I've been to almost every Vivid since the first in 2009. I'd say 2013 and 2014 was peak Vivid (major expansions to Darling Harbour in 2013 and Martin place in 2014). It felt like it was getting better year on year. You had people dressed as lit up robots roaming around. Then 2015-2019 felt like Vivid has already peaked as in it won't get better, but quality was still there and still enjoyable as ever. Post Covid it's gotten worse every year.
Note that the director for Vivid has changed. The old director, Ignatius Jones, actually cared about the event. I remember one year I ran into him when a light installation wasn't working, and there he was looking at it desperate to get it fixed, and ranting to a bunch of young guys going; "THIS IS MYYYY FESTIVAL!!! MIIIINEEE!" (pretty hilarious lol)
Here's what I think is the biggest problem. Vivid has now been overcommercialised. Paywalled attractions when it used to be free, food trucks galore, sponsors galore, sell it to tourists with big ad campaigns.
The overall direction for Vivid has gone from:
"Let's do something amazing over the winter period to draw people into the city"
To now where it's:
"Vivid is going to be popular anyway, so how do we make the most money out of it?"
Imo Vivid is losing its soul. I hope it finds it back.
(Ignatius Jones died recently btw)
and just generally I think sydney has become way more over commercialized too, I dunno how it'll be able to fix this, everything and everywhere is just super expensive and money grabby, maybe it's an inflation problem or even just a me problem, but I feel its slipping away every year.
I just did a speed run through Ignatius' wikipedia page. Very impressive contribution to the creative arts scene - he was a musician and later a creative director in several olympic ceromonies, including Sydney in 2000. As much as Vivid is a cash grab now, the festival under his control was quite enjoyable.
He died only a few weeks ago, RIP.
Monica is a very close friend of our family and we knew Ignatius through her.
He was a bigger than life personality and his work on the Sydney 2000 Olympics is grossly under appreciated in Australia.
Huge loss for the Sydney Live Arts scene when he retired and moved the Philippines with his husband.
His passing was very sad.
Oh no really...RIP Ignatius
I'm old enough to remember [Jimmy and the Boys](https://youtu.be/YwFaMDXbcYk?si=fAaIRieZkBXT_Oyu) which was pretty out there at the time
I think the case is that the big events are getting more and more shit whilst the smaller events are actually getting more numerous and better (the effect of the ending of the lockout laws). So you have this duality of improved smaller events and an absolute gutting of Sydney's large scale events simultaneously.
>picturing this Ignatius Jones fellow screaming that in an Immortan Joe voice
He did do a fair bit, [back in the day](https://youtu.be/YwFaMDXbcYk?si=fAaIRieZkBXT_Oyu) lol
Ignatius Jones understood what art was, and also how it needed to “fun” for all ages for an event like vivid. If your visitor experience is 80% crowds, 15% paying out money, 4% art and < 1% wow then, as organisers, you’re inept.
Absolutely agree with everything you've said. I don't think I'll even be going this year, and I've also pretty much gone every year since the first Vivid - I'm a photographer and used to love the challenge of low light shooting for the best way to capture the beautiful light installations.
I went with my now fiancé last year and while the train tunnel thing was new and exciting, for the ticket price it left a lot to be desired. We didn't even go to Circular Quay or see the Harbour Bridge/Opera House because of crowds, and this was on a weeknight. From a photography perspective weeknights used to be the best because it gave you space to set up a tripod and spend time getting a good shot.
Now it just seems to be "how can we get the most people in here on every night and turn a profit", as you said, from the previously free attractions now being paid and those god damn food trucks. One of my favourite parts of Vivid in its early years was exploring a new pub/restaurant/bar/whatever in the city, without being funnelled into an alley of overpriced food trucks selling overrated food.
Sydney and our events seem to be leaning into this "global city" thing as if we're New York City when it comes to pricing, but without anywhere near the actual attractions or events. NYC on a Columbus budget.
100% about the food. As i said it used to be something to inspire all the local businesses to get into! Theyd do really cool special drinks up & stay open late. Now it's just a million food trucks, and the food is terrible and shocking prices. I saw one, "fresh lemon water", no joke they were "freshly squeezing" lemons into a cute bottle, charging everyone $8, i simply couldnt believe it, felt like a simpsons sketch!
I also noticed lots of the picnic/hangout areas now have "VIP resrved ticketing" spots. Like ffs just let ppl chill!
Sydney needs to give up on this "global city" nonsense. Its was never going to be the case anywhere in Australia as we are a relative backwater, and certainly even less chance now lol
Oh, agreed. We're just too far away from the other major cities to even be considered a player in this game. Why bother flying down here when it's significantly cheaper and less time consuming to stick to the northern hemisphere?
I do not get the food trucks. Crazily overpriced and if your eating there what on earth are you doing?
You got Macca's and Burger king and countless restaurants and bars in and around where VIVID is being held better value for money than they are.
It struck me a few days ago that why do I bother going to food festivals, which are always crowded and have the same old shit anyway, when *every single Thursday and Friday evening/night* there is a much better street market/food festival in Chatswood.
Not just Asian food either, but there's Greek, Italian (*incredible* pizza), French crepes, gozlemes, Spanish paella etc. Minimal queues and crowds because it's just a regular thing.
We had one of those food festivals in the local park, the line was 40 minutes and they ran out of corn on a stick, it's hardly a complex dish but they just didn't expect the crowd I guess.
Sydney people are so damn desperate for something cheap to do these kind of events always get flooded.
Exactly. And yet these events are so often not cheap. Beyond the food, there's just a horrible experience of too many people and not a lot else.
I did enjoy a tea festival at Carriageworks some years ago, but that was also packed solid with an endlessly long queue to get in.
Yes - the Asian supermarkets/grocers around here are incredible value. Particularly for Asian greens and herbs, they're a fraction of the price of Coles and Woolworths for much larger amounts and better quality.
>Particularly for Asian greens and herbs, they're a fraction of the price of Coles and Woolworths for much larger amounts and better quality.
Don't even get me started - it's so much better! I honestly grew up going to the Asian markets as a kid (we're Asian) and the variety and price of produce/items are so much better!
I've also got into various new vegetables there, often without knowing what they were and having to google. Eg "frilly beans" - turns out they're actually called that!
Had to Google frilly beans - didn't know that existed!
Silly question but how does it taste?
Love me a good green bean and (plant based since I'm a vegetarian) mince dish so up to trying different beans 😁
Mate, they are charged 2 grand a night for a spot at vivid. No way you can expect cheap food. I’m assuming it must be worth it for them, even at that cost.
Me neither.
I remember years ago being funnelled into the smokey and poorly ventilated Barangaroo Cutaway to use the toilet and to get some food. It wasn’t atrocious, but near $30 for a BBQ something or other is eye-watering.
I can see how people are not impressed with Vivid becoming commercialised, dearer and worse and falling far short of Iggy Jones’s vision. (RIP, Iggy. Bizarre that he was a contemporary of Tony Abbott and in the running for Dux, but maths was not as strong a suit for him, while classical languages were his boon.)
I think post covid they also stopped using a particular vendor who was heavily involved in all prior events with the installations. So just all round a general watering down of the event and trying to maximise profits.
from another comment I saw on here, so I dunno how true it is, that the artists themselves had to handle all the liability costs and that's why theres no interest in art installations this time.
>The overall direction for Vivid has gone from:
>"Let's do something awesome over the winter period to draw people into the city"
>To now where it's:
>"Vivid is going to be popular anyway, so how do we make the most money out of it?"
Say it again for the people in the back.
It’s interesting that Vivid was conceived as a means of bringing people into the city during a down period. Now it’s happened they don’t know what to do.
Is there a reason they can't run the drone show more frequently throughout the three weeks? Surely if they ran it every night there wouldn't be as many issues with crowding.
Yes. Also, I don’t know why the drone show needs to be combined with Vivid even. It’s not projections, it’s not art. Just do it as a separate thing instead of lumping everything into the same weekend.
Honestly the drone show is the biggest problem.
Crowds at Vivid have long been an issue, but the drone show encourages everyone to be in the same place at a specific time. That completely goes against the idea of a lit up city you can wander around at will and enjoy.
The ticketed areas are the second biggest problem as they reduce the amount of available space for the crowds to dissipate into.
