Vivid Sydney is an annual festival held in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. It includes outdoor immersive light installations and projections, performances by local and international musicians, and an ideas exchange forum featuring public talks and debates with leading creative thinkers. This event takes place over the course of three weeks in May and June. The centrepieces of Vivid Sydney are the light sculptures, multimedia interactive work and building projections that transform various buildings and landmarks such as the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

and

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

in and around the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

into an outdoor night time canvas of art. Past sites of interest include

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

, Chatswood, and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

as well as around the CBD,

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

and The Rocks.

History

Vivid Sydney was conceptualised in 2008 and initially developed as low energy light festival. 'Smart Light Sydney' was a concept developed by MaryAnne Kyriakou (who was inspired by the Glow Light Festival which was held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, since 2006 and where she participated )Anthony Bastic, Carolyn Grant, Joe Snell and Davina Jackson. Anthony Bastic presented the concept of a low energy light walk around Sydney's Circular Quay, linking the CBD, to the NSW Government. After securing British multi-genre popular culture artist, Brian Eno as the lead light artist, the NSW Government sought the expansion of the content to include the music and ideas component. The original name "Smart Light Sydney" was replaced with Vivid Sydney to better represent the streams of Light, Music and Ideas. From 2009–2018 Anthony Bastic's company, AGB Events, was responsible for curating and producing the public facing light component for NSW Government. As of May 2019, it was the biggest festival of lights, music and ideas in the world. It is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the State Government's tourism and events agency. In 2019 a record 2.4 million people attended. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2021 Vivid was first scheduled for 6–28 August, it was then postponed to September due to the Delta outbreak and lockdown in Sydney. It was finally cancelled on 6 August.

Commercial success

According to then New South Wales Deputy Premier and government Andrew Stoner, Vivid Sydney 2012 attracted more than 500,000 visitors to the outdoor exhibition and events, generating around $10 million in income for the state, whereas Vivid Sydney 2013 attracted more than 800,000 visitors, contributing more than $20 million to the NSW economy. In 2014, the festival involved the

, Walsh Bay,

Circular Quay Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping terminal, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the northern edge of the ...

, The Rocks,

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

, and, joining for the first time, Harbour Lights (the illumination of vessels upon the Harbour), The Star and

Carriageworks Carriageworks is a multi-arts urban cultural precinct located at the former Eveleigh Carriage Workshops in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, Sydney, Australia. Carriageworks showcases contemporary art and performing arts, as well as being use ...

. A new projection work by

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

based creative team 59 Productions featured for the Lighting of the Sails of the

. In 2015, Vivid Sydney attracted more than 1.7 million visitors to the city. The 2016 Vivid event included an expanded program of multi-genre music, stimulating presentations and Vivid Talks from global presenters and dazzling light projections across the city. In 2016, a display was added at

Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo Sydney is a government-run public zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the Lower North Shore suburb of Mosman, New South Wales, Mosman, on the shores of Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour. It offers great views of Sydney ...

. In 2016, Vivid Sydney was extended to 23 nights and was attended by more than 2.3 million people. In 2017, Vivid Sydney attracted a record 2.33 million attendees and injected over $143 million into NSW's visitor economy. In 2019, the Surry Hill precinct was included with a montage of Heckler's 50 most iconic women being displayed on the famous art deco Hollywood Hotel. Publican and proprietress Doris Goddard was inducted as the 51st icon.

Artistic program

Vivid Sydney produces programming across numerous streams. These include Vivid Light, Vivid Music, Vivid Ideas, Vivid School, The Lighting of the Sails of

and Vivid Live.

Vivid Light

Along what is known as the Vivid Light Walk, through The Rocks,

and Royal Botanic Garden, there are many opportunities for individuals to interact with light installations through such means as unique technologies. This program includes large-scale projection on other historical buildings such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney's

Customs House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

, and the historical Cadmans Cottage. The

is also illuminated.

Vivid Music

Vivid Music includes a range of contemporary music events take place throughout the

CBD. In recent years

has played host to a Vivid Music Events.

Vivid Ideas

Vivid Ideas began in 2012 with founding director Jess Scully, and consists of a range of talks and workshops centred around the business and creative industries. The Vivid Ideas Exchange takes place throughout the festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Vivid Food

Introduced in 2023, Vivid Food is a new pillar incorporating local and international chefs across several venues in Sydney.

Past light installations

''Musical Cubes'', a light installation, was an interactive activity in the harbour. In this activity, a group of six individuals would take part in a musical experiment. Each member would be given a three dimensional cube. Each cube represented a different instrument (guitar, piano, etc.) and each side of the cube would represent a different pace (measured in beats per minute). Every member of the group would take their cube, select a side, and place the cube on a table. A computer program would then interpret all the information from the cubes and play the resulting musical beat over loud speakers that surrounded the table. Participants would be allowed to change the tempo of their instrument and as they changed them, the program would react to reflect the change and play the new tune. In 2015, ''Heart of the City'', was another light installation located in the harbour. This was one of the more popular activities at Vivid due to its immersive nature. ''Heart of the City'' resembled a large, solid beanbag chair and was located near the Sydney Opera House. Upon reaching the front of the line, participants would be asked to seat themselves in the middle of the chair. Once seated, they would be instructed by a Vivid Sydney volunteer to insert their finger into a small hole located near the chair. If your finger was inserted correctly, the chair would begin to light up red to match your heartbeat. As participants began to notice this, their heart rate sometimes increased causing the chair to light up more rapidly. In June 2022, a huge painting called ''Yarrkalpa — Hunting Ground'', painted by Martumili artists in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, was projected onto the Sydney Opera House as part of the festival, accompanied by the music of electronic music duo Electric Fields and animated by creative technologists Curiious. The design symbolically depicts the area around Parnngurr, showing the seasons, cultural burning practices and Indigenous management of the land and natural resources. ''What Lies Beneath'' is a data visualization project displayed at Vivid Sydney 2023 by Susan Kosti. Set against the backdrop of the data-driven digital age, the project utilizes a distinct visual language derived from data spanning from 2003 to 2023, provided by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. Using 3D mapping techniques, the stones of Nawi Cove were transformed into a representation of an underwater habitat, complete with corals and marine entities. Each animated entity within the display altered its form based on specific data sets that corresponded to patterns observed in oceanic behavior. This installation aimed to bridge the gap between data interpretation and visual art, providing viewers with an insight into the multifaceted nature of ocean dynamics.

Gallery

File:Museum of Contemporary Art projection Vivid 2015 - 01.JPG, Museum of Contemporary Art File:Vivid Sydney 2015.jpg,

File:Opera house projection VIVID 2015 04.JPG,

File:Sydney Harbour during Vivid Sydney.jpg, Tourists on

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

during Vivid Sydney Affinity interactive sculpture Vivid 2015 - 01.jpg, 'Affinity' interactive sculpture File:Space Folding.jpg, Space Folding

References

External links

* * * {{Sydney events, state=collapsed Art exhibitions in Australia Australian sculpture Cultural conferences Cultural festivals in Australia Festivals established in 2009 Festivals in Sydney Light festivals 2009 establishments in Australia