Paris invented the format in 2002: for one night the city commissions contemporary artists to install work in places that are not galleries — churches, swimming pools, car parks, the ring road, the catacombs — and keeps it all open and free until dawn, with the métro running late. Dozens of cities have since copied it, which is why the name now appears on calendars from Toronto to Melbourne.
The curation changes hands regularly and with it the character of the night; some editions have been dispersed across the outer arrondissements and the inner suburbs, deliberately pulling the audience away from the centre.
No attendance figure is published, and the format defeats counting: the audience is a dispersed crowd moving through public space.
Paris moved the event from autumn to a Saturday in June, which makes the night warmer and the queues longer. The practical advice is to pick three works and walk, rather than attempt a route: the headline installations build queues of over an hour by midnight.
PlanningAnchored to a single Saturday night, now in June rather than October; the route changes completely each year.