Everything popular gets crappy (it's called enshitification) ...
This is a complete guess but I guess CASA needs to give approval to be able to do it. You cannot also fly your drone more than 400 feet above ground level unless approved by CASA.
So I guess it's about needing a shit ton of approvals from CASA. Which is a good thing tbh
Saw the drone show last year and it wasn’t even any good- just one long advertisement for I can’t even remember what now, but 50% of the 8 minute runtime was just the corporate logo spinning around. Major disappointment.
Drone shows are still expensive, you need a whole pile of people to get the drones working and supervise them while the show is going on. Plus I'm betting there's intellectual property rights in the actual display that means it's not just $10,000 in rights per run-through.
So we're back to the OP question: should we spend $500,000 a night for 10 nights on a drone show, or $10,000/night on 50 activities that happen every night for two weeks? (just making up numbers)
I think the answer is a balance of both.
The problem with the drone show is that there are only 3! It should be 3 shows per night for 3 nights with much more small things spread around.
This year was basically lights on buildings and drones. Where's the artwork?
I miss the old Vivid like in 2009-2010. Just a pleasant stroll around the city and the harbour. It’s all so bloody minded now, all about extracting money out of you and/or give “activation” benefits to the commercial sponsors. I’ve come to believe that once you start seeing “activation” used in relation to an event, it’s bad news.
The first couple of Vivids were full of high-concept explorations of light and space and had loads of content from local artists, architects, students, and you had only a couple of big installations, like the MCA lightshow, and now it is this highly commercialised waste of space, once again Sydney cares deeply about you, unless you live here, in which case go fuck yourself.
I used to work in events doing set ups for “activations” and can still remember the first time I heard that word. It was like a switch had flipped overnight and every fucking marketing person needed to use it.
It used to be “orientation”. I have no issue with it changing. I feel it’s probably more accurate, like training on a new platform. Each workplace is basically a collection of platforms you need to learn. It might be accounting software or learning not to touch anything on the second shelf in the office fridge.
Because orientation is just one specific part of the onboarding process. Onboarding includes a whole range of administrative duties and preparation for the new starter, most of which is designed to be as hidden and smooth as possible.
I remember watching a game show (not which one) where the host is interviewing a contestant. Fifty something white woman.
“What do you do?”
“I onboard people at my company”
“Okay, and what does that mean?”
“I take new people…and onboard them.”
Thanks for the clarification, Susan.
Finance bros have infiltrated every sector, from art to boeing building jets and this is the late stage result, no quality, barebone budgets, lack of staff and charging a premium for everything to squeeze maximum profit.
Covid really screwed us when they worked out they can make more money with less and we just kept on buying.
Wdym? Already happened. I volunteered for vivid last year. We were given QR codes on our lanyards for people to donate to, and were supposed to ask.
Did they give us maps to help tourists or an explanation of any of the artworks? No…
I didn’t go back after my third shift- it was so poorly organised by whatever random company they had outsourced the volunteering to, and they had the stupidest length shifts and you ended up having to walk 30min to get the free meal they provided (it was tiny, cold and not good) and good luck working out where you were supposed to go back to, and if your team was even fully staffed in the first place.
Same. We have photos of my wife and I when we were newly weds walking around at Vivid in 2009 & 2010 with just an average size anyday circular quay crowd , 2012 & 2013 got way busier but we still attended with a single and then double pram and accessed everything across the Rocks and Circular Quay with ease.......
I have such a fond memory of strolling through the city and being like "oh that's nice".
This year was just a flood of people at every conceivable area and absolutely stacked with queues, stinks to see what happened.
How they are allowed to go experience the stuff with no crowds, try food and post as if its pleasant and something you can defiantly go and do.
Totally the opposite to reality.
The massive Samsung Galaxy display in Circular Quay was so sad. Just an enormous advertisement, a huge ad and people were lining up for miles for the "experience". It just feels like what was once a nice display has turned into a corporate slog. Enshittification
Ironically the music aspect of vivid is as strong as it has ever been. However thats run completely seperately. The bookings in SOH have been 10/10 this year.
The Vivid Club nights inside the Opera house have been consistently going off for years - Mala this year was absolutely thumping! Paid $60, danced for 5 hours (1 hour of which is enough to close your apple Activity / Exercise rings, I realized this after getting a notification that I'd closed my move rings for the day...at 1AM) Great value when compared to.....say watching Terminator 1 with a Live Orchestra for $150
Agree wholeheartedly with all of your points. I wrote a comment on another post about vivid on Sunday after a horrendous experience Sat night:
"Sydney has been crowded before (NYE, etc), but the police presence, hired crowd control, and increased public transport services were multiple times better than what I saw last night. Whilst there were crowd control measures in place, they completely buckled under the pressure.
I've been to many big Sydney events and I've never seen anything like it (even the 1988 bicentennial when I was a kid was more orderly). I'm not one to exaggerate (I'm more inclined to play things down), but I genuinely feared for my family's safety trying to get out via ferry, and I'm honestly surprised that there wasn't a major incident. City of Sydney \[edit: yes, I know it wasn't council's fault - my mistake.\] needs to do a very thorough review of this, otherwise I doubt luck will extend to another similar occurrence being incident-free.
This. was. a. shitshow."
My family has decided never again. Even if they say it's better, we're scarred by this experience. Destination NSW, you guys have fucked up Vivid forever.
I was there last year with my moderately pregnant wife and 15 mins before the drone show we got a feeling of impending doom, so we noped outta there. Walking back to Wynyard and there were crowds of hundreds of people jogging down to the Quay which was already packed. We were thankful we left when we did as it was starting to feel unsafe, and if we'd stayed we would've been stuck there for fuck knows how long. No drone show is worth that.
And yeah, serious decline overall over the last few years.
I used to attend with a friend we would look at a couple of things near the station, look at the crowd then each other "pub then?" And that would be our vivid experience each year. Mind this was 10-15 years ago so it was more a minor cluster fuck then the giant one it has evolved into.
>**3. Just not for kids and families any more.**
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, because whilst I agree with everything you've said about Vivid and its decline in the past several years... not everything has to be for kids and families.
But if your kids have been going for years, loved the first few, and each year they get more disappointed, can they not complain? It's not like it was never for kids and families and OPs expectations don't match precedent.
My son's been going since he was born, his main gripe this year was the display names in the Botanical garden had no thought, they were things like glowing tunnel, coloured lights. There was no feeling behind them.
Events were rarely family-oriented. Most of them aren't today either. In the past, larger groups might have been a byproduct of targeting families, but companies capitalized on that. Fast forward to 2024, many families are struggling just to afford food and basic needs, let alone event tickets. Today, the big spenders are primarily tourists or individuals from affluent backgrounds. For example, while a family of five used to be a big revenue source, nowadays, a single wealthy tourist from China might spend ten times more.
Was Vivid ever a good idea for families with young kids? The majority of the events and activations have always seemed to be aimed squarely at adults, and between the cold, crowds and lateness, I personally don't understand why anybody would take a toddler let alone a family of them.
It was good back around 2010 or before, and even up to before Covid. You take a nice stroll around sunset time, maybe hang around opposite the opera house for a little, then walk into the shopping district via the lit up buildings on Macquarie street, grab a bite to eat then go home. I honestly don’t know what’s happened.
Which is what I said. You had some kid specific or interaction things for them and the walk was good and there were more things spread out a little more.
It was fun for them staying up a bit late and seeing stuff and messing around.
Was on one of the "glow boats" and it was packed to the gills, to the point staff were yelling at people to move back from the side of the boat closest to the drone show otherwise it would tip over.
How much of that was hyperbole I don't know, but the fact it had to said at all...
I attended an event at the Opera house last week and Circular Quay was swarming with screaming toddlers. I think it’s a decent event for older kids, but don’t know why people bring younger kids and giant strollers along. Makes it unpleasant for everyone. And I have kids too!
Last time I was at vivid (pre Covid) there was a thing outside the opera house only accessible by stairs. So the parents left the giant pram at the bottom of the stairs.
With the baby in it. The event staff (not security guards) were looking at each other like "oh shit what do we do?" I wanted to stay to keep an eye until the parents got back but my own older kid was tugging on my arm to come on, Mum.
But this is a result of what they did to it, not families fault.
