“Up-all-night” in many languages is called a “white night.” And ever since 2003, when UNESCO named Tel Aviv the White City because of its more than 4,000 Bauhaus-style white buildings, Tel Aviv has been celebrating a White Night, or Laila Lavan in Hebrew.

After a two-year hiatus due to corona, this year’s White Night will be June 30, when the stay-up-late metropolis will turn into an all-night celebration from dusk to dawn the following day.

Throughout the city, there will be live events, open to the public for free or at a minimal charge, including live music concerts on the beach promenade, street theater and dance performances, sidewalk stalls offering street food from burekas to tapas, and shops and boutiques that keep their doors wide open.

Tel Aviv’s Cinematheque will screen films all night indoors, while at the Suzanne Dallal Center, films by independent filmmakers will be screened outdoors.

On Dizengoff Square, there will be 1920s New Orleans music, and jazz performances and free exhibits at the Eretz Israel Museum.

A free Dragapalooza will be held at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium with internationally acclaimed drag stars. Eurovision legend Dana International will perform at a ticketed event along with Alaska, Kylie Sonique and Trinity the Tuck.

And at HaTachana Park, site of the first railway station in the Middle East, there will be performers of Mizrachi music, which combines Arabic, Turkish and Greek styles brought to Israel by Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews.

For more information and schedule of performances and activities during Tel Aviv’s White Night on June 30, click here.