Tonight, the historical center of Florence will be filled with an expected 100,000 people for the 5th edition of the now annual ‘Notte Bianca’ (White Night) taking place the night before May 1, a national holiday in Italy.
A 12 hours rich programme of events (from 6pm on April 30 to 6am on May 1) directed by Gianluca Balestra, the current director of the Teatro Cantiere Florida, will offer concerts, theatre performances, art & video installations, extended museum openings throughout the night.
This year’s theme promotes Florence as a ‘city without boundaries', the vision of a group of radical Florentine avant-garde architects who influenced the cultural development of the city in the late 1960s. In 1966, when they were still students, they set up a young firm called SUPERSTUDIO that was at the heart of the avant-garde movement for about a decade, undertaking visual experimentations at the intersection of graphic design, architecture, and technology.
They encouraged a new way of experiencing the city based on the idea that buildings shouldn't just "have functional uses for consumers’ lives" and that architecture should form a “single continuous environment, the world rendered uniform by technology, culture, and all the other inevitable forms of imperialism.”
This year events will, therefore, start from the outskirts of Florence and include special events in hospitals and other institutional buildings, leading people towards the most spectacular events in the historical center.
ATAF buses and the tramvia will be running all night for those who want to leave their car at home. Check out this handy google map to see exactly where this year’s events are taking place.
To see this year’s events in all their glory {even translated in English} check out the main website or Facebook.
