Nuit Blanche highlights: Nostalgia for a lost Toronto powered an electrifying 2026 festival

Nathan Phillips Square is still alive with street artists, glowing exhibits, dejected Leafs fans and more, but our Nuit Blanche coverage is coming to an end.

Whether you paused your art exploration to speak with us, or you were following along from your home or the festival, thank you for joining.

Full disclosure — this is my first ever Nuit Blanche experience. I have nothing to compare it to! That said, I think it’s safe to say that there was a pulsing, nostalgic energy to the exhibits, artists and visitors during the festival’s 20th anniversary.

Multiple visitors I spoke with said they hadn’t been to Nuit Blanche in years, but they wanted to come out and see the works anchored by the “Tomorrow’s Memories” theme. Artists I spoke to said they hope their work captures the many histories and possible futures of the city.

I felt an appropriate mix of melancholy, nostalgia, affection and excitement while traipsing through the downtown core. The exhibits were a welcome spread of the complicated emotions associated with histories and legacies.

Particularly strong works like “Rosa’s Garden” felt full of love for happy memories, and equally important pieces like Shelley Niro’s “Blankets (Under) Cover” confronted the darker truths woven into our past. I loved the array of creativity from mundane “lost things” to a UFO falling into a BMW along Queen Street. 

Still, I still feel like something was missing overall. I appreciated the theme’s duality of past and future, but it also left me craving something more rooted in the present. While thought-provoking, few of the exhibits felt like they lived in the current moment.

But that’s a small critic’s quibble! My first Nuit Blanche was a memorable affair. The night is carrying on past my bedtime, as the marching band streams through the square. Like the blaring trumpets and flutes, many parts of this year’s Nuit Blanche will ring in my mind for the next while.

At Stackt market, I visited Hajar Moradi’s “Remember / Imagine,” which draws on the artist’s experience as an immigrant to examine memories of the past.

“When I moved (to Canada) in 2010, I started to paint my memories as an act of preserving them,” said Moradi. “But as time passed by, I noticed that the memories started changing. Memories are not a reliable thing; (memory) is not fixed, it’s fluid like water.”

After talking to Moradi, I ended the night at the “Magnetic Mother” installation that Elissa wrote about below. The soothing soundscape of waves and birds lulled me into a sleepy state (in a good way), and I’m ready to call it a night.

Not bad for my first time reporting on Nuit Blanche: I watched a full chess match, listened to an entire mayor campaign pitch and talked to some of the vibrant artists and people that make this city truly special. Good night, Toronto.

And that’s a wrap! In this writer’s opinion, the festival did a beautiful job balancing the historic and the ephemeral. The artists’ excitement about bringing their work to the city was contagious. It was a delightful way to explore new corners of Toronto.

It seems magical that by the time I sleep in and emerge from my apartment later this morning, much of that work will be gone. Thank goodness I didn’t miss it.

I resolve to stay out even later next year. Until next time, Nuit Blanche.

Before I sign off to finish my walk — and my shawarma — I have to share a highlight from the night.

Wynchwood Barns and downtown’s “Ever Sick” offered completely different experiences, but “Ever Sick” at Trinity Square Labyrinth stood out for me. 

After midnight at Trinity Square Labyrinth, I watched as people stepped into a circle to dance. 

Their movements triggered sound and light in an interactive installation by SJ Okemow that draws on the jingle dress tradition.

One dancer in a skull mask moved alone until the circle finally broke. Five people joined at once, pulling the crowd into motion, widening it into dozens. 

There’s something electric about art that gets people moving, talking, connecting with strangers. 

I wasn’t initially drawn to “Magnetic Mother” at Stackt market, but an enlightening conversation with one of its creators changed my mind.

The warmly glowing and slowly rotating lamp, covered in bird silhouettes, intends to spotlight the effects of climate change we might otherwise ignore. The project challenges our assumptions that the earth will always provide and that birds will always fly overhead.

