Hailed as the biggest event in Sydney’s social calendar and the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas – Vivid returned to Sydney’s shores again this year where it transformed the city into a creative canvas of art installations.
With more than 400 music events, 260 ideas sessions and 90 light installations stationed across Sydney’s CBD, Barangaroo and Darling Harbour, Taronga Zoo, Kings Cross and Chatswood – Vivid is a bucket-list must for Sydney residents or holiday-goers.
Running for 23 nights from Friday 26 May to Saturday 17 June – the must-see event included larger-than-life light installations and projections, live music performances and creative discussions and debates.
From interactive installations to giant animal light sculptures, these were the best events at Vivid Sydney 2017.
Audio Creatures
To kick off the festival, a series of living and breathing imaginary creatures came to life when the iconic Sydney Opera House Sails was lit up with lights.
This incredible must-see display was created by acclaimed Kiwi director Ash Bolland, and was designed to transport onlookers to a parallel universe beneath the harbour line and beyond the jungle walls.
Audiences who weren’t able to see the event in person were able to stream the full broadcast of ‘Lighting the Sails’ live from the Sydney Opera House Facebook page.
Music Box
At the MUSICbox installation at The Rocks, individuals were invited to step into one of four themed 3D spaces, each acting as a ‘stage’ on which an interactive ‘keyboard’ is projected onto the ground.
By playing the ‘instrument’, participants accessed a unique soundscape with every note represented both as an audio and visual element.
Together they combined to produce a constantly changing performance for everyone that walked by.
Lights For The Wild at Taronga Zoo
During Vivid 2017 Taronga Zoo was set up with thousands of lanterns lighting the way through the park.
The Lights For The Wild exhibition showcased giant, beautifully crafted animal light sculptures, each with a story to tell about conservation.
From turtles and tigers to native birds – the shimmering sculptures lit up every evening after the real zoo animals went to bed.
The not-for-profit organisation also uses all money from tickets sold to support wildlife conservation.
Vivid Light Walk
The Vivid Light Walk is the busiest stretch of the festival and runs along the Harbour foreshore around The Rocks, Circular Quay and through to The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, featuring around 70 installations.
The journey took you through over 65 installations through streets, byways and secret places, by harbour coves, garden parklands and new parts of the city.
Highlights included the playful and interactive installation Never Ends, a magic horse you can ride to swing into a fairytale; and Birds of Lumos, inspired by the native kiwi bird.
Dreamscape
A large interactive lighting display dubbed ‘Dreamscape’, linked the entire kilometre from the Sydney Opera House to the Sydney Harbour Bridge into one cohesive canvas of light, and could changed by the viewer based on color, pattern and texture.
At Dreamscape participants took charge of the colours and patterns, enhancing the cityscape before them, through hands-on use of a beautiful 3D interactive model of Sydney’s skyline.
The Vivid Climb
During Vivid, Sydney Harbour Bridge climbers were invited to come and experience a 70’s style multi-colored flashing dance floor 134 meters above the festival, on ‘The Vivid Climb’.
On the illuminated dance floor of multi coloured flashing square tiles, as seen in the classic American film “Saturday Night Fever”, climbers could break out their best (and worst) dance moves, to the top hits from the decade of their choice, with the Opera House colourfully lit up behind them.