Bold promises as Vivid festival lights up the sky
An Australian city is promising the event of a lifetime by lighting up the skies with drones and projections unrivaled by mock events.
Sydney’s Live Festival returns for its 16th year on Friday and promises to be bigger than ever after winning Australia’s Event of the Year in 2025.
“This year we welcome you to a bold new festival designed to surprise you by going beyond your previous expectations of Vivid Sydney,” said Brett Sheehy, Vivid Sydney Festival Director.
“We can promise you the festival of your life”.
Sydney Harbor will become a canvas for light every night of the 23-day festival, which will include talks with Oscar-winning director Sean Baker and one-off dinners from world-famous chefs.
A laser show accompanied by music will take place around the harbor every night, and 40 ferries and boats will turn the water into a fleet of colors.
In the Opera House, where world-famous artists will perform, visuals emphasizing man’s relationship with the natural world will be projected.
This will include global stars such as Earl Sweat, Mitski, Jeff Mills and Salem.
“I like to think that (Opera House) architect Jorn Utzon had a sense of building an avant-garde building,” the show’s curator Ben Marshall told AAP.
‘To go, all you have to do is look and say, ‘this place is doing something different, something ambitious and bold’.”
The iconic landmark will also host performances from 26 local artists, including Sydney band Party Dozen.
The band’s frontwoman Kirsty Tickle told Vivid she was happy to see her getting weird.
“Playing the Sydney Opera House is like a bucket list destination for us as a band. It’s very rare to get the opportunity to do that until you’ve done a much bigger gig in Australia,” he told AAP.
“Obviously everyone is going through a pretty tough time financially right now. But you just have to get out there.”
More than 80 per cent of Vivid’s program is free and has inspired copycat winter arts festivals in other capitals, including Melbourne’s Rising, Perth’s Lightscape and Illuminate Adelaide.
But the NSW government said other events could not compete.
“No other city in the world can host Vivid because no other city in the world has what Sydney has to offer,” Tourism Minister Steve Kamper said.
“Vivid Sydney 2026 will redefine how we experience our city by delivering a bigger and bolder program of events that will come to life both day and night.”
The winter festival is the crown jewel of the state’s visitor economy strategy; the government is counting on this to generate $91 billion in tourist spending by 2035.
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