Melbourne's Federation Square was unusually dark, and everyone was waiting for the art to happen.
As people milled about hoping to see artist Daan Roosegaarde's installation Spark on Thursday, it was 12C and windy, setting up a standoff between public art and hot chips at any of the nearby bars.
Suddenly there was a collective gasp as the lights went up, illuminating a blizzard of shining bubbles above the crowd attending the RISING festival.
"Wow!" said one onlooker, as the lighting shifted from iridescent white to luminous gold.
"Is that all there is?" asked another.
Spark is billed as thousands of luminous biodegradable lights, a "flock of sparks" inspired by fireflies, birds and galaxies of stars.
But art talk aside, it's actually a massive bubble show, which means children are best qualified to comment: one group, rugged up in down jackets and beanies, gave it the thumbs up.
Sadie, five, said Spark was "great", and screamed with excitement to drive home her point.
Her seven-year-old sister Delphi wasn't feeling the cold: she was feeling the bubbles instead.
"I love it, especially the rainbow ones," she told AAP.
Their friend Isaac, eight, agreed the bubbles were amazing, while his younger sibling Noan, five, said: "It's like rainbows, it's magical."
Any suggestion it was past their bedtime was quickly rebuffed, and attention soon turned to whether they were allowed to have a sleepover, because Friday was a curriculum day at school anyway.
One grown-up bubble watcher, Petra from Melbourne, was attending her first RISING event for 2023, and said the luminous bubbles were beautiful.
"I like public art, especially when it's free and accessible," she told AAP.
Spark has previously been installed in Bilbao, Aix-en-Provence, Madrid, Auckland and London. It's on each night until Saturday from 6.30-10.30pm at Federation Square.