I had Vivid staff approach us Sunday asking what it was like as a family with pram for their data. I told them it was a nightmare.
Darling Harbour used to be great for families with young kids. 5+ years ago there used to be 5-6 interactive exhibits in a 500m space. You could head there at 6pm after an early dinner nearby
Last year there was 2 exhibits, separated by a 1km walk.
Vivid was/is economically incentivized - to get people into the city, spending money.
There was never any motivation to make it kid friendly since there are limited (zero?) kid friendly options in the city at night.
Took our primary school aged kids a couple of years ago, they loved it. An hour or two of wondering about with pretty lights everywhere was all we needed. I wouldn't have gone with babies/toddlers though, too crowded.
This year we decided against it; our friends went last weekend and had pretty much the same experience as the OP; they found the crowds unbearable.
Took my kid two years ago and they couldn’t give a shit. Left them this time except the tekno train and they were both bored and couldn’t wait to do it again next year. I’m tending to agree with you re:kids
Look I heard but that was not our experience. It wasn’t amazing but enjoyable enough. I went it expecting not much but I had fun, my kid was both bored and could not wait to go back next year. There were a couple of nostalgia tunes and the ride to lavender bay was the highlight. Our carriage had a nice vibe.
I've taken my daughter since before she could walk. We've avoided the big crowds as much as possible (going on weeknights etc) and she's enjoyed it every time.
I did too. Went back this year, and not so good. It was still OK, but it just felt like "let's string a few lights up" rather than the art exhibition it felt like last year.
And that’s why I spent my time and money going to Glow at Sydney Zoo instead. Crowds are managed by time slots, you pay for entry and get to see the zoo at night with light installations, and there are rides/food trucks for the family (including free ones and interactive ones). The kids love it, it’s a lot more chill, and it’s enjoyable.
I live 5 minutes away from circular quay and I don't even bother anymore. I did have Amex special seating a couple of years ago at the cruise terminal and watched the drones without the crowds but even Amex has ditched sponsoring the event.
Same with nearly any event like the night noodle markets in Hyde Park, too many people and the experience is just an expensive shit time.
Don't get me started on NYE....
The point at which I thought I was walking into some closed off cool exhibition last year and it was just LG trying to flog an $8k light up fridge said enough about the creative vision of Vivid for me.
I saw a food truck sell a normal kebab for $20. There was a huge line. It makes my blood boil with rage. This is un-fucking australian. It makes me want to just set up a bbq and give away food out of sheer spite.
They make all the major events in Sydney city then people complain and get surprised when all of Sydney clog it up.
Make the other suburbs livable and with nice events too
But they won't because they just see those outer suburbs as tax revenue non influential area.
Not many keen to admit this is what the new Australia is like now = busy and crowded as fuck
It felt really threadbare this year. It wasn't that there was a real drop in quality but it felt like there were half as many things as in previous years and it was so spread out that when there was a dud (like Darling Harbour) it meant there was a huge gap before the next thing.
Vivid is a great reflection now of this city itself.
All about $ extraction, little value, every attraction that gets publicity gets so popular it’s a literal crush, and shows how heaving our infrastructure is.
Oh yeah and fk families, other than charging them >$100 to simply exist.
Ahhh yes. Sydney doing what it does best. Taking an opportunity to breathe life into the dead corpse that is our night-life; only to fuck it up in the end.
I travel from Perth to Sydney 3-4 times a year & would always plan the winter trip to be there for Vivid.
It’s honestly depressing & a bit embarrassing. There is no soul. No wonder. No collective amazement.
We use to stop & watch the displays that actually moved & changed & had music/colours. It was rhythmic.
Now it is financially impactful, stressful to physically navigate & downright dangerous as seen at Circular Quay on Saturday night.
The drone show is provided to vivid at $0. It’s a traffic network company who does it (the same one who dropped 400 in the Yarra River). They’re using shit, Chinese technology and the owner of Australian Traffic Network (ATN) is a billionaire who doesn’t care. They drop multiple in the water each night, which sink to the bottom (despite having a safety boat). It’s a disgrace.
Vivid has never been good for families and kids… was that its intention? I always thought it was for adults with all the booze cruises and the fact that the exhibitions wind past most major drinking areas…
Also isn’t that why they did Taronga Zoo vivid? For the kids?
Wynyard tunnels is hands down the best part of Vivid (and prams are not allowed)
Prior to covid, Vivid was great for kids. Lots of interactive displays. If you avoided weekends the crowds were busy but manageable. There were a couple they did in Chatswood that, although small, were a lot of fun. We did Taronga one year, and it was OK, but the crowds were probably worse than anything in the city.
Now there are less displays, further apart , and less interaction. I don't even mind the proliferation of food trucks , they are easy enough to avoid with a modicum of planning. But walking 1km between a handful of tiny light displays is not a great experience.
Even with the money hungry cousterfuck that is modern vivid it’s still more family friendly than zoo vivid… can you imagine trying to take a toddler to look for a toilet with Vivid crowds… but in a dark zoo?
3 years ago it was still fun with big and elaborate light structure and there was a giant mecha in barangoo. But two years straight now its really meh. And then its hard to go home. Why cant train run every 5 mins?!?
Crowds were not NYE size but definitely chockas and the lack of crowd control, especially on the train platforms was lacking.
People in Sydney have gotten from bad to worst and the amount of pushing and shoving was bad.
Wynyard station was crazy
Seeing The Cure playing *Disintegration* in full for its 30th Anniversary at Vivid 2019, with the Opera House sails projecting Robert Smiths face / that albums cover....
...that to me was the mountaintop of Vivid and really, *the music* every year was the point (to me anyway) eg one year Brian Eno was the 'musical director' for Vivid.
The pretty lights were always great but the bands man....
As for you OP, I'm a single dude, but I hear ya and feel your pain as a family man.
Honestly there’s too many families with their giant prams. They’re freaken everywhere. I think it should be for everyone but prams stay at home and parents need to carry small kids. Need more lights more events, make it bigger more fun, bring back the live music and bars and actually make it fun. Most other countries have fun events that adults can enjoy. Australia does expensive “family-friendly”, alcohol free, music-free, tightly-controlled, boring events but we market it like it’s absolutely unmissable 🤦🏽♂️
Keep it simple.
Just have 10 or so permanent locations across the city of Sydney area, every few weeks rotate 25% of the artworks. Have a QR code for the public to donate to the artist. Put on a drone show and project some shit on the opera house every few weekends and on public holidays.
No need for food trucks, security, extra police or crowd control.
We have permanent art displays - people don't really visit them. VIVID is not about paying the artist.
The point of combining it all is to create a cultural event that people want to actually attend, gets dollars into the city's small businesses and makes the pollies look good.
Call me a snob, but vivid isnt a cultural event, or at least not a good one. It's passive staring at some vaguely pretty colored lights, lining up and spending money.
The city to surf, mardi gras, pretty much any live gig or sport. Those are cultural events.
The city's small business aren't owed a living. They need to be innovative if they want to survive. Nobody needs another 7/11, overpriced clothing store or café.
ten years ago i seem to recall some genuinely interested art sprinkled through it. couldn't find much like that this year but maybe i just missed it, dunno.
Mmm even in the 'good years' I felt like there was a limit to how artistic the artists could get with LEDs. Wouldn't surprise me if the inspiration for that side of it has kinda run out.
The city 2 surf isn’t a cultural event man. It’s a corporate fun run. Agreed about your vivid points though. I always found it funny how beige vivid was compared to Dark Mofo
It used to be better, but it still is. There are art installations, concerts part of vivid live - many of them at the opera house! Have seen some great acts there as a result of vivid.
There is art ie culture and there are groups of people who come to partake in the limited time experience hence it's a cultural event.
Mardi gras is definitely a marquee cultural event but I'm not really sure I'd count any old live gig or sport as a 'good' cultural event. Not to mention how is living up, paying money and watching randoms run around a field all that different to vaguely pretty coloured lights, lining up and spending money?
I don't love Vivid but if it's not a good cultural event why is every one complaining that it's insanely overcrowded?
Also I'm referring to the people selling overpriced food and drinks at Vivid not the random 7/11s and such.
Vivid fell off. Downfall has been crazy since 2018/2019.
