When the days get shorter and the weather turns chilly, the City of Sydney, Australia, has a dramatic way of welcoming the winter solstice. Vivid Sydney, a 23-day festival turns Sydney into a kaleidoscope of lights, music, and ideas. It's the largest event of its kind in the world, and still growing!

Launched in 2009 as an energy efficient light festival, Vivid Sydney attracted more than 500,000 visitors and generated $10 million in revenue for the State of New South Wales. By 2013, attendance mushroomed to 800,000 and doubled its income to $20 million. Each year, the festival has expanded its locations, adding interactive light displays, musical events, and conferences that explore cutting edge technology, and business trends and creativity. In 2016, Vivid Sydney attracted more than 2.3 million people. There are now three components to Vivid Sydney - Vivid Lights, Vivid Music, and Vivid Ideas.

This year, in this city of 5 million, 326,000 people attended the spectacular opening weekend. They witnessed an assemblage of 124,128 lights that set a Guinness world record for technical light displays. All grid-connected light installations at the 2017 event were powered by 100% Green Power accredited renewable energy to assure sustainability of performance.

Early winter evenings provide perfect darkness for casting lights up on the fronts of iconic structures and otherwise drab, monolithic 5-star hotels of this historic harbor metropolis.

Vivid Lights Turns Sydney Skies Into the Largest Outdoor Art Gallery

At night, blurring the line between art and technology, Vivid Lights transforms Sydney into the world's largest outdoor art gallery. The evening kicks off when the sails of Sydney Opera House billow with color and light. The city becomes a nighttime wonderland through laser light shows, light art sculptures and 3-D mapped projections of images thrusted skyward and on to the city's iconic buildings, harbor vessels, and bridge. Vivid Sydney Spectators can follow a series of interactive light displays through Sydney's landmark precincts like The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Royal Botanical Gardens and Taronga Zoo. There are even walking tours nightly to aid photographers, from novice to expert, capture the spectacular images unleashed by Vivid Lights.

Vivid Music - 23 Days, 135 Live Performances

Vivid Music 2017 included 135 live performances and musical collaborations, some free, some with a cost. From small bars to large venues like the Sydney Opera House, Vivid Music brings local and international talent to the city. Forty-three different genres ranging from 1980's retro to electronic pop to hip hop to nu jazz were offered at this year's festival.

Vivid Ideas - 159 Talks on Technology, Innovation, Creativity

During the day, and some evenings, Vivid Ideas offered 159 different talks, seminars, and conferences and workshops on topics from technology and start-up culture, visual arts and performance, marketing and advertising - all celebrating creativity, innovation and community. Business and creative leaders provide updates on their industries, new developments and market opportunities.

Highlights of Vivid Sydney

Vivid Sydney is a family friendly event, particularly the outdoor lights at night. Families, parents with kids and dogs in tow, meander about near the Circular Quay ferry terminals. Crowds spill out onto Alfred Street as thousands of people attend the nightly light shows. The festival creates its own culture of casual enjoyment for visitors and locals as they watch the light structures morph, undulate, and mesmerize, when struck by the liquid light projections. The Opera House sails suddenly change from a huge butterfly into a giant, moving jellyfish; the Museum of Contemporary Art comes alive with hundreds of psychedelic ribbons of color; and the Sydney Harbour Bridge streams beams of light out over the harbor. 

The highlight of the 2017 program was Audio Creatures, a work of imaginary sea creatures projected onto the Sydney Opera House. Taronga Zoo came alive with giant, laser animal sculptures including gorillas, a turtle, and a Sumatran tiger. Even the Harbour Bridge became part of the show, decorated with thousands of colorful lights, beacons of light streaming from it to illuminate the harbor for the cruise boats ferrying visitors from the Opera House alongside the Royal Botanical Gardens to Taronga Zoo, and back again. Visitors who signed up for the famous Harbour Bridge Climb had the best views of Vivid Lights across the water.

Sydney the City and the People

Sydneysiders are welcoming and friendly. Their food is culturally diverse. Their city is progressive and its tempo and pace are tangibly modern. The festival, like the city itself, is well organized and reflects an urban, Australian, matter-of-fact practicality.

Sydney has a well-developed train, light rail, bus, and ferry system, all connected by a one-time purchase of the Opal Card. The transportation runs fast and is easy to access.

A fundamentally Australian attitude pervades the festival - it's all about taking things in stride. It started raining one night, just as the lights came on. Yet out came the umbrellas, hats and ponchos, cameras still flashing in the rain. Visitors, like locals, take it in stride, undaunted, ducking into the comfort of cozy bars, only if absolutely necessary, to wait out the rain, so they could resume their visual journey through the dazzling display of lights.

Sydney is, after all, from its very beginnings, a port city whose food, music, language, architecture, and undaunted immigrant attitude emerged from the people who settled here in the late 1790s. They were primarily British, with prisoners overseen by army and naval officers, as well as other hardworking European stock (German, Italian, French). They arrived in the harbor and merged to build this city from its coastal rocks up.

Mark your calendar and plan your 2018 visit. For 23 days and nights, from May 25th to June 16th, step into this amazing festival of inspiring light art, cutting edge music performances, and creative talks, and workshops and showcases. Enjoy one of the best public festivals on the planet, offered in an international city that easily takes it in stride.

When to Go and How to See It

From late May to the middle of June, Vivid Sydney runs every day. Vivid Lights kicks off at 6:00 pm and runs until 11:00 pm each night. Weekends draw the biggest crowds and the first few hours are the most crowded. But as families with small children head home around 9:00 pm, crowds thin out. Monday through Wednesday are not as well attended.

With so much to see and do, it's difficult to cover it all. View the Vivid Sydney website ahead of time to determine which attractions interest you the most, then allow at least two to three days to soak up the festival. Tickets for Vivid Ideas talks and Vivid Music performances can be purchased online, Vivid Lights is free.

Walking the various locations is the best way to see Vivid Lights, but tour boats ranging anywhere from one-hour tours to dinner cruises are readily available. This past year, Groupon offered several options at deep discounts.

Streets in most of this historic center are blocked off for the evenings. Visitors are encouraged to take public transportation from trains, light rail, and buses, with extra trains running during the festival.

Useful links

https://www.vividsydney.com/
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