This year’s Vivid Music program is massive – here are the must-see acts

Vivid Sydney has developed a reputation for bringing class acts to the city – in the past, the 23-day festival has featured The Cure, Bon Iver, Anohni, St Vincent and Lou Reed. This year is no different, with more than 70 top-tier local and overseas musicians on the bill. Here’s our pick of where to spend your money.

Aldous Harding will perform with Townsville indie-pop band The Middle East. Credit: New York Times

Spunk Records 25 Finale
Sydney Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre, May 24-25
After kicking off in 1999 and releasing albums from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Anohni, Arcade Fire and the Shins, legendary Sydney indie record label Spunk is finally calling it day – but not before going out with a bang. This two-night celebration of all things Spunk will feature Texan post-rock band Explosions In The Sky playing in full their classic 2003 album The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, plus Kiwi indie-folk singer-songwriter Aldous Harding and Townsville indie-pop band The Middle East reuniting for a rare live performance.

Devonte Hynes will perform here for the first time in more than a decade.Credit:

Devonté Hynes: Selected Classical Works with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, May 29
You may not have heard of Devonté Hynes, but a lot of your favourite artists have. The in-demand singer, songwriter and record producer has worked with artists including Solange, Kylie Minogue, FKA Twigs, A$AP Rocky, Haim, Florence and the Machine and Mariah Carey. Although he’s released several acclaimed experimental R&B solo albums as Blood Orange, the classically trained Hynes has been dabbling in classical music of late. This one-off performance is his first show in Australia in more than a decade.

Thelma Plum will perform in her first headline show at the Sydney Opera House.Credit: Cordula Ditz

Thelma Plum
Sydney Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre, May 29
After wowing the crowd in a 2022 performance with Paul Kelly at the Opera House, Gamilaraay singer-songwriter Thelma Plum is back for her first-ever headline show at the iconic venue. With a reputation as a formidable live performer, Plum has had two esteemed Pauls – Kelly and McCartney – contribute to the same song on her debut album, 2019’s Gold-selling Better in Blak. Although it’s yet to be officially announced, expect to hear a preview of songs from Plum’s highly anticipated second album.

Karin Dreijer explores identity, sexuality and desire.Credit: Nina Andersson

Fever Ray
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, June 5-6
From acclaimed electronic duo The Knife to solo project Fever Ray, Sweden’s Karin Dreijer straddles the fine line between pop pleasure and challenging listeners’ comfort zones. Last year’s critically acclaimed third LP, Radical Romantics, may be Dreijer’s best work to date, a daring collection of songs exploring identity, sexuality and desire that featured production work from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Dreijer’s live shows are heavy on outlandish costumes and make-up, so expect a healthy dose of theatricality.

Silica Gel will be playing their “ear-crazy music”.Credit:

K-Indie Music Fest featuring Silica Gel and sunwoojunga
Tumbalong Park, June 7
The Tumbalong Nights strand of Vivid Sydney presents 12 nights of free contemporary music, including this mini-fest. With K-pop artists like BTS and Blackpink taking the music world by storm, it was only a matter of time before other “K” variants started infiltrating the global music scene. ‘K-indie’ is now a thing, with two darlings of the scene playing: genre-blurring singer sunwoojunga and psychedelic rock band Silica Gel. If you want to hear what Silica Gel describe as “ear-crazy music”, this one is for you.

Yasiin Bey has talent and charisma to burn.Credit:

Yasiin Bey
Carriageworks, June 12-13
Rapper, singer, actor and activist Yasiin Bey – born Dante Terrell Smith and formerly known as Mos Def – is a magnetic performer with talent and charisma to burn, an offbeat artist who walks to the beat of his own drum. Bey will be presenting two different shows over two nights: the first will see the MC perform the songs of revered underground rapper MF DOOM, a hero of Bey’s who died in 2020; the second night will be a 15th-anniversary celebration of the 2009 Mos Def album The Ecstatic.

Noongar rapper and MC Dallas Woods is part of supergroup 3%.Credit: Chris Hopkins

3%
Tumbalong Park, June 14
This unmissable free show is an album launch party for First Nations hip-hop supergroup 3%, a freshly formed trio comprising Yuin MC Nooky, Noongar rapper and MC Dallas Woods and Gumbaynggirr singer-songwriter Angus Field. The trio’s debut album Kill The Dead, out August 9, will go down as one of this year’s best, a potent Molotov cocktail of party jams, heart-on-sleeve emotional outpouring and righteous anger at the plight of Australia’s Indigenous population. Although relatively new as a group, these seasoned performers know how to put on a livewire show – expect fireworks.

Emma Donovan will perform in solo mode.Credit: Will Hamilton-Coates

Emma Donovan
Carriageworks, June 15
From country to reggae to soul and R&B, Emma Donovan has covered a lot of ground in a storied career that has seen her perform as a member of country band the Donovans, acoustic harmony group Stiff Gins and soul revivalists the Putbacks. After her last two albums with the Putbacks won AIR Awards for Best Independent Soul/R&B Album or EP, Donovan is back in solo mode on her excellent second solo album, Til My Song Is Done. Head along and discover why everyone from the late Archie Roach to the Teskey Brothers has lined up to work with her.

Nick Allbrook and Pond will preview songs from their new album.Credit: Ashley Mar

Pond
Carriageworks, June 14
There’s a moment in the music video for the recent Pond single Neon River when the band’s lead singer, Nick Allbrook, flying kicks a bunch of grapes out of someone’s hand. It sums up the Pond live experience perfectly: extreme physicality and a healthy dose of absurdity. Fresh from supporting Queens of the Stone Age on their recent Australian tour, the Western Australian psych rockers will be previewing songs from their new double album, Stung!