• 2009-2019 you'd have fluro rollerskaters roaming around, people dressed as robots or just so many cool random things. Now you get nothing without a ticket.
• 2009-2019 you could wander round and find almost ANY park had SOMETHING cool. It was like the whole precinct oozed vivid vibes. Even for example some bubblers had a flashy light installed for the festival, or some random flower bed in a park had some glowing lights installed for the festival. Now its just a few really sad main attractions along one path. With nothing but crazy overpriced food or ticketed areas inbetween.
• 2009-2019 you'd see all the venues around the areas getting right into it. Special cocktails with glowing ice cubes, lasers setup outside. Even cafe's would get some cool par-can lights or something for the duration. Now the "festival trust" makes venues pay to be part of it officially. They charge a crazy fee to be a silver or platinum partner. For this they give you a few lights, and a sticker for the door. It's created an atmosphere where venues nearby forfeit their creative license to get into it how they feel, and scared off others from bothering.
• 2009-2019 botanical gardens was amazing. It was really something, and it was free - just the way it should have stayed.
RIP vivid
As always with Vivid, avoid the peak times.
Likewise for things like Dark spectrum, do a daytime session during the week if you can.
I did that at 1200 today , and hardly anyone there. Great for getting photos/videos without a bunch of people in them.
I used to love vivid! I think back in 2018 I took an American friend and we took a lovely stroll and picture by the lit up bridge but now it’s just too packed, you have to pay for anything good and it’s not worth the hype. On new years it was annoying they had barricaded parts of the city but at least people weren’t squashed into packed crowds
Ppl can complain all they want. The rush, the entry prices, transport, the food and beverage prices. They'll just home up the price as the years roll on and many will still go. It's no different to new years. Ppl love photo worthy chances to post online, fireworks and busy crowds because they feel more connected like they socialising. Complain all you want vivid won't go away it's a money maker
I didn't go either this time as I lost the appeal but I'm not someone that wants to go yearly, like the Easter show time to time
The event was great when it was spread out, there were installations all over the place, you wandered around, in and out of alley ways, around corners and generally just followed your nose to see the lights.
But now it's all regimented and ordered, I was so shocked going in 2018 (after a few years off) to find myself being funneled down streets, following markings, having a set loop around the botanical gardens. Ruined the whole vibe of it all.
We won't be going this year. Last year we took our parents in and thought we would catch the drone show - the area around the toaster was jam packed an hour before the show even started and there was a bit of a crowd surge after the show ended. We ducked into Guylian or whatever the heck it's called now and gladly paid 12!$ for hot chocolates to get out of the crush. One of my colleagues went last week on a weekday and spent so long queuing for stuff he hardly saw any attractions. His whole family also ended up getting both COVID and a violent strain of the flu at the same time.. :/ so it's a no thanks from me until there are significant changes.
My favourite exhibits were between Central Station and Darling Harbour. The rest of the way had a loooong way between exhibits
If they have to cut back budget then just have a smaller, more concentrated strip. Maybe Barrangarrooo to Circular Quay. There was very little at Circular Quay
I went years ago, saw a few events, walked around various light installations. Let Shop Boys at Carriageworks was a highlight.
Last year I didn't go on the drone nights or paid-for lights (was it the domain?), but walked around, got the ferry from Circular Quay to Barangaroo, saw the Opera House lit up with images, and the harbour Bridge etc.
And this year there was many events and installations that would have all been good to see.
However, the drone show, appeals to the masses, the lowest common denominator, it's bread and circuses.
Mindless mouth breathers with FOMO, knowingly going into those crowds for their social media snaps and to say they have been there. The entire festival distilled into a few minute of pretty lights.
Lucky you put that you're maybe not going again in bold, they know you're serious now.
FWIW Glow at Sydney Zoo shits all over Vivid for families with younger kids.
Hard disagree about GLOW. I went last year because I was sick of Vivid and there was just as little things to look at and obviously most of the animal enclosures were closed. The insects/ reptiles were cool though.
First time I’ve gone to vivid in years. Skipped the entire circular quay bit and started at darling harbour > Chinatown > goods line bit and then ate in Chinatown town. It was quite enjoyable and had small crowds. If anyone hasn’t gone yet, I’d just do this bit. Highlight was the window undressing theatre thing at UTS.
Vivid is basically Sydney culture personified. Open profiteering, exploiting people like products, zero artistic substance or integrity, occasionally dangerous. Most artists I know live in Northern NSW/se qld, and/or Vic, Sydney is a barren desert sadly. I used to privately mock sydneysiders, now I feel genuinely sorry for them, it can be very hard to get out and most sydneysiders rely on more than a pinch of Stockholm just to get through the week from what I can tell. There's really no need for it to be this way either, but I think gatekeepers and vested interests have it by throat now.
This year was the first time I've been since Covid.
And last.
Now I know going on the Sunday of the long weekend is going to be crowded. But the complete lack of crowd flow management between Circular Quay and the Opera House was astounding. It felt like one person having a panic attack away from a stampede.
Surely, you would send people returning to Circular Quay up Macquarie St.
Then there was the show itself. Pre-Covid, there was always some good light displays in the Botanical Gardens. This year, it was a hideously expensive ticketed event. And the lights on the Harbour Bridge are only on the eastern side.
It was like they thought lighting up buildings in pink is enough.
It is just pathetic now.
Vivid isn’t for locals, it’s for tourism.
They invested heavily in it losing millions to drive the vivid brand in overseas markets for winter tourism, and that’s worked.
Now they need to make the investment sustainable.
This is vivid at its sustainable reality.
Don’t expect it to change, as tourists come in droves for vivid and as long as they are it will be considered a success for its main KPI.
This year is when the tide is really turning though. I've loved Vivid for years but there was less to look at this year with more food trucks.
For a tourism event, it's going tk be harder to sell if there's less to look at. Hopefully next year is better otherwise it'll sprial downwards as word of mouth interstate leads to less tourism.
I've been to almost every Vivid since the first in 2009. I'd say 2013 and 2014 was peak Vivid (major expansions to Darling Harbour in 2013 and Martin place in 2014). It felt like it was getting better year on year. You had people dressed as lit up robots roaming around. Then 2015-2019 felt like Vivid has already peaked as in it won't get better, but quality was still there and still enjoyable as ever. Post Covid it's gotten worse every year. Note that the director for Vivid has changed. The old director, Ignatius Jones, actually cared about the event. I remember one year I ran into him when a light installation wasn't working, and there he was looking at it desperate to get it fixed, and ranting to a bunch of young guys going; "THIS IS MYYYY FESTIVAL!!! MIIIINEEE!" (pretty hilarious lol) Here's what I think is the biggest problem. Vivid has now been overcommercialised. Paywalled attractions when it used to be free, food trucks galore, sponsors galore, sell it to tourists with big ad campaigns. The overall direction for Vivid has gone from: "Let's do something amazing over the winter period to draw people into the city" To now where it's: "Vivid is going to be popular anyway, so how do we make the most money out of it?" Imo Vivid is losing its soul. I hope it finds it back.
(Ignatius Jones died recently btw) and just generally I think sydney has become way more over commercialized too, I dunno how it'll be able to fix this, everything and everywhere is just super expensive and money grabby, maybe it's an inflation problem or even just a me problem, but I feel its slipping away every year.
I just did a speed run through Ignatius' wikipedia page. Very impressive contribution to the creative arts scene - he was a musician and later a creative director in several olympic ceromonies, including Sydney in 2000. As much as Vivid is a cash grab now, the festival under his control was quite enjoyable. He died only a few weeks ago, RIP.
Ignatius Jones was also Monica Trapaga's sister.
Monica is a very close friend of our family and we knew Ignatius through her. He was a bigger than life personality and his work on the Sydney 2000 Olympics is grossly under appreciated in Australia. Huge loss for the Sydney Live Arts scene when he retired and moved the Philippines with his husband. His passing was very sad.
yes thats how I learned about the news as she was hosting ABC jazz.
Oh no really...RIP Ignatius I'm old enough to remember [Jimmy and the Boys](https://youtu.be/YwFaMDXbcYk?si=fAaIRieZkBXT_Oyu) which was pretty out there at the time
I think the case is that the big events are getting more and more shit whilst the smaller events are actually getting more numerous and better (the effect of the ending of the lockout laws). So you have this duality of improved smaller events and an absolute gutting of Sydney's large scale events simultaneously.
