An Australian city is promising the event of a lifetime, as it lights up the sky with a sea of drones and projections, unrivalled by copycat events.
Sydney’s Vivid Festival returns for its 16th year on Friday and promises to be bigger than ever after winning Australian Event of the Year in 2025.
“This year we invite you to go beyond your previous expectations of Vivid Sydney into a bold new festival designed to surprise,” Vivid Sydney Festival Director Brett Sheehy said.
“We can promise you a festival of a lifetime”.
Sydney Harbour will become a canvas for light every night of the 23-day festival which will also put on talks with Oscar Winning Directors Sean Baker and one off meals by world renowned chefs.
A laser show will run every night around the harbour to an accompanying music score while 40 ferries and boats will transform the water into a flotilla of colour.
Visuals emphasising the human relationship with the natural world will be projected onto the Opera House as world renowned artists perform inside.
This will include global stars such as Earl Sweatshirt, Mitski, Jeff Mills and Salem.
“I like to think that Jorn Utzon, the (Opera House) architect, had this sort of sense that he built an avant-garde building,” show curator Ben Marshall told AAP.
‘You only need to look at it to go, ‘this place is doing something different and ambitious and daring’.”
The iconic landmark will also have performances by 26 local acts, such as the Sydney band Party Dozen.
Its lead singer Kirsty Tickle said she was happy to see Sydney getting weird with Vivid.
“Playing at the Sydney Opera House is such a bucket list venue for us as a band. It’s so rare to get the opportunity to do that until you’re a much larger act in Australia,” she told AAP.
“Obviously, everybody is financially having a pretty tough time at the moment. But all you got to do is just get out there”.
More than 80 per cent of Vivid’s program is free and has inspired copycat winter arts festivals in other capital cities, such as Melbourne’s Rising, Perth’s Lightscape and Illuminate Adelaide.
But the NSW government said other events cannot 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, delivering a bigger and bolder event program that will come to life both day and night.”
The winter festival is the crown jewel of the state’s visitor economy strategy, with the government counting on it to rake in $91 billion in tourist spending by 2035.
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