Vivid 2025 - Making Sydney Simply Brilliant

Sydney loves a festival, and while it certainly knows how to put on a summer party, one of its biggest events, Vivid, happens in the crisp, coolness of winter.

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Vivid is the Sydney's annual festival of light, music, ideas and food - and It's back in 2025, from May 23 - June 14. The massive 23-day cultural program features spectacle, performances, live music, degustations, talks and more in indoor and outdoor venues across Sydney. 

It is the largest festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere and a huge international drawcard. 

Vivid began in 2009, taking inspiration from a low energy light walk event held in The Netherlands. It was momentarily called Smart Light Sydney before a bright spark in the marketing department decided on the far more engaging “Vivid”. 

The first few Vivid festivals consisted of light-installation trails through the city, around Circular Quay and The Rocks. As its popularity grew, so did its program. 

Music naturally went hand in hand with the extraordinary visual displays, but there were also music events in their own right. Then a light bulb went off above someone’s head, and they added Ideas — a series of talks and presentations by interesting people about interesting things.

More recently, the Food category was added, perfectly rounding out the cultural program to satisfy all the senses. 

The first Vivid drew thousands of locals as well as tourists who happened to be in town at the time. By 2012, the event was routinely bringing around 500,000 people into the city. Last year, Vivid Sydney attracted 2.42 million attendees from all over Australia and across the world, making it a major tourist attraction. 

Vivid is regarded internationally as a technological playground, drawing innovators and tech creatives to it like moths to a giant lamp. The latest advances in luminous display, projections, and creative science are tested and presented during Vivid festivals. 

Projection mapping technology (the laser displays on building facades) has reached a pinnacle at Vivid, with incredible synchronised musical and visual stories being projected onto a number of historic buildings around Sydney.

In recent years, one of the most popular events at Vivid has been the extraordinary drone shows in which hundreds of drones fly above Circular Quay and create 3D aerial light sculptures.

Big names and renowned international acts are also now a staple of Vivid Sydney — performing live music, giving talks, curating dinners. This year’s marquee guests include: Nigella Lawson, Martha Stewart, Beth Gibbons, Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, Portishead, Black Star and many, many more. 

Vivid Sydney’s program is a mix of paid and free events, and accessibility is paramount in the planning. The festival also makes inventive use of spaces throughout the city, including old railway tunnels, narrow laneways, waterside paths, hidden alcoves and small piazzas. This year, the newly opened Martin Place Metro Station will even become a venue. 

From Taronga Zoo to Barangaroo, the House, the Bridge and beyond, Vivid Sydney 2025 is going to light up this city. 

www.vividsydney.com