Creator Zakriya Bashir-Hill — who worked with other artists to bring what he called “crazy ideas” to life — said he hopes visitors leave with a deeper appreciation for migration patterns.

“You hear about all of these big newsworthy issues, but there are so many small ways the climate crisis is affecting the planet,” Bashir-Hill said.

The artist team creates sustainably: the project came together with a set of pipes from Facebook Marketplace.

Toronto Star photographer Richard Lautens is out and about with his camera. Below, some of his standout images from the night.

Grabbed a late-night shawarma and fries at Ali Baba’s for a boost before heading back out. 

Next stop: “Ever Sick,” an interactive projected installation by SJ Okemow at Trinity Square Labyrinth (24 Trinity Sq). It celebrates and expands the healing jingle dress tradition, and was created alongside the disabled community.

By the time I headed downtown from midtown, the Nuit Blanche crowds were already moving through the streets in waves.

The Bentway is buzzing with Paul Ramírez Jonas’ “Public Trust” installation.

The artist is pictured in front of the large-scale marquee, which displays promises from participants alongside those drawn from news headlines.

Toronto Maple Leafs fan Paul Whidden’s night did not end with the sound of a buzzer.

The Leafs may have fallen 3-2 to the Ottawa Senators, but Whidden said he’s still enjoying his night, thanks, in part, to what Nuit Blanche has to offer.

He said he especially enjoyed “UFO” (a car with a flying saucer jammed into it, an installation by Brandon Vickerd) and “Blankets (Under) Cover” by Shelley Niro. He said he has about one more hour in him before he journeys home to the Niagara region.

“I love coming to Toronto and enjoying the forward-looking art,” said Whidden. “Toronto is just a beautiful city.”

In Canoe Landing Park beside the Gardiner, different coloured headphones play the music of different DJs as groups of people dance silently to their own beat.

The installation, “Night Waves,” is curated by Drom Artist Collective.

I met up with staff reporter Elissa Mendes for taco bowls at Los Compas at Richmond and Spadina. It’s included in the Star’s Top 100 Under $100 restaurant guide, and it’s my go-to taco spot in the downtown core for an ol’ reliable late-night munch.

We’re feeling recharged, refuelled and ready to tackle one more installation before signing off for the night!

After a few quieter years, it seems Nuit Blanche’s 2026 decision to concentrate installations in the downtown core paid off. The city is alive tonight!

I moved here from Edmonton two years ago and Nuit Blanche makes me fall in love with my new city every single time.

A little overstimulated, chilly and peckish, I’m making my way over to meet up with staff reporter Elissa Mendes for some well-deserved tacos.

In the music garden along the waterfront, “Ascension” by Toronto artist Ilene Sova is a feast for the eyes with 200 suspended goddess sculptures.

My trusty media pass got me past the long lines for exhibits, but getting food was another story.

All night, visitors waited in queues outside food trucks for fries, hot dogs and popcorn.

Luckily, I ran into two of my friends who were generous enough to wait it out and buy me dinner while I was visiting more of the exhibits!

Nothing says Canadian art festival more than late-night poutine.

I felt pulsing vibrations below the ground at Nathan Phillips Square. It could only be heavy EDM muffled by the chattering of Torontonians roaming the streets in search of more art.

Naturally, I followed the pulses down to an underground parking garage. The installation — a more fitting word for it would be “rave” — is called “On Flashing Lights” by artist Brendan Fernandes.

It’s a light and sound installation commissioned by Nuit Blanche featuring replicas of police vehicles, flashing lights and a full DJ set. It made me feel like I was part of a cool scene.

One thing I noticed: there wasn’t a whole lot of dancing for an installation that encourages that. My friends and I have a running complaint about the seemingly nonchalant Toronto nightlife scene and how nobody really lets loose anymore.

To my surprise, the crowd down here was pretty static. But I don’t blame them — though I found the exhibit exhilarating, I left with ringing ears.

PRISM Collective, a group of eight Waterloo biomedical engineering students, built Rhythms of Chaos, an art installation that merges science with sculpture. 

