Ultimate Guide to Vivid Sydney

The largest festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere, Vivid Sydney is an incredible celebration of lights, music, ideas and food. Bursting with innovation and creativity, Vivid Sydney is one of Australia’s most-loved festivals.

In 2024, Vivid Sydney spotlights the theme Humanity. Explore programs that evoke shared humanity through food, immersive light installations that showcase the power of community, and thought-provoking debates and panels that look to the future of humanity.
 

Vivid Sydney brings together light artists, music makers, gourmet masters and creative minds to create an immersive, city-wide spectacle. Marvel at larger-than-life, three-dimensional, outdoor light installations with Vivid Light. Watch live music performances and collaborations at Vivid Music. Engage in creative discussion and debate at Vivid Ideas. And, for the second year, discover delicious dining with Vivid Food.

Whether you explore spellbinding installations of the Vivid Light Walk around Circular Quay and the harbour foreshore, explore Lightscape in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney or capture a birds-eye view of it all during The Vivid Sydney Bridge Climb – there’s something for everyone at Vivid Sydney 2024.

Creative and thought-provoking light installations and the Light Walk sit at the heart of what Vivid Sydney is all about. Wandering the CBD during the festival, you’re sure to stumble across countless breathtaking lightworks, but with a little forward planning you can map out your journey and learn the story behind each piece. Read on for our guide to Vivid Light.

Vivid Light kicks off every evening with the Lighting of the Sails. Watch as the Sydney Opera House comes to life with original, large-scale projections curated by internationally renowned artists, while ambient music creates an all-encompassing experience.

In 2024, Julia Gutman's Echo sees Circular Quay’s iconic sails transformed into a canvas. Denim, hessian, patchwork, and scrap metal create a textural setting for this imagining of the ancient myth of Narcissus. Old meets new in narrative and medium as we watch a young girl follow her reflection into an unfamiliar world. The piece explores desire, strength and wonder, and perfectly sets the tone for Vivid Sydney 2024.

Vivid Sydney’s most famous feature is the renowned Light Walk. This pathway through Sydney’s CBD showcases some of the best outdoor light installations, traversing Circular Quay, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Barangaroo and Haymarket.
 

 More of a "choose your own adventure’"rather than a prescribed trail, Vivid Sydney Light Walk is packed full of breakaway spaces for you to sit, enjoy and soak up the atmosphere and installations throughout the evening. Eateries and drinking holes also line this trail, providing plenty of comfortable, warm places to rest your feet.

 Lights are turned on at 6pm every night over the course of the festival, and there are plenty of installations for attendees to discover, making the Light Walk well worth multiple visits. If you're visiting Sydney and want to stay nearby, the Novotel Sydney Darling Square is an ideal Vivid Sydney home base.

Perfect for families and groups of all sizes exploring the Light Walk, Novotel Sydney Darling Square is situated in the heart of the city. Take a dip in the temperature-controlled indoor pool to wind down after your travels, then enjoy seasonally inspired fare at the Pumphouse Restaurant & Bar.

The only way to experience Vivid Sydney is up close and in person, so plan to hit the streets once, twice, or as many times as you like during the festival to take it all in. If you’re visiting the city during Vivid Sydney, choose accommodation situated in the centre of it all to make navigation a breeze. Novotel Sydney City Centre is your comfortable, welcoming and optimally located landing pad for your Vivid Sydney adventure, located a stone’s throw from multiple stops on the Light Walk.

Start your night early in tandem with Lights On at 6pm or step out after dinner to begin your Light Walk. We recommend building out a plan to guide you – this can be just one or two spots to keep the pace relaxed, or more of a marathon if you’re up for it. Remember, Vivid Sydney takes place over the course of 23 nights from the 24th of May to the 15th of June, so you can always come back for more.

Here are our picks of a few showstopping, transportive and interactive installations to help you draft your Vivid Sydney Light Walk path.

