When I’m at school in London, I long for exploring Toronto’s sprawling downtown core, whether it is for shopping, dining or entertainment. Hence, when I went home I was elated to finally experience Nuit Blanche.

After returning home from a shopping excursion over the border, I refuelled with my second Starbucks pumpkin spice latte of the day, this time with an extra shot of espresso. I refused to let a lack of sleep put a damper on participating in one of Toronto’s largest cultural events.

Once my friend and I exited Dundas subway station, we were confronted with food trucks selling cotton candy and corn on the cob, which immediately brought back memories of The Ex. Though I was familiar with my surroundings, Toronto’s downtown atmosphere had been completely transformed into an artsy extravaganza. There were at least three couples square dancing in the street, friends posing for photos all over the place, and street performers galore.

Tweets from friends and overall hype about Nuit Blanche assured me that there were exciting surprises and attractions to come. More importantly, I’m thankful that I skimmed the Twitter stream on the official event website because I’m grateful to whoever recommended wearing gloves! Boy, did they come in handy. Pun intended. I wish I’d twitpic’d and captured it on camera when I walked by a convenience store with a storefront sign that read, “Ice Sold Here” because that was the last thing anyone wanted when they’d pulled out winter jackets (or hoped that they did) for the first time since March or April.

My three favourite exhibits were Honey, I’m Home, inspired by 90’s sitcoms; Observer FX, a multimedia installation that offered commentary about surveillance; and McLuhan’s Massage Parlour, inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s work.

If you’re looking for Nuit Blanche GIFs to share on your Tumblr page or forward to co-workers, The Grid has you covered. I’ll admit that as I reviewed the GIFs, a couple of the male artists closely resembled male artists I’d seen at other exhibits – it must be because they fit the Queen West [West] stereotypical hipster mould.

This techie would be an exception however; he seemed like a cool guy:

Special thanks to She Does the City and Notable for their lists of recommended exhibits! Including the location of each was much appreciated while planning my night out. Unfortunately the Nuit Blanche BlackBerry app is incompatible with my temporary loaner phone, but I managed to navigate the downtown core without difficulties. The truth is that when it’s so cold outside, you don’t want to be taking your gloves off to use your phone, so I did minimal live tweeting.