Melbourne's first dusk-to-dawn-festival that's open to all The Cat Empire will be one of the many bands playing outside Flinders Street Station during the festival Source: The Sunday Telegraph MELBOURNE'S Mr Big of entertainment will take over the city next weekend when he rolls out a major event never before staged in Australia. The globetrotting Andrew Walsh -- whose directing credits include opening and closing ceremonies at Olympic and Commonwealth Games -- is the creative mastermind behind the city's first White Night festival. The free all-night cultural carnival, running from 7pm Saturday to 7am Sunday, has been modelled on the hugely successful Paris Nuit Blanche, first staged 10 years ago and now replicated in cities all over the world. "I've never been afraid of big and this is a really interesting and exciting challenge," Walsh said. Melbourne's an ideal city for this, geographically, but also because the Melbourne psyche is such that people will grab on to it and it will become a really big thing. After blazing a trail from Melbourne to the Middle East and many cities in between, Walsh was commissioned by the State Government to steer the first three annual White Night festivals. The city will be thrown open for a dusk-to-dawn program of 80 free events comprising music, theatre, dance, visual art and family entertainment. All the major arts institutions and public buildings will be open all night and the city will bathe in the colour of major light, sound and visual art installations. We're sort of turning the world on its head for one night. It's an opportunity for all the rules to be broken," Walsh said. All the things that typically go on behind closed doors -- art galleries, films, music, performance, theatre -- get tipped out on to the street and people can participate in it in a different way. The steps of Flinders Street Station will be transformed into a music stage and Federation Square will become a giant outdoor dance floor. Walsh said the free events would roll across 35 city sites, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne and the State Library. But the one thing that's not on the bill is fireworks. It's not New Year's Eve. It's not come down at midnight and watch the crackers and go home," Walsh said. It's come at 7 and stay for an hour or stay all night. You can really dip in and out of it as deeply or as shallowly as you like. It's like a giant smorgasbord. To help Melburnians navigate the program, there is a White Night website, Facebook page, Twitter account, mobile phone app and a hard-copy pocket guide. But Walsh has his own ideas about how people can get their heads around this first-time event. "If I was a punter, I wouldn't think about it too much before turning up," he said. I'd grab a pocket guide and just wander. LIGHT PROJECTIONS From the Deep: A laser light, water and sound show on the Yarra River. VISUAL ART World Without Sun: A giant light and sound installation projected on to satellite dish at Birrarung Marr, by Canadian artist Christine Davis. MUSIC Theatre of Dreams: Free all-night concert at Flinders St Station featuring Melbourne's best-loved bands, including The Cat Empire and RocKwiz Orchestra. Jazz Stage: The Bob Sedergreen trio headline the jazz lineup in Degraves St. Sound Lounge Nuit Blanche: Melbourne DJs performing at Arts Centre Melbourne. Sidney Myer Free Concert: The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will perform Mozart and Mahler at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. PERFORMANCE/THEATRE Wonderland: Carnival of performers along St Kilda Rd and Princess Bridge and in beloved public buildings including St Paul's Cathedral. DANCE I Could Have Danced All Night: A 12-hour outdoor dance event at Federation Square with hundreds of mirror balls and 12 styles of dance. FILM 101 Zombie Kills: Free screening of film showing 101 memorable zombie deaths in television and cinema. FAMILY A Night at the Museum: Melbourne Museum will open from 6-10pm for a program including dress-ups, roaming dinosaur puppets and a torchlight dinosaur hunt.