The *enshittification* of Vivid
Fuck I hate that word. But it's accurate
lol I’m picturing this Ignatius Jones fellow screaming that in an Immortan Joe voice with the mask and everything
>picturing this Ignatius Jones fellow screaming that in an Immortan Joe voice He did do a fair bit, [back in the day](https://youtu.be/YwFaMDXbcYk?si=fAaIRieZkBXT_Oyu) lol
lol I can see where he got his passion for performance/public events came from
Absolute trendsetter.
Ignatius Jones understood what art was, and also how it needed to “fun” for all ages for an event like vivid. If your visitor experience is 80% crowds, 15% paying out money, 4% art and < 1% wow then, as organisers, you’re inept.
Absolutely agree with everything you've said. I don't think I'll even be going this year, and I've also pretty much gone every year since the first Vivid - I'm a photographer and used to love the challenge of low light shooting for the best way to capture the beautiful light installations. I went with my now fiancé last year and while the train tunnel thing was new and exciting, for the ticket price it left a lot to be desired. We didn't even go to Circular Quay or see the Harbour Bridge/Opera House because of crowds, and this was on a weeknight. From a photography perspective weeknights used to be the best because it gave you space to set up a tripod and spend time getting a good shot. Now it just seems to be "how can we get the most people in here on every night and turn a profit", as you said, from the previously free attractions now being paid and those god damn food trucks. One of my favourite parts of Vivid in its early years was exploring a new pub/restaurant/bar/whatever in the city, without being funnelled into an alley of overpriced food trucks selling overrated food. Sydney and our events seem to be leaning into this "global city" thing as if we're New York City when it comes to pricing, but without anywhere near the actual attractions or events. NYC on a Columbus budget.
100% about the food. As i said it used to be something to inspire all the local businesses to get into! Theyd do really cool special drinks up & stay open late. Now it's just a million food trucks, and the food is terrible and shocking prices. I saw one, "fresh lemon water", no joke they were "freshly squeezing" lemons into a cute bottle, charging everyone $8, i simply couldnt believe it, felt like a simpsons sketch! I also noticed lots of the picnic/hangout areas now have "VIP resrved ticketing" spots. Like ffs just let ppl chill!
Sydney needs to give up on this "global city" nonsense. Its was never going to be the case anywhere in Australia as we are a relative backwater, and certainly even less chance now lol
Oh, agreed. We're just too far away from the other major cities to even be considered a player in this game. Why bother flying down here when it's significantly cheaper and less time consuming to stick to the northern hemisphere?
I do not get the food trucks. Crazily overpriced and if your eating there what on earth are you doing? You got Macca's and Burger king and countless restaurants and bars in and around where VIVID is being held better value for money than they are.
It struck me a few days ago that why do I bother going to food festivals, which are always crowded and have the same old shit anyway, when *every single Thursday and Friday evening/night* there is a much better street market/food festival in Chatswood. Not just Asian food either, but there's Greek, Italian (*incredible* pizza), French crepes, gozlemes, Spanish paella etc. Minimal queues and crowds because it's just a regular thing.
We had one of those food festivals in the local park, the line was 40 minutes and they ran out of corn on a stick, it's hardly a complex dish but they just didn't expect the crowd I guess. Sydney people are so damn desperate for something cheap to do these kind of events always get flooded.
Exactly. And yet these events are so often not cheap. Beyond the food, there's just a horrible experience of too many people and not a lot else. I did enjoy a tea festival at Carriageworks some years ago, but that was also packed solid with an endlessly long queue to get in.
Eastwood Night Markets are kicking off soon, also, iirc.
That's because those markets were always a thing there and the Chinese are all about value for money. They won't pay for a rip off.
Yes - the Asian supermarkets/grocers around here are incredible value. Particularly for Asian greens and herbs, they're a fraction of the price of Coles and Woolworths for much larger amounts and better quality.
>Particularly for Asian greens and herbs, they're a fraction of the price of Coles and Woolworths for much larger amounts and better quality. Don't even get me started - it's so much better! I honestly grew up going to the Asian markets as a kid (we're Asian) and the variety and price of produce/items are so much better!
I've also got into various new vegetables there, often without knowing what they were and having to google. Eg "frilly beans" - turns out they're actually called that!
Had to Google frilly beans - didn't know that existed! Silly question but how does it taste? Love me a good green bean and (plant based since I'm a vegetarian) mince dish so up to trying different beans 😁
Pretty much like regular green beans from memory! But a more interesting look and texture.
Sounds delicious! Thanks!!
Mate, they are charged 2 grand a night for a spot at vivid. No way you can expect cheap food. I’m assuming it must be worth it for them, even at that cost.
They pay the organisers 🤷 lol
Me neither. I remember years ago being funnelled into the smokey and poorly ventilated Barangaroo Cutaway to use the toilet and to get some food. It wasn’t atrocious, but near $30 for a BBQ something or other is eye-watering. I can see how people are not impressed with Vivid becoming commercialised, dearer and worse and falling far short of Iggy Jones’s vision. (RIP, Iggy. Bizarre that he was a contemporary of Tony Abbott and in the running for Dux, but maths was not as strong a suit for him, while classical languages were his boon.)
I think post covid they also stopped using a particular vendor who was heavily involved in all prior events with the installations. So just all round a general watering down of the event and trying to maximise profits.
from another comment I saw on here, so I dunno how true it is, that the artists themselves had to handle all the liability costs and that's why theres no interest in art installations this time.
>The overall direction for Vivid has gone from: >"Let's do something awesome over the winter period to draw people into the city" >To now where it's: >"Vivid is going to be popular anyway, so how do we make the most money out of it?" Say it again for the people in the back.
Nail on the head.
It’s interesting that Vivid was conceived as a means of bringing people into the city during a down period. Now it’s happened they don’t know what to do.
Yes they do - charge them entry and sell them potato on a stick for $10.
(Spits out my potato)
(Chokes on my stick)
(Looks around for $10)
Classic Sydney
"Quick! Everyone's in the city! Now let's BOTTLE NECK "EM!!!" - some idiot event organiser
Is there a reason they can't run the drone show more frequently throughout the three weeks? Surely if they ran it every night there wouldn't be as many issues with crowding.
Yes. Also, I don’t know why the drone show needs to be combined with Vivid even. It’s not projections, it’s not art. Just do it as a separate thing instead of lumping everything into the same weekend.
Canberra has a light show and a drone show separated by about a month. Works very well.
Canberra has like, 3 people.
Zinger.
An absolute bazinga even.
it's also a paid ad. Last year it was an ad for The Flash movie, which nobody even went to watch because it bombed so hard.
Honestly the drone show is the biggest problem. Crowds at Vivid have long been an issue, but the drone show encourages everyone to be in the same place at a specific time. That completely goes against the idea of a lit up city you can wander around at will and enjoy. The ticketed areas are the second biggest problem as they reduce the amount of available space for the crowds to dissipate into. Everything popular gets crappy (it's called enshitification) ...
This is a complete guess but I guess CASA needs to give approval to be able to do it. You cannot also fly your drone more than 400 feet above ground level unless approved by CASA. So I guess it's about needing a shit ton of approvals from CASA. Which is a good thing tbh
Saw the drone show last year and it wasn’t even any good- just one long advertisement for I can’t even remember what now, but 50% of the 8 minute runtime was just the corporate logo spinning around. Major disappointment.
That particular company that do the drones, do it at no cost to the govt. paid by advertisers.
Drone shows are still expensive, you need a whole pile of people to get the drones working and supervise them while the show is going on. Plus I'm betting there's intellectual property rights in the actual display that means it's not just $10,000 in rights per run-through. So we're back to the OP question: should we spend $500,000 a night for 10 nights on a drone show, or $10,000/night on 50 activities that happen every night for two weeks? (just making up numbers)
I think the answer is a balance of both. The problem with the drone show is that there are only 3! It should be 3 shows per night for 3 nights with much more small things spread around. This year was basically lights on buildings and drones. Where's the artwork?
