
All that’s to say, I’m already pumped for next year. I love how this one night completely transforms our city, gives young people a reason to have some drinks and hit the town without having to go to The Dome, and offers an incredible showcase for creative locals of all kinds.
This is exactly what our city needs.

I enjoyed going to Nocturne this year just like I did last year. I wish I could have seen a bit more but what I did see was awesome. I did notice though that a couple things closed early maybe because of lack of supplies and such.
I mostly stuck around the Waterfront area this year but next year I plan to go when it starts and to possibly plan a route. The Nocturne app helped a little bit in telling where events were and such so that was a bonus :)
I can’t wait to go next year!

Nocturne is one of the coolest events to take place in Halifax. As a huge fan and supporter or urban and public art, we needs more things like this to take part to ensure Halifax grows and stays vibrant. There’s something really magical about hitting the streets of your city after dark and participating in the carnival like atmosphere. This year’s Nocturne was phenomenal and I can’t wait to see what next year brings!

This was my second year attending Nocturne and I can honestly say I am so, so happy to see this kind of even thriving in our city. I unfortunately had to cut my evening short this year, but I still had the chance to see and experience so many cool and thought-​provoking things. I’m looking forward to next year already.

This review is a bit difficult to write, because with an event like this, it’s impossible to take in all, or honestly even most, of it. However, having been for two years now and having gotten something of a taste for the variety of exhibits and flavour of the overall event, I will give it a try.
This wonderful celebration of the arts in widely varying forms is something I am thrilled to have in Halifax/​Dartmouth. It runs from 6pm to midnight, spans the streets of downtown on both sides of the harbour, and includes numerous different types of displays and performances. There are too many to describe them all here, but to give you an idea, I have seen everything from live «mannequin» displays in store windows, acrobatic and circus perfomances (one of my favourite acts in 2009 was a group of performers dancing with fire on each end of a rope, very skillful. And just plain cool to watch), and film projections on video screens (and a cool one of people on the windows of the train car on display outside Pier 21). There are also many interactive performances such as a simulated car wash, a «wish machine» wherein you can write your wish on on a piece of paper and place it inside a slot on a large screen, roller skating (which I didn’t see for myself, but thanks for the info. Vanessa J.!), artists rendering individual drawings of the attendees, and much, much more.
Many of the art galleries and museums around the city also stay open, and often have special exhibits just for this night. There were a number of interesting works at AGNS in particular, from sculpture (the large tinker-​toy like display appealed to the kid in me, I’ll admit, and it was pretty cool just to see the work that must have gone into it), to video, to paintings, etc.
There may be line-​ups for some of the exhibits, but I’ve never had to wait TOO long, at least not so long that it detracts from my enjoyment of the night. Also, some of the smaller venues can get a bit crowded (I’m looking at you, Khyber), so if you’re at all on the claustrophobic side, you might want to keep that in mind. Also, I don’t remember if the same thing happened when I was there in 2009, but this year, as a few people mentioned in the talk thread for this event, some of the exhibits closed up fairly early (by 10pm, 10:30pm in some cases), which was kind of a bummer as there were a few that I was excited about but didn’t actually get to experience.
All in all, I think this event is DEFINITELY something our supercity needs, wants, and hopefully will continue to have and support for many years to come.

I love Nocturne so very much. After missing last years event it was great to be able to get out and really enjoy this year. I held off till 8pm to head down town and I really regretted it, and feel like I missed a ton of the exhibits. As much as I love the art part of Nocturne even more so I love the energy of downtown Halifax during the event, this city felt alive.
I would like to thank all of the volunteers for putting on this wonderful event and I am already looking forward to next year.

Last year I was supposed to catch both the original Nuit Blanche in Paris and Nocturne but I ended up missing them both, so I was really happy that I got to experience Nocturne this year.
You could really feel the city come alive. It got a little packed and slightly messy around 10:00 or so when the Nocturners and the bar goers started co-​mingling on Barrington, but it was still all in good fun. My friends and I were pretty hard core, we started at 6:15, with mugs of «coffee» and didn’t stop until it was over.
Some of my favourite exhibits included: Rollerskating with derby zombies at the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal, The Happy Wash on Granville, Sangria at Bishop’s Cellar, Tweets at Obladee and the whole market area, even though it was winding down when we got there. Citadel Hill was also beautiful at night.
All in all it was a fantastic night, and look forward to doing it again next year!

This year was a stellar year for the Nocturne crew. Considering it’s all volunteer, it was VERY well planned and perfectly executed.
Their use of social media was outstanding this year (which last year lacked). Facebook and twitter were a buzz with Nocturne posts.
The atmosphere on the street was awesome. Happy, relaxed, and just plain ‘ol fun.
It was easy to tell the «bar goers» from the «Nocturne crawlers» from the way they were dressed, Nocturnites were sporting layers, whilst the bar people sported mini skirts that could have been belts (not that I’m complaining).
Many small businesses stayed open late to accommodate the 20,000+ people that hit Halifax for the evening. It’s good to see a city pull together for an art event, now that we see the cities potential we need to do it more (not just art events).
5 stars all the way Nocturne! Already looking forward and planning next year!