The piece, on display tonight at Wychwood Barns, features three clock faces ringed with purple and blue lights, three white pendulums creating a tunnel effect. A song that follows the pendulum’s rhythms plays in the background. 

It’s a 800-pound steel structure that required a moving truck and a team of 20 people to install, said project architect Maggie Wang.

“Art is my passion, but then engineering is where I am for a lot of the time,” said Wang, a final-year biomedical engineering student. “We knew we wanted to do something kinetic and really cool, with some form of scientific meaning behind it. So we chose to play around the idea of double pendulums.”

The double pendulum is a mathematical phenomenon rooted in unpredictability, Wang explained. Drop a single pendulum and you know what to expect but drop a double pendulum and it spins differently each time.

The collective first showed the work at Lumière: The Art of Light at Trillium Park before developing a new version for Nuit Blanche. Wang said she hopes it resonates with people on two levels.

“I hope that people can connect (with the installation) in a way that everyone can have their own path, and it’s okay, not everything is linear all the time,” she said. “But then, also, in terms of the art tech side. I wish people to see this bridge that engineers can also be artists, and artists can also be engineers.”

Among tall grass and multicolour lights, Joseph David Providence Farrugia wants visitors to appreciate the humble bumblebee.

His “Echoes of the Apiary” exhibit features 36 colourful beehives. Most emit recordings of buzzing bees, but three include a deep voice speaking about beekeeping 200 years ago, beekeeping now and what beekeeping might look like in another two centuries.

Perhaps I was a wee bit silly when I assumed there would be real bees — my grandfather was a beekeeper so maybe my judgment was clouded. But some other visitors let out a dejected “ohhh” when volunteers said there were no real insects inside.

Still, this is one of the more calming and educational exhibits of the night. Farrugia says bee education is particularly important as climate change, habitat loss and pesticides are endangering their lives.

“(I’m) trying to get people to feel a bit more comfortable, a bit more inquisitive, to learn about our relationship with the bees,” he said. “They have multi-millions of years of evolution on us. We have to shift to the idea of saving the bees.”

Nuit Blanche Night Market at Wychwood Barns is buzzing, the booths glowing under strings of lights as crowds walk through while stopping to chat with artists and take in the work.

I’m heading over to learn more about Rhythms of Chaos, a massive art installation by PRISM Collective, a collective of eight students from Waterloo University who met in an engineering program and connected through their love of art.

The last thing I expected to stumble upon tonight was a chess match, particularly in the middle of Nathan Phillips Square. But there, in the heart of downtown, opponents faced off in calm, sometimes competitive, games of chess. 

Jeremie Shamieh, who has played chess since he was eight, was one of them. Shamieh (shown on the right, in the above video) said he was enjoying a hot dog when he saw people playing chess in the small courtyard across the way, and joined them.

“I won,” said Shamieh, humbly. “We both made mistakes, but his mistake made his situation a little bit more difficult.”

Shamieh said he’ll be back for a few more matches tonight. I guess Nuit Blanche really does have something for everyone!

“I Want to Hold You,” at 401 Richmond St. W., is my personal favourite Nuit Blanche exhibit so far. In the multidisciplinary exhibition, artist Keisha James wrestles with compounded grief.

James’s mother, aunt and stepfather all died within the span of a fewyears: “I lost the people who raised me in a short amount of time,” James said.

A dream she had about a grieving doll inspired tonight’s installation. The doll is faceless, which James said hopefully allows visitor to see their own lived experience in her work.

“I hope this will resonate with people around their own mortality and how precious life is,” she said.

Her exhibit also grapples with losing the sensory memories that make up any close relationship. Quotes on-screen lament forgetting the sound of a person’s voice.

I asked her how the people who raised her would feel about her exhibit. Her answer made us both cry a little in the packed gallery space.

“My mom always championed me being in the arts,” said James.

She laughed through tears. “They’d probably say it’s a bit creepy, but that’s what I was going for.”