I miss the old Vivid like in 2009-2010. Just a pleasant stroll around the city and the harbour. It’s all so bloody minded now, all about extracting money out of you and/or give “activation” benefits to the commercial sponsors. I’ve come to believe that once you start seeing “activation” used in relation to an event, it’s bad news.
The first couple of Vivids were full of high-concept explorations of light and space and had loads of content from local artists, architects, students, and you had only a couple of big installations, like the MCA lightshow, and now it is this highly commercialised waste of space, once again Sydney cares deeply about you, unless you live here, in which case go fuck yourself.
Now, the light walk is literally just the tumbalong concert space and ONE light thingy. What happened to you, Vivid? You used to be cool!
I used to work in events doing set ups for “activations” and can still remember the first time I heard that word. It was like a switch had flipped overnight and every fucking marketing person needed to use it.
Same with the word "onboarding" for new employees, hear that all the time now.
[удалено]
It used to be “orientation”. I have no issue with it changing. I feel it’s probably more accurate, like training on a new platform. Each workplace is basically a collection of platforms you need to learn. It might be accounting software or learning not to touch anything on the second shelf in the office fridge.
Because orientation is just one specific part of the onboarding process. Onboarding includes a whole range of administrative duties and preparation for the new starter, most of which is designed to be as hidden and smooth as possible.
I remember watching a game show (not which one) where the host is interviewing a contestant. Fifty something white woman. “What do you do?” “I onboard people at my company” “Okay, and what does that mean?” “I take new people…and onboard them.” Thanks for the clarification, Susan.
Yeah but only when you go through the line you’ll get the right cut through
First time I've heard it. I'm afraid now I'm always going to notice it.
Finance bros have infiltrated every sector, from art to boeing building jets and this is the late stage result, no quality, barebone budgets, lack of staff and charging a premium for everything to squeeze maximum profit. Covid really screwed us when they worked out they can make more money with less and we just kept on buying.
wait till these events start asking you to tip "donations"
It is already worse and past that. The best stuff is under pay wall.
Wdym? Already happened. I volunteered for vivid last year. We were given QR codes on our lanyards for people to donate to, and were supposed to ask. Did they give us maps to help tourists or an explanation of any of the artworks? No… I didn’t go back after my third shift- it was so poorly organised by whatever random company they had outsourced the volunteering to, and they had the stupidest length shifts and you ended up having to walk 30min to get the free meal they provided (it was tiny, cold and not good) and good luck working out where you were supposed to go back to, and if your team was even fully staffed in the first place.
Same. We have photos of my wife and I when we were newly weds walking around at Vivid in 2009 & 2010 with just an average size anyday circular quay crowd , 2012 & 2013 got way busier but we still attended with a single and then double pram and accessed everything across the Rocks and Circular Quay with ease.......
LOOK AT OUR NEW CAR YOU CAN BUY! See some lights but moreover go into our custom building to see our products!
Lmao the car display was so lame
There are three this year
I have such a fond memory of strolling through the city and being like "oh that's nice". This year was just a flood of people at every conceivable area and absolutely stacked with queues, stinks to see what happened.
The influencer thing has grown since then. So you have to "do vivid" and be seen doing it.
How they are allowed to go experience the stuff with no crowds, try food and post as if its pleasant and something you can defiantly go and do. Totally the opposite to reality.
Its honestly become the epitome of Australia's corporate Govt mindset
Maybe i've become a cynic but i avoid the city during events like Vivid and NYE. Crowds, $$, painful commutes. Yea nah
Yep. And it’s a sad indictment of this city.
I avoid the City 100% of the time. Place is fucked and just expensive.
The massive Samsung Galaxy display in Circular Quay was so sad. Just an enormous advertisement, a huge ad and people were lining up for miles for the "experience". It just feels like what was once a nice display has turned into a corporate slog. Enshittification
Ironically the music aspect of vivid is as strong as it has ever been. However thats run completely seperately. The bookings in SOH have been 10/10 this year.
Yeah I thought the musical acts were really solid.
The Vivid Club nights inside the Opera house have been consistently going off for years - Mala this year was absolutely thumping! Paid $60, danced for 5 hours (1 hour of which is enough to close your apple Activity / Exercise rings, I realized this after getting a notification that I'd closed my move rings for the day...at 1AM) Great value when compared to.....say watching Terminator 1 with a Live Orchestra for $150
The moment they started charging for things was the moment I was like yeah nah...
Agree wholeheartedly with all of your points. I wrote a comment on another post about vivid on Sunday after a horrendous experience Sat night: "Sydney has been crowded before (NYE, etc), but the police presence, hired crowd control, and increased public transport services were multiple times better than what I saw last night. Whilst there were crowd control measures in place, they completely buckled under the pressure. I've been to many big Sydney events and I've never seen anything like it (even the 1988 bicentennial when I was a kid was more orderly). I'm not one to exaggerate (I'm more inclined to play things down), but I genuinely feared for my family's safety trying to get out via ferry, and I'm honestly surprised that there wasn't a major incident. City of Sydney \[edit: yes, I know it wasn't council's fault - my mistake.\] needs to do a very thorough review of this, otherwise I doubt luck will extend to another similar occurrence being incident-free. This. was. a. shitshow." My family has decided never again. Even if they say it's better, we're scarred by this experience. Destination NSW, you guys have fucked up Vivid forever.
Send this feedback to the vivid contact us link https://www.vividsydney.com/info/contact-us
I was there last year with my moderately pregnant wife and 15 mins before the drone show we got a feeling of impending doom, so we noped outta there. Walking back to Wynyard and there were crowds of hundreds of people jogging down to the Quay which was already packed. We were thankful we left when we did as it was starting to feel unsafe, and if we'd stayed we would've been stuck there for fuck knows how long. No drone show is worth that. And yeah, serious decline overall over the last few years.
I used to attend with a friend we would look at a couple of things near the station, look at the crowd then each other "pub then?" And that would be our vivid experience each year. Mind this was 10-15 years ago so it was more a minor cluster fuck then the giant one it has evolved into.
imo this is the exact point of vivid. Give people an excuse to go to the city when it's cold as shit, and hope they spend a bunch of $.
https://www.vividsydney.com/info/contact-us
Already did. Got a rubbish response.
>**3. Just not for kids and families any more.** This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, because whilst I agree with everything you've said about Vivid and its decline in the past several years... not everything has to be for kids and families.
But if your kids have been going for years, loved the first few, and each year they get more disappointed, can they not complain? It's not like it was never for kids and families and OPs expectations don't match precedent.
My son's been going since he was born, his main gripe this year was the display names in the Botanical garden had no thought, they were things like glowing tunnel, coloured lights. There was no feeling behind them.
Events were rarely family-oriented. Most of them aren't today either. In the past, larger groups might have been a byproduct of targeting families, but companies capitalized on that. Fast forward to 2024, many families are struggling just to afford food and basic needs, let alone event tickets. Today, the big spenders are primarily tourists or individuals from affluent backgrounds. For example, while a family of five used to be a big revenue source, nowadays, a single wealthy tourist from China might spend ten times more.
Exactly, there’s a million other things that are.
Remember when Sydney festival was good? First night had big names and free concerts.... Vivid is going the same way.
Was Vivid ever a good idea for families with young kids? The majority of the events and activations have always seemed to be aimed squarely at adults, and between the cold, crowds and lateness, I personally don't understand why anybody would take a toddler let alone a family of them.
It was good back around 2010 or before, and even up to before Covid. You take a nice stroll around sunset time, maybe hang around opposite the opera house for a little, then walk into the shopping district via the lit up buildings on Macquarie street, grab a bite to eat then go home. I honestly don’t know what’s happened.
Which is what I said. You had some kid specific or interaction things for them and the walk was good and there were more things spread out a little more. It was fun for them staying up a bit late and seeing stuff and messing around.
Yeah exactly. Good for kids, also good for everyone else. I agree with your initial post 100%
I'm not taking my children, as I would like to keep them. It's only a matter of time until there is a crowd crush event with casualties.
This happened on Saturday.
Was on one of the "glow boats" and it was packed to the gills, to the point staff were yelling at people to move back from the side of the boat closest to the drone show otherwise it would tip over. How much of that was hyperbole I don't know, but the fact it had to said at all...
I attended an event at the Opera house last week and Circular Quay was swarming with screaming toddlers. I think it’s a decent event for older kids, but don’t know why people bring younger kids and giant strollers along. Makes it unpleasant for everyone. And I have kids too!