First Light

The perfect way to kick off Vivid Sydney 2024, First Light is a celebration of First Nations culture, bringing to life the rich traditions of the Gadigal people and neighbouring nations through vibrant song, dance, and Language.

First Light will be performed live as a special inaugural celebration to launch Vivid Sydney 2024, with an edited version appearing before Lights On on subsequent nights. On opening night, you’ll be able to enjoy the performance from broadcasts across the Light Walk.

Gumscape with Road and Creatures

Dive into a world of surrealism and leave behind the familiar as you enter into a world of robots, uncanny creatures and one-eyed koalas. National icon Reg Mombassa transforms Customs House with his signature style in his work Gumscape with Road and Creatures. His biting wit shows us Australian icons in a new light and invites us to reflect on what it means to be Australian – and even what it means to be human.

Global Rainbow

A beacon of hope and inclusivity, Global Rainbow is a spectrum of light that extends from the Sydney Tower Eye and invites all who see it into the bright and colourful world of Vivid Sydney. For up to 40km, beams of rainbow lasers extend from the tower, a guiding light above the ground-level festivities. The artist, Yvette Mattern, has previously lit up the city skies of London, Berlin, Toronto, and Strangford Lough as part of a global illumination.

To match the bright, vibrant lights of the city, Sydney’s eateries are creating vivid dishes throughout the festival of lights. You’ll find unique dishes and celebrations of Vivid Sydney to delight your other senses – taste and smell! Explore over 20 top chefs and restaurateurs at the VividPlace Food Trail or try one of our top picks from Vivid Food below.
 

Vivid Fire Kitchen

Back and blazing in a new location on The Goods Line, Vivid Fire Kitchen invites you to enjoy flame-seared street food from around the globe. Breathe in the comforting smell of the barbeque as the finest international and Australian pitmasters cook local produce to perfection. Try a dish from around the globe – like brisket, sausage, First Nations tucker and teppanyaki – and treat more than just your eyes at this delight for the senses. For close-by accommodation that delivers on access, style and comfort, look to Mercure Sydney – conveniently located less than a 10-minute walk from The Goods Line.
 

Atelier by Sofitel - A Culinary Connection

Dinner and a show? Take in the spectacular Vivid Sydney Light Walk glittering across the harbour as you enjoy a special four-course menu from your exclusive window-side table with Atelier by Sofitel - A Culinary Connection. Drawing inspiration from the Vivid Sydney 2024 theme ‘Humanity’, each dish tells a story about the chefs, producers and artisans who helped make your meal possible. You can even leaf through the accompanying booklet to read messages from the chefs, discover the stories behind each course, and take-home recipes so that you can recreate the meal with your own story and memories.

Planning on visiting Atelier by Sofitel? Why not enjoy a luxury escape and stay at the Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour to make the most of your time at Vivid Sydney.

Our Shared Humanity

In a series of exclusive dinners curated by leading chefs, celebrate culinary creativity and shared human experience at Our Shared Humanity. The event is a collaboration between OzHarvest and renowned chef Massimo Bottura's charity Food for Soul. Each night of the series, one of Australia's best chefs will plate up a unique, three-course, vegetarian menu with rescued New South Wales ingredients, weaving the theme of ‘Humanity’ into every dish.
 

While the meal itself is a feast of creativity, it also helps feed those in need, covering the cost of a three-course meal for Sydney's vulnerable communities.

Be sure to get your tickets, as spaces are limited and sure to sell out.

Along with Vivid Food, Sydney is a bustling hub of plenty of fantastic dining options.

Dinner with a view

To enjoy a delicious dinner while you take in the magnificent Sydney Harbour as it glitters under the Vivid lights, head to Q Dining. Perched above East Circular Quay, Q Dining delivers contemporary Australian flavours, sourcing only the highest quality produce so that each bite is a delicious, memorable experience. And when you've finished dinner, why not head upstairs for a cocktail at Hyde Hacienda, boasting some of the best views to be found in Sydney.

