Vivid Sydney

25 May 16

Sydney Harbour Sydney Harbour

Vivid Sydney will be lighting up the night sky in key locations around the city for its eighth year this year, in what is proving to be the biggest and best yet. Beginning May 27, the 23-day festival will run until June 18 and will feature a program jam-packed with large scale light installations, music, creative ideas and collaborations.

The world's largest event to combine light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney is now the major winter event in Australia and was voted Australia's Best Event in 2013 as well as Best Tourism Event in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Celebrating Sydney as Asia-Pacific's creative hub, the event has proved to be so popular that for the first time this year, an extra five days have been added to the festival program along with additional locations.

Vivid Sydney combines the creativity of art, light and music with the excitement of ideas in the form of talks and workshops. The festival aims to be the intersection of art, technology and commerce, however the centrepiece is still Vivid Light, the part of the festival which transforms locations around the city into large-scale outdoor light and art installations featuring huge illuminations, 3D-mapped projections and laser light shows.

Some of the attractions and installations slated to be highlights of this year's festival include a giant multimedia display of Australia's and Sumatra's endangered animals hosted at Taronga Zoo, a 20m tall interactive installation titled 'Sentiment Cocoon' at the Royal Botanic Gardens and indigenous art inspired illuminations of the sails of the Sydney Opera House. The festival will officially open on May 27 with the lighting of the sails.

As part of the music component of Vivid Sydney, local bands, groups and cutting-edge musicians will perform at the Sydney Opera House. One of the biggest names on the bill is international artist and musician Björk, who will perform a DJ set at famous multi-arts venue Carriageworks while premiering her first virtual reality project. Carrigeworks will also be turned into an immersive audio-visual experience with the large-scale art and music event Curve Ball to be held on June 11.