We’re a couple hours into Nuit Blanche, and a long, growing line snakes down Bay Street as visitors try to get a glimpse at the indoor exhibits.

Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky’s “Museum of Lost Things” (Room 155, Old City Hall) has one of the longest queues. Visitors are first greeted with a video projection flashing stories behind lost objects against a picturesque moon. The objects themselves, in the adjacent room, are 3-D paper recreations — lit like lanterns — from more than 30 workshops.

I spoke with Mahovsky yesterday while he was setting up his installation, but the work is even more magical and moving when the room is lit up. A handbag, a pair of scissors, an iPhone, a sewing machine — the items, mundane or extraordinary, hold strangers’ stories we may never know.

Not knowing the objects’ origins and meaning didn’t stop dozens and dozens of visitors from exclaiming, “It’s so cute!” with oohs and aahs.

Caitlin Taguibao’s “Make the World Go Round” is a vibrant mural installation depicting everyday celebration along the columns of the Bentway Skate Trail.

The people wandering along the corridor are lively. As the night goes on, the music is louder.

On one of the biggest nights for art in the city, emerging and independent artists aren’t shy to put their work on display.

In the flurry of crowds, food trucks and bubbles, I noticed two artists adjacent to each other on the corner of Queen and Bay, selling their art.

Nicholas Dekok, a graffiti-style artist known as ROAM, and multidisciplinary artist (and current OCAD student) Nile X seem to be the only two artists selling their work in the area. I learned that they set up shop in the same spot during Nuit Blanche each year.

“It’s neat to see the different artists I’ve known for awhile (with) some of them doing exhibitions and the huge interest in art in Toronto,” said Dekok. “You don’t know how many people really appreciate (art) until this event takes place.”

Nile X began painting eight years ago on a whim, after he came across cheap art supplies in a store. His first painting was of a sunset.

Nile X started attending Nuit Blanche in 2022, when he set up a table to sell art at Yonge and Dundas. “It’s the only night in the city where people’s intention is for art, people are looking for art,” he said. “It’s one of the best opportunities to get myself as an emerging artist out there to the public.”

I’ve checked off the exhibit with the longest line at 401 Richmond St. W. — and the one I was most excited for: “The T.O. You Don’t Know.”

Focusing on Toronto’s overlooked epic highs and lows, the multi-sensory exhibition reveals the hidden stories of a city that is “constantly rewriting itself.”

I internally fist-pump at the stories I was already familiar with, like Toronto’s war on raccoons and victory of Marilyn Bell, who swam across Lake Ontario at just 16 years old.

But others come as a genuine surprise, like the murky story of the Bloor-Yonge typeface specifically designed for the TTC. Ephemera from Project Soap, police raids targeting queer hookup spaces beginning in the ‘80s, come as a gut punch.

I leave feeling a little bit closer to my neighbours — and grateful to be learning more about my new home at no cost.

Oil painter Stephanie Camille decided to do something different for Nuit Blanche: she made a postcard booth where visitors can personalize and send their own creations.

Camille, who also makes crafts, patches and stickers, has set up inside the market area alongside other makers at Wynchwood Barns. 

“I wanted to explore something different for Nuit Blanche, because it’s more hands-on, it’s more interactive,” she said. ”…And it’s really nice because I can interact with other artists.”

At her booth, visitors find stickers and other materials ready to customize a postcard. Camille offers to mail the postcards herself. 

“I’ve been really interested in snail mail and taking my time to write love letters,” said Camille. “People can take one of my prints and send it off to their lover, their friend, their grandma.”

Normally, Camille said she works in relative quiet at her studio at the Barns, mostly during daylight hours. But sharing the space and night with Nuit Blanche has transformed the energy entirely.

“It’s usually much quieter in the barn, so it’s really exciting,” she said. “The music, the light — it’s nice to see and cosy.”

After a couple wrong turns trying to locate the source of the ground shaking, I stumbled upon Brendan Fernandes’s “On Flashing Lights,” in the underground parking garage at Old City Hall.

