Event Recap: Art After Dark - Nuit Blanche Kelowna 2025 Lights Up the City

On October 11, downtown Kelowna came alive for Nuit Blanche 2025, a dazzling all-night celebration of art, performance, and community organized by the Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan (CCFO). From 5 p.m. until 1 a.m., streets and galleries pulsed with creativity under this year’s theme, De Rerum Natura — Of the Nature of Things.

Okanagan Echo captured the energy and artistry that turned the city into an open-air gallery — one that left visitors inspired and those who missed it eagerly awaiting next year’s return.

Tourism Kelowna Visitor Centre

The waterfront filled with rhythm as Unity Rhythms brought Afro-inspired dance to life in vivid bursts of motion. Nearby, the Talisman Workshop invited guests to create symbolic keepsakes — tactile reminders of the night’s theme of connection.

Stuart Park

Perhaps the festival’s most dynamic stop, Stuart Park buzzed with art in every form. For the Trees offered a meditative dance performance honouring nature’s quiet wisdom, while Sparkling Faces and Caricature Photobooth transformed onlookers into living art. Tibo Fine Art’s live painting unfolded in real time, and Cult Café provided an ambient hub for conversation and reflection.

Okanagan Military Museum

Visitors became detectives in Mystery at the Museum, an interactive scavenger hunt lit by UV flashlights. The museum’s exhibits took on a new dimension, blending history with play and imagination.

Opus Art Supplies

Inside Opus, creativity thrived through Neumadasos, a multisensory sound and light installation that responded to audience movement, and Sketchbooks, a hands-on workshop that encouraged guests to turn recycled materials into personalized art journals.

Rotary Centre for the Arts

The RCA offered a series of sensory experiences — Lush Decay, a movement piece exploring transformation; The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi, which invited attendees to experience the scent of mushrooms; and Tour of the Universe, where astronomer Colleen O’Hare guided visitors through the cosmos. The evening culminated with Celestial Columns 02, Ghislain Brown-Kossi’s striking sculptural installation blending storytelling and texture.

Kelowna Art Gallery

Flowers of Renewal filled the gallery with hundreds of paper blossoms created by participants, while Handmade by José Luis Torres used reclaimed doors and windows to form a towering collage of portals — a metaphor for discovery and transformation.

Studio on Water

The dockside venue hosted Many Tongues, with Inspired Word Café - a multilingual open-mic performance celebrating spoken word, poetry, and song in languages from across the world — a perfect echo of Kelowna’s creative diversity.

Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan (CCFO)

The festival’s heart pulsed at CCFO, where Meta/Fauna blended contemporary dance, stilts, and light in a haunting performance exploring extinction and renewal. Later, a lively ’90s/2000s karaoke session kept spirits high as the night wound down — proof that at Nuit Blanche, art and joy coexist effortlessly.

Red Bird Brewery

A stop that blended nightlife and art, Red Bird Brewery presented Here & Now / Ici & Maintenant by Aaron Mou, a mixed-reality installation questioning the line between digital and physical space. The night closed with a soul-stirring live performance by Élodie Orsei and VIE, carrying the festival’s rhythm well past midnight.

Celebrating Art, Community, and Collaboration

Nuit Blanche Kelowna 2025 was made possible thanks to the vision and dedication of the Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan, with generous support from partners including the City of Kelowna, Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna Art Gallery, Opus Art Supplies, Red Bird Brewery, Tourism Kelowna, Kelowna Museums, Espace Francophones, Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Province of British Columbia, Québec Government Office, and the Government of Canada.

Together, they transformed Kelowna’s downtown into a playground for imagination — a night where art didn’t just hang on walls but danced, sang, glowed, and connected people across cultures and disciplines.

Captured by Okanagan Echo

As the official media partner, Okanagan Echo was there to document every moment — from the laughter between strangers to the spark of creativity in each artist’s work. The city proved once again that art truly thrives when shared.

*All photos by Okanagan Echo

Couldn’t make it this year?Stay tuned — next year’s Nuit Blanche Kelowna promises to be even more luminous.