Within Darling Harbour, you'll find The Ternary – home to discerning menus, freshly grilled meals and sweeping views of the Sydney skyline. Just moments away is Sydney's very own Champagne Bar. What better way to celebrate the fun and awe of Vivid Sydney than by popping a bottle of sparkling with friends and loved ones?
 

Great Sydney eateries

There are plenty of amazing restaurants throughout Sydney if you’re looking for a delicious meal elsewhere in the city. Try Bar Morris, an Italian cocktail bar and restaurant in the heart of Sydney. Warm interiors, an innovative menu, and punchy cocktails will have you feeling more than at home when you stop by for dinner.

If you're planning to visit the Hyde Park locale, you can't go past Dixon & Sons. A contemporary interpretation of a modern brasserie, Dixon & Sons is underpinned by sophisticated simplicity. Browse a menu that blends contemporary culinary artistry and fresh ingredients and explore a sophisticated wine and cocktail list for a complementary dining experience.
 

For a meal that embraces the busy chaos of modern cities, head to Mee So. The menu draws inspiration from the streets of Seoul and Tokyo, where classic street food stalls meet ever-evolving style and culture. The diverse menu emphasises fusion – combining traditional Korean and Japanese techniques for innovative meals. Though the highlight is the impressive, signature cocktail menu, with drinks for every flavour profile and every mood.

Experience teleportation through an immersive underworld of thrilling music and kaleidoscopic colour in this ticketed event hosted at Wynyard Tunnels. Dark Spectrum: A New Journey is the brainchild of the minds at Sony Music, Culture Creative and Mandylights, a trip through light, colour and sound designed to draw you in and bend your mind.

In 2024, Sydney is treated to a new imagining of the globally-renowned multisensory phenomenon of light, colour and sound that is Lightscape. In this ticketed event in the Royal Botanic Garden, you’ll wander through familiar places illuminated into alien landscapes with break-taking lightworks from acclaimed local and international artists.

Music is an essential element of community and connection. With music, we can communicate across language barriers and find common ground. With this in mind, Vivid Sydney celebrates and elevates musical artists throughout the festival through uplifting, multi-sensory experiences.
 

Tumbalong Nights

In the beating heart of the Vivid Sydney Light Walk is Tumbalong Nights, your go-to destination for free, contemporary music in Darling Harbour. International and local talent takes to the stage under the stars. DJs from Sunday to Wednesday, live music from 7:30pm Thursday to Saturday, and kids shows each Saturday from 5pm. Artists include Mallrat, Battlesnake, Bare Necessities, Forest Claudette, Teenage Joans and plenty more.
 

If you’ll be heading to Tumbalong Nights, Novotel Sydney Darling Square is your perfect accommodation match. With only a few minutes spent walking to the event, you can save your energy for enjoying the music before kicking back at the hotel pool and Pumphouse Restaurant & Bar.
 

Vivid Kids at Tumbalong Park

With Vivid Kids at Tumbalong Park, it's all about little people and big fun with free kids' entertainment each Saturday from 5pm. Learn some of the oldest dance steps in the world with Buuja Buuja Dance, get silly with The Beanies (fans might recognise them from their ABC Kids show), get veggie-keen with Formidable Vegetable, and feel welcome with the empowering message of diversity and inclusion from The Quokkas. Looking to stay close by? Novotel Sydney Darling Square is walking distance from many of Vivid Sydney attractions, including Tumbalong Park.

Vivid Supper Club

For something more grown-up, the late-night cabaret of Vivid Sydney Supper Club at Mary's Underground is calling your name. Hosts and curators Rhys Nicholson and Georgia Mooney have put together a captivating lineup of comedy, music and storytelling for this ticketed event. Worship the Divas (Streisand, Judy, Tina, Beyoncé and so on), take in an unscripted and unhinged gameshow, or indulge your inner child with the best adults-only kids party you've ever been to. Make a night of it and stay at The Sebel Quay West Suites Sydney, a short walk from Mary’s Underground and home to The Quartier Bistro & Bar.
 