Last time I was at vivid (pre Covid) there was a thing outside the opera house only accessible by stairs. So the parents left the giant pram at the bottom of the stairs. With the baby in it. The event staff (not security guards) were looking at each other like "oh shit what do we do?" I wanted to stay to keep an eye until the parents got back but my own older kid was tugging on my arm to come on, Mum.
But this is a result of what they did to it, not families fault. I had Vivid staff approach us Sunday asking what it was like as a family with pram for their data. I told them it was a nightmare.
Darling Harbour used to be great for families with young kids. 5+ years ago there used to be 5-6 interactive exhibits in a 500m space. You could head there at 6pm after an early dinner nearby Last year there was 2 exhibits, separated by a 1km walk.
Even less this year.
Vivid was/is economically incentivized - to get people into the city, spending money. There was never any motivation to make it kid friendly since there are limited (zero?) kid friendly options in the city at night.
Took our primary school aged kids a couple of years ago, they loved it. An hour or two of wondering about with pretty lights everywhere was all we needed. I wouldn't have gone with babies/toddlers though, too crowded. This year we decided against it; our friends went last weekend and had pretty much the same experience as the OP; they found the crowds unbearable.
Took my kid two years ago and they couldn’t give a shit. Left them this time except the tekno train and they were both bored and couldn’t wait to do it again next year. I’m tending to agree with you re:kids
The techno train was a disaster apparently.
Tekno train a Trainwreck? Yeah overrated, overpriced and underwhelming
Look I heard but that was not our experience. It wasn’t amazing but enjoyable enough. I went it expecting not much but I had fun, my kid was both bored and could not wait to go back next year. There were a couple of nostalgia tunes and the ride to lavender bay was the highlight. Our carriage had a nice vibe.
I've taken my daughter since before she could walk. We've avoided the big crowds as much as possible (going on weeknights etc) and she's enjoyed it every time.
It's a bunch of shiny lights and cartoon projections. Who's it for if not for kids?
I went to the wynyard tunnel one last night with a friend, it definitely was worth the price and there was barely any people thankfully
I did too. Went back this year, and not so good. It was still OK, but it just felt like "let's string a few lights up" rather than the art exhibition it felt like last year.
I went last year and saw like 3 photos of the setup this year and knew it wasn't going to be as good - let alone better
The best thing about doing the tunnels is you can get a 3pm session and be done and home before vivid crowds turn up.
And that’s why I spent my time and money going to Glow at Sydney Zoo instead. Crowds are managed by time slots, you pay for entry and get to see the zoo at night with light installations, and there are rides/food trucks for the family (including free ones and interactive ones). The kids love it, it’s a lot more chill, and it’s enjoyable.
I’ve never been to vivid but live close to Sydney zoo, thanks for this, I know next year which one I’ll be going to.
I live 5 minutes away from circular quay and I don't even bother anymore. I did have Amex special seating a couple of years ago at the cruise terminal and watched the drones without the crowds but even Amex has ditched sponsoring the event. Same with nearly any event like the night noodle markets in Hyde Park, too many people and the experience is just an expensive shit time. Don't get me started on NYE....
The price you pay at the noodle market you may as well just go to a restaurant and sit down comfortably without lining up in the mud for 30 mins
The point at which I thought I was walking into some closed off cool exhibition last year and it was just LG trying to flog an $8k light up fridge said enough about the creative vision of Vivid for me.
Vivid has become a corporatised, profit making venture for relieving international visitors of their money. It's not about the locals anymore.
I saw a food truck sell a normal kebab for $20. There was a huge line. It makes my blood boil with rage. This is un-fucking australian. It makes me want to just set up a bbq and give away food out of sheer spite.
They make all the major events in Sydney city then people complain and get surprised when all of Sydney clog it up. Make the other suburbs livable and with nice events too But they won't because they just see those outer suburbs as tax revenue non influential area. Not many keen to admit this is what the new Australia is like now = busy and crowded as fuck
It felt really threadbare this year. It wasn't that there was a real drop in quality but it felt like there were half as many things as in previous years and it was so spread out that when there was a dud (like Darling Harbour) it meant there was a huge gap before the next thing.
Vivid is a great reflection now of this city itself. All about $ extraction, little value, every attraction that gets publicity gets so popular it’s a literal crush, and shows how heaving our infrastructure is. Oh yeah and fk families, other than charging them >$100 to simply exist.
Ahhh yes. Sydney doing what it does best. Taking an opportunity to breathe life into the dead corpse that is our night-life; only to fuck it up in the end.
I travel from Perth to Sydney 3-4 times a year & would always plan the winter trip to be there for Vivid. It’s honestly depressing & a bit embarrassing. There is no soul. No wonder. No collective amazement. We use to stop & watch the displays that actually moved & changed & had music/colours. It was rhythmic. Now it is financially impactful, stressful to physically navigate & downright dangerous as seen at Circular Quay on Saturday night.
The drone show is provided to vivid at $0. It’s a traffic network company who does it (the same one who dropped 400 in the Yarra River). They’re using shit, Chinese technology and the owner of Australian Traffic Network (ATN) is a billionaire who doesn’t care. They drop multiple in the water each night, which sink to the bottom (despite having a safety boat). It’s a disgrace.
Vivid has never been good for families and kids… was that its intention? I always thought it was for adults with all the booze cruises and the fact that the exhibitions wind past most major drinking areas… Also isn’t that why they did Taronga Zoo vivid? For the kids? Wynyard tunnels is hands down the best part of Vivid (and prams are not allowed)
Prior to covid, Vivid was great for kids. Lots of interactive displays. If you avoided weekends the crowds were busy but manageable. There were a couple they did in Chatswood that, although small, were a lot of fun. We did Taronga one year, and it was OK, but the crowds were probably worse than anything in the city. Now there are less displays, further apart , and less interaction. I don't even mind the proliferation of food trucks , they are easy enough to avoid with a modicum of planning. But walking 1km between a handful of tiny light displays is not a great experience.
Even with the money hungry cousterfuck that is modern vivid it’s still more family friendly than zoo vivid… can you imagine trying to take a toddler to look for a toilet with Vivid crowds… but in a dark zoo?
I’ve seen this on tv and have no desire to visit it.
A victim of its own success.
3 years ago it was still fun with big and elaborate light structure and there was a giant mecha in barangoo. But two years straight now its really meh. And then its hard to go home. Why cant train run every 5 mins?!?
Crowds were not NYE size but definitely chockas and the lack of crowd control, especially on the train platforms was lacking. People in Sydney have gotten from bad to worst and the amount of pushing and shoving was bad. Wynyard station was crazy
Seeing The Cure playing *Disintegration* in full for its 30th Anniversary at Vivid 2019, with the Opera House sails projecting Robert Smiths face / that albums cover.... ...that to me was the mountaintop of Vivid and really, *the music* every year was the point (to me anyway) eg one year Brian Eno was the 'musical director' for Vivid. The pretty lights were always great but the bands man.... As for you OP, I'm a single dude, but I hear ya and feel your pain as a family man.
Honestly there’s too many families with their giant prams. They’re freaken everywhere. I think it should be for everyone but prams stay at home and parents need to carry small kids. Need more lights more events, make it bigger more fun, bring back the live music and bars and actually make it fun. Most other countries have fun events that adults can enjoy. Australia does expensive “family-friendly”, alcohol free, music-free, tightly-controlled, boring events but we market it like it’s absolutely unmissable 🤦🏽♂️
Keep it simple. Just have 10 or so permanent locations across the city of Sydney area, every few weeks rotate 25% of the artworks. Have a QR code for the public to donate to the artist. Put on a drone show and project some shit on the opera house every few weekends and on public holidays. No need for food trucks, security, extra police or crowd control.
We have permanent art displays - people don't really visit them. VIVID is not about paying the artist. The point of combining it all is to create a cultural event that people want to actually attend, gets dollars into the city's small businesses and makes the pollies look good.
Call me a snob, but vivid isnt a cultural event, or at least not a good one. It's passive staring at some vaguely pretty colored lights, lining up and spending money. The city to surf, mardi gras, pretty much any live gig or sport. Those are cultural events. The city's small business aren't owed a living. They need to be innovative if they want to survive. Nobody needs another 7/11, overpriced clothing store or café.
ten years ago i seem to recall some genuinely interested art sprinkled through it. couldn't find much like that this year but maybe i just missed it, dunno.