The remounted work features police cars and red, blue and pink strobe lights. A sizable crowd gathers, some swaying to the electronic beats of DJ Nino Brown.

It’s not the type of art I’m usually drawn to — I love my exhibits aboveground — but it’s certainly an immersive and pumping environment.

Early into the evening, 401 Richmond Street is bustling, but the venue’s most excitable artist isn’t officially part of Nuit Blanche.

Ksenija Spasic is paying to put up her exhibition out of pocket, helped by her father and a crew of dedicated volunteers. 

One of her exhibits tonight encourages visitors to weave colour-coded memories onto a chain-link fence. She has filled cracks in the pavement with glow-in-the-dark paint, illuminating each imperfection. She laughs as she insists on laying on the ground for a picture.

Another part of the exhibition features cotton doilies illuminated under UV light, which are an ode to her Serbian grandmother.

Spasic said she had a “visceral reaction” when she saw the doilies at a Serbian flea market.

“These were a manifestation of skill, of women’s work, and you had them all over your house,” she said.

Spasic recalled her grandmother meticulously boiling, starching and pressing the doilies; when she saw them sold in a pile for a pittance, she said she yearned to give them a second life.

She said that informally participating in Nuit Blanche is well worth the money she spent on supplies: “This is my baby.”

Artist Brian Leclerc stands in front of his work “Garrison Creek” at the Bentway. 

Attendees can manipulate the digital display of bioluminescent salmon as they speak into a microphone. An exhibit card notes that the “digital swarm” resurrects Toronto’s buried river: “This interactive ecosystem of ghost salmon actively listens to the city. Loud, chaotic noises scatter the swarm frantically.”

If you’re hanging around Nathan Phillips Square tonight, that distant music isn’t just in your head.

Spectators made a path for the coming-and-going marching band, rife with saxophones, flutes and drums tutting familiar tunes like Justin Bieber’s “Peaches.”

The band is a live exhibit called “band band clock” by Lisa Kiss: it appears on the ramp at City Hall every hour for the full 13 hours of Nuit Blanche.

It’s only gotten busier in the downtown core, with hundreds visitors passing through. Some are nose-deep in their maps and charting their routes, while others are snapping photos and videos of the many artworks.

A line forms for “Public Trust” by Paul Ramirez Jonas. Attendees work with a guide to craft a public promise, which will make its way to the large board in 10 minutes.

The exhibit is part of “Broken Promises,” a travelling historical exhibition that is co-curated by the Royal British Columbia Museum and the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in Vancouver.

Night has finally fallen, and Marco Baldonado’s “Rosa’s Garden” sits slightly tucked away from the hundreds gathering in the heart of Nathan Phillips Square.

The exhibit is a tribute to the labour and wisdom of the artist’s 99-year-old “Nonna.” It’s deeply personal and somehow universal: it recalls a peaceful afternoon in your average grandmother’s well-kept garden. A crowd of seniors, children and adults move through the exhibit at a slow and steady pace.

The clotheslines of plant photos, T-shirts and day dresses are difficult to see against the night sky. But deeper in the exhibit, video projections against white fabric evoke the behind-the-scenes work of maintaining something beautiful.

Way at the back, hanging wooden flower pots and vines are stunning under a warm, pink glow.

It’s my favourite exhibit so far.

Toronto resident Cheri Cheung and her dog Louis Vuitton pose in front of SUN SUN’s illustration of Ontario Place, which is part of her exhibit “I Miss You: T.Dot Memories” at Queen Street and Bay Street.

What would you tell your ex?

That’s the question Cai Grodek is asking Nuit Blanche visitors this year. At “Letters to Your Ex,” the poet and digital creator has set up a booth, inviting attendees to write letters to their exes they’ll never send.

Participants drop in, grab a sticky note, scribble down their feelings and post them alongside the others: “Thank you for setting me free.” “Therapy might be a good idea.”

The project started after a breakup left Grodek feeling isolated. He said he turned to social media to connect with others going through the same thing.