Machine Hall Precinct

Machine Hall Precinct is a must-visit for diverse, dynamic, visionary music. Each night takes a different journey to explore what music can be. Head to the reimagined 100-year-old substation for unforgettable nights of music and culture. Cutting edge performances include WavyLand present Underscores, Jen Cloher, CLUB 4A, The Grand Silky Ball, Trackwork x SUMAC present +WINDCHILD, Black Milk, Deerhoof, Ngulmiya and more. And no need to worry about getting home after; Mantra on Kent Sydney is easily walkable in under five minutes, and has you covered for modern comfort and convenience.

Vivid Ideas is as vast as Vivid Sydney itself, with a lineup of programs to engage anyone. You'll find future-facing talks, hands-on workshops and industry-shaping forums to intrigue and provoke new thoughts and ideas. Here are some of our top picks from this year’s Vivid Ideas program.
 

After the Fact
Every weeknight of Vivid Sydney, watch the brightest minds dissect and debate the breaking stories of the day at free event After the Fact. This free event features Annabel Crabb, Thoda Roberts, Kim Williams, and more – moderated by the brilliant Tom Wright. Open to enquiring minds of all ages, the panel runs between 6pm and 7pm each weekday at Barangaroo House.

If you're planning to stay in the city and don't want to miss a moment, stay nearby in the ibis Sydney Barangaroo or Novotel Sydney City Centre.

Shifting Perspectives
Enter a mirror maze and be transfixed in this immersive installation. Shifting Perspectives bends reality as dancers weave, lights twirl and sound pulsates. Transform yourself from observer to the observed as mirrors turn and alter your perspective on reality and yourself.

Open your mind in the immersive mirror maze of Shifting Perspectives.

A THOUSAND WAYS: An Encounter
Reimagine how you see yourself and others in A THOUSAND WAYS: An Encounter a radical, private performance starring you and a stranger. After virtual interactions have become the norm, A THOUSAND WAYS: An Encounter sits you at a table opposite a stranger, separated by a glass partition with a stack of instruction cards between you. With rave reviews from The New York Times, this masterful work on inquisitive humanity is not to be missed.

Experience a radical, private performance starring you and a total stranger at A THOUSAND WAYS: An Encounter.

Window Dressing

Ever tempted to peek into the windows of homes you pass by? You're not alone, and in her work Window Dressing, artist Liesel Badorrek invites you to stare freely. Featuring eight performers across eight windows of the Frank Gehry building, take a peek into the rich and diverse tapestry that is human life.

Sydney has a great range of accommodation options for all budgets. If you are looking to get close to the action in the city, then The Rocks, Circular Quay, Sydney CBD or Darling Harbour are great choices.

Browse all our Sydney accommodation to find one that suits your needs and matches your Vivid Sydney style.

The best way to get to Vivid Sydney is by making use of public transport with Transport NSW. Alternatively, stay in the city overnight in comfort and style, walking distance from the Vivid Sydney events you’ll be attending. Discover the best Accor Sydney hotel for you.
 

In terms of parking at Vivid Sydney, it is recommended that you leave your car at home and make use of the extended public transport offering over the course of the festival. Extra trains and buses will operate across the weekends to and from Vivid Sydney precincts. Use the transportnsw.info Trip Planner to map out your journey to and from Vivid Sydney.

When does Vivid Sydney start and end?

Vivid Sydney runs from the 24th May – 15th June. Each night, Vivid Light begins at 6pm and conclude at 11pm, however, some precincts have an earlier start and finish time. Most of the events take place at night in Sydney so that the bright lights shine in contrast to the evening and night sky.

Where is Vivid Sydney held?

The Vivid Sydney festival has installations and activations across many locations throughout the city including:

• Barangaroo
  
  
• Carriageworks
  
  
• Central Station and The Goods Line
  
  
• Circular Quay & The Rocks
  
  
• Darling Harbour
  
  
• Darling Quarter
  
  
• Darling Square
  
  
• Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
  
  
• Sydney CBD and Surrounds
  
  
• Sydney Opera House
  
  
• Walsh Bay