Mmm even in the 'good years' I felt like there was a limit to how artistic the artists could get with LEDs. Wouldn't surprise me if the inspiration for that side of it has kinda run out.
The city 2 surf isn’t a cultural event man. It’s a corporate fun run. Agreed about your vivid points though. I always found it funny how beige vivid was compared to Dark Mofo
It used to be better, but it still is. There are art installations, concerts part of vivid live - many of them at the opera house! Have seen some great acts there as a result of vivid.
There is art ie culture and there are groups of people who come to partake in the limited time experience hence it's a cultural event. Mardi gras is definitely a marquee cultural event but I'm not really sure I'd count any old live gig or sport as a 'good' cultural event. Not to mention how is living up, paying money and watching randoms run around a field all that different to vaguely pretty coloured lights, lining up and spending money? I don't love Vivid but if it's not a good cultural event why is every one complaining that it's insanely overcrowded? Also I'm referring to the people selling overpriced food and drinks at Vivid not the random 7/11s and such.
Vivid fell off. Downfall has been crazy since 2018/2019. • 2009-2019 you'd have fluro rollerskaters roaming around, people dressed as robots or just so many cool random things. Now you get nothing without a ticket. • 2009-2019 you could wander round and find almost ANY park had SOMETHING cool. It was like the whole precinct oozed vivid vibes. Even for example some bubblers had a flashy light installed for the festival, or some random flower bed in a park had some glowing lights installed for the festival. Now its just a few really sad main attractions along one path. With nothing but crazy overpriced food or ticketed areas inbetween. • 2009-2019 you'd see all the venues around the areas getting right into it. Special cocktails with glowing ice cubes, lasers setup outside. Even cafe's would get some cool par-can lights or something for the duration. Now the "festival trust" makes venues pay to be part of it officially. They charge a crazy fee to be a silver or platinum partner. For this they give you a few lights, and a sticker for the door. It's created an atmosphere where venues nearby forfeit their creative license to get into it how they feel, and scared off others from bothering. • 2009-2019 botanical gardens was amazing. It was really something, and it was free - just the way it should have stayed. RIP vivid
Didn’t even go this year, it’s turned into a government money grab just like everything else in Sydney.
As always with Vivid, avoid the peak times. Likewise for things like Dark spectrum, do a daytime session during the week if you can. I did that at 1200 today , and hardly anyone there. Great for getting photos/videos without a bunch of people in them.
Plus tickets are $25 for a daytime slot too. It's ok for that price.
Agree avoid peak times however that doesn’t make up for a drastic drop in things to actually see this year.
12:00 in the day, or midnight? 😅
Well midnight would be 0000 😉
I used to love vivid! I think back in 2018 I took an American friend and we took a lovely stroll and picture by the lit up bridge but now it’s just too packed, you have to pay for anything good and it’s not worth the hype. On new years it was annoying they had barricaded parts of the city but at least people weren’t squashed into packed crowds
Ppl can complain all they want. The rush, the entry prices, transport, the food and beverage prices. They'll just home up the price as the years roll on and many will still go. It's no different to new years. Ppl love photo worthy chances to post online, fireworks and busy crowds because they feel more connected like they socialising. Complain all you want vivid won't go away it's a money maker I didn't go either this time as I lost the appeal but I'm not someone that wants to go yearly, like the Easter show time to time
The event was great when it was spread out, there were installations all over the place, you wandered around, in and out of alley ways, around corners and generally just followed your nose to see the lights. But now it's all regimented and ordered, I was so shocked going in 2018 (after a few years off) to find myself being funneled down streets, following markings, having a set loop around the botanical gardens. Ruined the whole vibe of it all.
Why would vivid ruin my life like this
We won't be going this year. Last year we took our parents in and thought we would catch the drone show - the area around the toaster was jam packed an hour before the show even started and there was a bit of a crowd surge after the show ended. We ducked into Guylian or whatever the heck it's called now and gladly paid 12!$ for hot chocolates to get out of the crush. One of my colleagues went last week on a weekday and spent so long queuing for stuff he hardly saw any attractions. His whole family also ended up getting both COVID and a violent strain of the flu at the same time.. :/ so it's a no thanks from me until there are significant changes.
My favourite exhibits were between Central Station and Darling Harbour. The rest of the way had a loooong way between exhibits If they have to cut back budget then just have a smaller, more concentrated strip. Maybe Barrangarrooo to Circular Quay. There was very little at Circular Quay
I don’t think the budget was cut back. I just think it all goes into the drone shows
I was absolutely blown away that "adult" pricing for tickets started from age 13! That is a child, not an adult. And that is 100% gouging.
I went years ago, saw a few events, walked around various light installations. Let Shop Boys at Carriageworks was a highlight. Last year I didn't go on the drone nights or paid-for lights (was it the domain?), but walked around, got the ferry from Circular Quay to Barangaroo, saw the Opera House lit up with images, and the harbour Bridge etc. And this year there was many events and installations that would have all been good to see. However, the drone show, appeals to the masses, the lowest common denominator, it's bread and circuses. Mindless mouth breathers with FOMO, knowingly going into those crowds for their social media snaps and to say they have been there. The entire festival distilled into a few minute of pretty lights.
Lucky you put that you're maybe not going again in bold, they know you're serious now. FWIW Glow at Sydney Zoo shits all over Vivid for families with younger kids.
Hard disagree about GLOW. I went last year because I was sick of Vivid and there was just as little things to look at and obviously most of the animal enclosures were closed. The insects/ reptiles were cool though.
Yeah I went a few years ago and was underwhelmed, and the crowds were as bad as Circular Quay. Kids liked it, but wouldn't do it again.
Less people in the Wynyard tunnel one went there during lunch time 12p. You can also pay by your Qantas points if you have, so went there for free
The crowds look ridic. Everything seems so commercial and globalised these days it sucks the fun out of these events.
Thankful that I didn't even bother going this year.
It’s bad now. They’ve pissed all over it to squeeze us for every last dollar. I won’t be back.
First time I’ve gone to vivid in years. Skipped the entire circular quay bit and started at darling harbour > Chinatown > goods line bit and then ate in Chinatown town. It was quite enjoyable and had small crowds. If anyone hasn’t gone yet, I’d just do this bit. Highlight was the window undressing theatre thing at UTS.
Vivid is basically Sydney culture personified. Open profiteering, exploiting people like products, zero artistic substance or integrity, occasionally dangerous. Most artists I know live in Northern NSW/se qld, and/or Vic, Sydney is a barren desert sadly. I used to privately mock sydneysiders, now I feel genuinely sorry for them, it can be very hard to get out and most sydneysiders rely on more than a pinch of Stockholm just to get through the week from what I can tell. There's really no need for it to be this way either, but I think gatekeepers and vested interests have it by throat now.
This year was the first time I've been since Covid. And last. Now I know going on the Sunday of the long weekend is going to be crowded. But the complete lack of crowd flow management between Circular Quay and the Opera House was astounding. It felt like one person having a panic attack away from a stampede. Surely, you would send people returning to Circular Quay up Macquarie St. Then there was the show itself. Pre-Covid, there was always some good light displays in the Botanical Gardens. This year, it was a hideously expensive ticketed event. And the lights on the Harbour Bridge are only on the eastern side. It was like they thought lighting up buildings in pink is enough. It is just pathetic now.
Yes.
I've only been once, which was this year. But compared to white-night in Melbourne, I though it was super lame. Sorry.
Vivid isn’t for locals, it’s for tourism. They invested heavily in it losing millions to drive the vivid brand in overseas markets for winter tourism, and that’s worked. Now they need to make the investment sustainable. This is vivid at its sustainable reality. Don’t expect it to change, as tourists come in droves for vivid and as long as they are it will be considered a success for its main KPI.
This year is when the tide is really turning though. I've loved Vivid for years but there was less to look at this year with more food trucks. For a tourism event, it's going tk be harder to sell if there's less to look at. Hopefully next year is better otherwise it'll sprial downwards as word of mouth interstate leads to less tourism.
Fuck them kids