ManitobaThousands of art enthusiasts and creatives fanned across Winnipeg for Manitoba’s largest contemporary arts festival on Saturday night.Nearly 100 events took over Exchange District, Downtown, The Forks and St. Boniface on Saturday nightCBC News · Posted: Sep 28, 2025 12:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours agoThousands of Winnipeggers flocked to the Exchange District on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025 to check out art installations at Nuit Blanche. (Dave Baxter/CBC)Thousands of art enthusiasts and creatives fanned across Winnipeg for Manitoba’s largest contemporary arts festival on Saturday night. Now in its 15th year, Nuit Blanche Winnipeg took over the Exchange District, Downtown, The Forks and St. Boniface with nearly 100 events, including immersive art installations, gallery exhibitions, performance pieces, live music and dance parties until the early hours on Sunday. Nuit Blanche all-night art festivals originated in Paris and have spread to more than 100 cities around the world, including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Saskatoon and Edmonton. Kurt Tittlemier, Nuit Blanche Winnipeg’s general manager, said the free annual event aims to make art accessible to the public in a big way.Winnipeggers stayed up late into the night on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, for a DJ set from CBC Afterdark host Odario Williams in the Exchange District. (Trevor Brine/CBC)”When Nuit Blanche first started in France, the idea was to turn downtown into a de facto one-time art gallery,” Tittlemier said. “The idea is to try to make your own town one giant art gallery.”About 35,000 people were expected to attend this year’s events that offer Winnipeggers a “look at downtown through a creative lens,” he said. Among the installations was a giant glow-in-the-dark Métis floral beaded bag set up at Stephen Juba Park along the Red River. How do you use your medicine? by Red River Métis artist Claire Johnston saw the floral beadwork artist assist audiences in stringing hundreds of bright beads to create a collaborative, sensory experience. Johnston’s installation was “very unique, very Winnipeg,” Tittlemier said. In Old Market Square in the heart of the Exchange, Poland-based technology studio Ksawery Komputery installed Flux, an immersive LED light and sound show that is programmed using computer code. Meanwhile in St. Boniface, Hyperart Fest offered a mixture of mediums, from live music to art projections, interactive exhibits to contortionism performances. At The Forks, musical artists performed as part of the BreakOut West music festival, while the Canadian Museum for Human Rights featured a new installation by glass artist Warren Carther called Cyrus Enters Babylon, inspired by those who fight for human rights. Back in the Exchange, Odario Williams, host of CBC Music’s Afterdark program, played a four-hour DJ set that was broadcast live from Winnipeg. The live recording party was held from 7 p.m. until midnight. Williams, who was raised in Winnipeg, was back in his hometown to celebrate eight years of Afterdark. “It still feels like a new show, still feels fresh, which is cool,” Williams told CBC’s Up to Speed ahead of his performance on Saturday. “It does not feel that long.” Thousands of Winnipeggers flocked downtown on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025 to check out art installations at Nuit Blanche. (Trevor Brine/CBC)Tittlemier said past attendees have left Nuit Blanche feeling surprised that they connected so strongly with contemporary art spread across the city’s events and installations. “Time after time, I’ve heard from people saying I didn’t know it would be like that. That was really cool,” he said. “Our hope is that they visit these institutions after the festival … they’re really an important part to Winnipeg that we cherish.”With files from Faith Fundal and Dave Baxter
Late-night arts festival Nuit Blanche turns Winnipeg into ‘one giant art gallery’
