Five things Melbourne can learn from Vivid Sydney
Vivid Sydney has launched Australia’s 2024 winter festival season with firepower and finesse – and there are valuable lessons Melbourne should take from it.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Forget interstate rivalries.
Vivid Sydney launched Australia’s winter festival season with so much firepower – and, clearly, funding – there might be valuable lessons that would benefit upcoming arts and culture events in other cities.
The NSW event exploded into life at the weekend, kicking off a 23-day light, music, food and ideas festival that brings millions of visitors to the Harbour City.
It also precedes arts and culture festivals like Melbourne’s Rising, which opens on June 1, Dark Mofo in Hobart, and Illuminate Adelaide.
“I firmly believe there’s space for us all,” Vivid Sydney festival director Gill Minervini said. “But I think Vivid is successful because we play to the strengths of the place we’re in.”
Last year, Vivid Sydney welcomed 3.48 million attendees and generated $206.1 million in visitor expenditure.
“There’s something innate about going out on a winter night and connecting with people,” Minervini said. “It’s a celebration that goes back to the beginning of humanity.”
Here are five things Vivid Sydney could teach Melbourne’s winter festivals:
1. Turn the bloody lights on
Remember White Night, and the glorious projections that lit the way for rugged up masses, mostly families, strolling through a kaleidoscope of colour from Flinders St to Carlton Gardens?
Ah, Melbourne’s good old days of illuminated nights.
Admittedly, the crowd congestion was a nightmare, but why oh why has there been a relative black out for the winter events that followed?
Our Sydney cousins not only embrace the light, they worship it. And why not?
Vivid’s so-called Light Walk runs for 8km along the city’s famous harbour, past multi-billion landmarks and into the urban heartland.
Free highlights this year include Portal, an imposing doorway of sight and sound; Horizon, a hypnotic, strobing light show, Nest, a circular projection paying homage to wildlife; and Samsung’s Chorus Of Light, a Galaxy AI experience that translates language into cascades of colour.
Dark Spectrum: A New Journey, a ticketed event, is set in a disused railway tunnel near Wynyard Station.
“I was really interested in scale this year,” Minervini, said. “We’ve gone for a all-killer no-filler approach with major works. They work so beautifully in the environment they’re in.”
2. Feel the fire
Hobart’s paganistic Dark Mofo is usually the hotspot for flames.
However, with the Tasmanian festival downsizing its events calendar this year, Vivid Sydney has picked up the torch.
Fire features at Vivid’s food hub, Fire Kitchen, and parts of the Light Walk on the Goods Line.
Cleverly, the festival has also poured fuel on that fire by spotlighting celebrity chefs and flame-cooking specialists, including Shalamar Lane, Lennox Hastie, and Jess Pryles.
“Fire is a great connector. It’s the perfect place for storytelling,” Minervini says. “It really changes the ambience of a space and makes it more inviting. The link between humans and fire is inextricable.”
3. Free is key
The cost of living crisis has hit the arts industry hardest, either through funding cuts at government level, or lack of disposable income at the punter end.
Most of the events at Vivid are free, including the Light Walk and music events at Tumbalong Park featuring headliners Sneaky Sound System, Budjerah and Christine Anu.
“Seventy per cent of our events are free,” Minervini said.
“Now, more than ever, that’s really important, and makes it very accessible for families.”
4. Star power shines bright
Australia’s winter festivals (Vivid Sydney, Rising, Melbourne; Dark Mofo, Hobart; Illuminate, Adelaide) compete hard for headliners. But with The Cure, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, Solange and Jennifer Coolidge billed as Vivid exclusives in the past decade, there’s clearly something in the Sydney Harbour water.
Vivid has done it again this year, landing the only Australian performances by reclusive French band Air, which played their 1998 opus, Moon Safari, at the Sydney Opera House, on Saturday and Sunday.
Hollywood star and Saturday Night Live alumni, Amy Poehler, will host an in-conversation event — another Sydney scoop — on Tuesday.
Producer and former Silverchair collaborator Paul Mac has also come out of the shadows to helm Tekno Train, a public transport party on the rails.
Alas, the only disrupters on Melbourne trains are ticket inspectors.
5. Let’s play … hard!
Soft launches create soft results.
Vivid Sydney always pushes the launch button hard with all their favourites toys on display: fireworks, lasers, and light shows tracing the shoreline from Circular Quay to Barangaroo, to Darling Harbour, and beyond.
Melbourne is Australia’s undisputed capital of major events; so any kick-off for Victoria’s arts and culture winter events should not be minor league.
Let’s launch like we mean it!
“There’s so much to love about winter,” Minervini said.
“There’s something innate about going out on a cold night and connecting with people. It’s a celebration that goes back to the beginning of humanity.”
Vivid Sydney runs until June 15.
Nui Te Koha visited Vivid Sydney as a guest of Destination NSW.
Billy Brownless lays blame for viral ‘fat dipping’ flick
Footy larrikin Billy Brownless has shared how his partner Crystle Fleur orchestrated the viral ‘fat dipping’ photo, which gave fans a giggle but left his kids less than impressed.
Read more
Brodie Ryan: Life as a WAG is ‘harder than being a CEO’
Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley’s ex-partner has defended the perception of AFL WAGs, emphasising the hard work of balancing home life and public appearances.
Read more