 “I asked people to write a letter to their ex and send it to me. I got about 20,000 submissions from people around the world,” said Grodek.

This is Grodek’s second year at Nuit Blanche. Last year he was stationed at Waterworks Food Hall. 

“This is kind of a much more tame, smaller scale thing than what I am used to doing,” he said. “But it’s cool to be back at school to be surrounded by so many people and to get to do this again.”

At Nathan Phillips Square, Shelley Niro’s 13 point blankets each represent one of Canada’s provinces or territories, adorned with images of Indigenous people’s lives affected by colonialism.

The black and white images stand out against the beige fabric backdrop with black, yellow, red and green stripes. Animals like a bear, loon and turtle are pictured, as well as plants and trees.

The work first appeared at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in 2022, and will be on display this year until Oct. 10. For observer Michelle Cader, the exhibit is a “gut punch”; she grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s when residential schools “were not something we talked about.”

“It’s an incredibly creative idea of repurposing these blankets and reclaiming them from an Indigenous perspective,” said Cader. “It’s meaningful, beautiful, creative and inspiring.”

Now this is what I came to see. Feast your eyes on this 20-foot inflatable structure smack in the middle of Bay Street and Queen Street.

“I Miss You: T.Dot Memories” reinterprets iconic Toronto landmarks including Sam the Record Man, Honest Ed’s and MuchMusic.

Artist Francesca Nocera (a.k.a SUN SUN) created this project as a love letter to some of her childhood memories of the city. Through it, SUN SUN asks viewers to consider what’s lost when a city is revitalized.

I expect the glowing installation to attract many people tonight and invite them reflect on the perceived “glory days” of Toronto’s pop culture.

Good evening! My name is Elissa Mendes, and I’m an intern working on the Star’s breaking news desk.

I’m new to living in Toronto, so I’m especially excited to see how this year’s Nuit Blanche condenses decades of local arts history into a single evening.

Stay tuned as I meander through Queen West!

In the beginning minutes of Nuit Blanche near Nathan Phillips Square, a steady crowd of visitors stopped for photos and videos of Brandon Vickerd’s smoking “UFO.”

The BMW trapped under a fallen spaceship was the first stop for Nuit Blanche visitor Ellen Bailey.

Bailey said the artwork reminded her of apocalyptic disaster films and a looming sense of doom.

“A poor, unlucky soul has been hit by a UFO saucer,” she said. “I have two opposing emotions: ‘Oh my God, is this the end?’ and ‘Is there life out there?”

Hey Toronto! I’m Beatriz Baleeiro with the Star, and I’m at Wychwood Barns in midtown-west for BAM! Nuit Blanche Night Market and it’s all taking shape before the sun goes down. 

We’re at 601 Christie St. right behind this brick heritage building that used to be TTC streetcar barns and is now home to a cultural hub. The main draw? “Rhythms of Chaos,” a massive kinetic light and sound sculpture by the PRISM Collective that will take over the outdoor space.

At the market, more than 35 artists, jewellers, ceramists, poets and printmakers are setting up. 

There’s a buzz of good vibes as people settle in. The weather’s cooperating too: sunny, fall colours hanging on, light jacket weather.

I’m going to be moving through here for a while before I move to the next spot (the market runs till 11 p.m.), talking to makers and checking out the installations and activities.

There’s definitely something promising happening here tonight. Stick with me.

Hey, Toronto!

I’m Alexa MacKie, a Star staff reporter, and I’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground from Nathan Phillips Square and Old City Hall for Nuit Blanche this year.

Before the sun has fully set, some artists are still hanging their artworks and turning on lights.

I’m checking out installations from “Blankets (Under) Cover,” a remount from 2022, immersive works like “Echoes of the Apiary” and “Rosa’s Garden,” indoor exhibits like “Museum of Lost Things” — plus anything else that catches my eye!

Hi all! I’m so jazzed to be your boots on the ground art seeker in the downtown core tonight. I’ll be stationed in the Queen St and Bay St hub. I’m starting my evening off soaking in golden hour, eagerly awaiting the crowds to start spilling in.

