For the first time in its 16-year history, Vivid Sydney is heading into daylight.
New director Brett Sheehy is overseeing a fresh direction for the light festival to focus its energy on the harbour front, new daytime events, and, just maybe, a comeback for the aerial drone shows.
Over a two-decade career, Sheehy has led four of Australia’s premier arts organisations: Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Melbourne Festival, and Melbourne Theatre Company.
His goal over the next three years is to build Vivid Sydney into the world’s best-attended “comprehensive arts event”, surpassing global city rivals in Riyadh, Berlin, Seoul and Lyon in breadth and scale.
And he has the backing of Jobs and Tourism Minister Steve Kamper and Destination NSW chief executive Karen Jones, who want to see attendance surge beyond the current average of 2.5 million visitors for the 23-day event to more than three million.
Kamper said the festival’s exciting new direction will “unlock fresh experiences, draw even more visitors into the heart of the city both day and night, and strengthen NSW’s position as a world-leading destination for major events”.
For his first festival, beginning Friday, May 22, Sheehy has redrawn the eight-kilometre Vivid Light Walk to deliver a “more impactful” visitor experience.
The shorter 6.5 km walker-friendly route stretches from Circular Quay and The Rocks through to Barangaroo, Cockle Bay, and ends at Darling Harbour.
Martin Place and Central Station will not be illuminated this year and the festival will no longer have an annual theme.
But it is not a smaller program, says Sheehy: “It’s actually slightly bigger but more condensed.” Under his broader curatorial touch, spectacle will be at the forefront, with plans for world-class acrobatic displays and dedicated children’s programming.
Vivid Sydney will come to life during both day and night for the first time, with a selection of art installations at Circular Quay available to the public 24/7.
Two new “epic sculptures” are to be installed around Circular Quay as part of the daytime activation and digital kiosks will screen moving images and photography as daytime galleries. The festival expects to grow its daytime offerings in subsequent years.
Drones could also make a comeback after Vivid cancelled its drone shows in 2025 on the advice of NSW Police and Transport for NSW following a potentially dangerous crowd crush around Circular Quay.
“I’m incredibly excited about the new direction for Vivid Sydney this year. Drone shows are a priority for both the minister and myself, and we’re actively working through opportunities to bring them back,” says Sheehy.
“Watch this space. Crowd control is vital. If they do come back, I’m keen for them to run for more than just a couple of nights, so the load is shared over the three weeks. People should be able to pick a date of their choosing to enjoy the shows.”
Noor Riyadh is the lights’ festival to beat, drawing 3 million visitors a year to its citywide, large-scale installations and drone shows which set a record in December for the number of lights in a single show on a single building.
The Vivid Sydney festival, owned and managed by Destination NSW on behalf of the NSW government, includes Vivid Music, Vivid Food and a third element which has been rebadged Vivid Minds, bringing together talks, ideas and live performance.
The festival’s first foray into theatre will be Wonderverse, an immersive show designed by South Australia’s Patch Theatre to be held at the Australian Maritime Museum where children will travel through a tunnel of fireflies, play in a forest of light and contemplate the vastness of the universe. It’s a taste of more to come.
NSW has set a target of growing the state’s visitor economy to $91 billion across the next decade, and relies on major events like Vivid Sydney to drive economic, social and cultural impact in Sydney’s winter.
The daytime activations are a partly practical consideration. “Not all families can be out late at night to see all of the light festival,” Sheehy says.
“For them to have some capacity to enjoy Vivid during the day is important. And then tourists are seeking daytime activities, and it can help with crowd control if we can spread the crowd a bit more during the day. I’m really keen for Vivid Sydney to claim the space of being a comprehensive arts festival.”
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