Insomnia will take over Miami Beach when Sleepless Night 2009 consumes the city with the best in the arts. Beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday and lasting until 7 a.m. Sunday morning, Sleepless Night is a 13-hour arts and entertaining extravaganza featuring 130 events that can all be enjoyed for free.
Stretching seven miles from Ocean Drive to Normandy Fountain, Sleepless Night events will feature live musical, theatrical, dance, poetic, comedic and acrobatic performances, free admission to museums, a variety of art displays including indoor and outdoor installations, fashion shows and architectural tours.
Miami Beach will be divided into four zones: North Beach, Collins Park, Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive. The four zones will be accessible through shuttle buses that will transport people between 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. and include on-board screenings of short films by Christopher Flach and a video project by Elena Tejada-Herrera. There will also be a special Watson Island Shuttle that will pick up and drop off at the public parking lot across from the Miami Children’s Museum.
Sophomore Katie Sikora thinks Sleepless Night is an amazing idea.
“It sounds like something great for people to get out into the community and get a feel for what we have going on in Miami,” Sikora said.
Sleepless Night 2009 will open with The First-Ever Pajama Run through Lummus Park. Hosted by Chipotle, sleepwear clad runners can enjoy a one-mile run which will start at 8th Street and Ocean Drive at 6 p.m. Registration is free.
During the night, The Byron Carlyle Theater will host theatrical performances by Teatro en Miami, a Spanish-language theater company, and Ground Up & Rising, which is known for putting on young hip shows. The performances will be at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively. The theater will also host the Next Generation 2010 Short Film Festival from 11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., which includes award-winning shorts from Belgium, France, the Canary Islands and Germany.
For those who last until morning, SoBe Arts Jazz Ensemble and the SoBe Arts Chamber Ensemble along with some classic cartoons will bring Sleepless Night 2009 to a pre-dawn close with “Tunes and Toons” at 5:30 a.m. A yoga class will also be offered at the Park Central Hotel and Whole Foods will provide all sleep deprived art lovers an energizing breakfast.
The events of Sleepless Night 2009 are various and plentiful insuring everyone an entertaining experience they could only imagine in their dreams.
For more information and a list of all Sleepless Night 2009 events, visit www.sleeplessnight.org.
If you go:
What: Audi presents Sleepless Night 2009
Where: Miami Beach stretching from Ocean Drive to around 71st Street
When: Saturday at 6 p.m. until Sunday at 7 a.m.
Cost: Free
Parking: Remote parking is available at the Watson Island public parking lot across from Miami Children’s Museum