This evening, I aim to chop it up with fellow art seekers, speak to some die-hard Nuit Blanche fans and hopefully see something really weird.

I’m most looking forward to visiting “I Miss You: T.Dot Memories” and “Rosa’s Garden.” But like everyone else, I’ll go where the night takes me.

Overlooking the reflecting pool at Nathan Phillips Square, five tall electronic panels flashed scenes of flowing water from around the world.

Ontario, the Dolomites, Alaska and Argentina, to name a few.

When visitors move in front of the panels in Alexandra Gelis’s “In Water, Together,” the rapids follow the shape of their movements.

Yesterday, Gelis was working to to fix glitches and test her panels. While parts of the displays would occasionally cut to black, a handful of visitors were already snapping photos of the natural images.

“It’s an invitation to be more conscious of the importance of water,” said Gelis. “Maybe what was once a river then became ice, or later was part of a fantastic glacier (that) will become a part of our water today.”

The 20th anniversary of Nuit Blanche marks the Colombian-Venezuelan artist’s 20th year living in Canada. Saturday is Gelis’s first time participating in the city’s all-night event.

“I can now call Toronto home.”

In a dark room at Old City Hall, towering shelves are lined with dozens and dozens of glowing, 3-D paper-made objects.

Trevor Mahovsky and Rhonda Weppler’s “Museum of Lost Things” exhibit is a collection of strangers’ meaningful lost things — a mixtape, an old ring, a colourful umbrella, a Rubik’s cube — each paired with a short anecdote that is recorded in a pocket-sized black book. Participants recreated 3-D versions of their objects across about 30 workshops.

When Mahovsky flicks off the lights, the items glow in the dark like lanterns against a night sky.

“There’s no objects, they’re just ghosts,” Mahovsky told the Star on Friday. “But really, they’re all stories about people.” The exhibit runs until Oct. 10.

Outside near Nathan Phillips Square on Friday, Brandon Vickerd waited for traffic to die down, so he could install his otherworldly “UFO”: a black car with a flying saucer lodged in its roof.

When his work is set up at the corner of Queen and York streets on Saturday, Vickerd says a smoke machine and extra lights will make it seem as though the UFO fell from the sky.

Vickerd, dean of the arts, media, performance and design school at York University, originally wanted to use a streetcar. When the TTC declined to loan him one, he settled for a BMW.

“I was thinking about the theme this year, which is ‘Tomorrow’s Memories,’ and how a spectacle could root in someone’s memory,” said Vickerd. “Who doesn’t want to see a UFO, right? We all want to believe in them.”

Nuit Blanche business started even before the sun began to set on Saturday. 

Artists and city staff were busy Friday afternoon installing electronic panels and hanging long strings of paper creations for installations around Old City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. 

More than 70 projects are spread across the city, including independent projects, commissioned pieces and re-mounted works from previous Nuit Blanche events, according to city programmer Jenn Goodwin. 

“There’s power in conversations that contemporary artists and art can bring to our city,” she said. “The power of Nuit Blanche is partially that it comes and goes quite quickly, but those conversations, feelings and experiences don’t go away the next morning.”

Inside Old City Hall, Toronto artist Blessyl Buan applied finishing touches to her interactive piece, “The Art We Didn’t Make,” which will remain on display until Oct. 10. 

On Saturday night, audience members will be invited to write down stories and drawings about a favourite art piece they never had the chance to make. The written confessions will get hung up in the piece as dancers will flow between the installation of buried ideas.  

“I want art to be something that includes the people,” Buan said.

Toronto’s dusk-to-dawn contemporary art showcase, Nuit Blanche, returns this weekend for its 20th anniversary, with more than 70 local, national and international artists showing work across the city.

Since launching in 2006, Nuit Blanche has featured nearly 6,400 artists and more than 1,800 works.

Here’s what to know about the anniversary edition, including where to find major installations and how to get around.