There are plenty of awesome activities in Sydney all year around. Nearly every month sees a fiesta, embracing themes ranging from art, culture, theatre, cinema, literature and food to religious events, outdoor sculpture and human relationships.
But the carnival that leaves Sydneysiders as well as interstate and overseas visitors in awe, is the winter festival of lights, formally called Vivid Sydney. An annual event since 2009, it sparks the soul of the harbour city with a creative lighting wonderland and shows off this awesome city in all its beauty.
Sydneysiders particularly love the illuminated version of their landmark buildings like the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and the Customs House and touristy domains like the Rocks, Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
Besides lights, the festival in its current form fuses art, innovation and technology into the program in collaboration with some of the top boundary-pushing artists, thinkers and musicians of present time, making it one of southern hemisphere’s most awesome attractions.
In the last two years, this flagship event has seen pandemic-related cancellations. With the restrictions now eased, the winter bonanza makes its triumphant return this year on 27 May with a line-up bigger than any previous hits. The program will continue for 23 nights through to 18 June, every day from 6 pm until late, swinging Sydney into party mode.
The upscale schedule for this year introduces new lighting venues and arrangements, cutting edge artists, immersive events, unmissable performances, and sensational experiences featuring more than 200 events and artworks, 50 dazzling light installations and 3D projection artworks, 111 eclectic music events and 87 thought-provoking ideas talks and workshops. Never-before-lit buildings will add new sparkle to the city skyline and an epic water sculpture on a scale never seen before in Australia will rise from the waters of Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour.
Vivid Sydney 2022 will warm the creative soul of the Sydney CBD, Circular Quay, The Rocks, Walsh Bay, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour, Darling Square, Darling Quarter and landmark structures such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Customs House, The Goods Line, ASN Clock Tower in The Rocks and the Central Train Station.
A key highlight this year will be the longest continuous Light Walk in the history of the event, from Sydney Opera House to Central Station. The Light Walk will feature over 200 LED sculptural birds guiding the path as part of artist Chris Daniel’s Future Natives installation and will pass through Central Station and The Goods Line for the first time. Promises to be an awesome experience!
This year’s program, developed by Festival Director Gill Minervini, introduces several innovations. For the first time in the festival’s history, the lights, music and ideas are all centred on a theme, ‘The Soul of Our City’. The new theme brings many new elements to the program, from late night happenings celebrating Sydney’s history and culture to immersive experiences that flaunt the city’s creativity.
Also featured will be performances by top Australian artists as well as Sydney’s hottest rising talents at the Tumbalong Park, inaugural Vivid Sydney Dinner at The Ivy Ballroom – a fully-immersive dining experience crafted by top executive chefs with entertaining talks and live music recitals enhanced by Vivid Sydney’s incomparable light projections, and Vivid Music at Central Station Grand Concourse.
Another much-talked about item on the agenda is First Light – an event respecting the First Nations people. It will be launched on the opening night in Campbells Cove with ‘Sharing the Same Life Essence’, incorporating the Gadigal story-telling projections on the southern pylon of Sydney Harbour Bridge as a poignant backdrop. The ceremony and performance will be shown on screens throughout the Light Walk on all nights of the festival.
Vivid lights transform Sydney into a magical wonderland. An awesome way of enjoying this fairytale-like carnival is by cruising the harbour precinct and surrounding waters on a boat and watching the glittering panorama from several vantage points.
Feel new in your old city.
For more information www.vividsydney.com