Vivid Sydney

In late May and early June, Sydney hosts a massive citywide light show called Vivid Sydney. This light show happens all across Sydney in key locations including Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, and the Taronga Zoo. It lasts for about 3 weeks and shows every night no matter the weather.

For about a week before I went to see the show, I saw lights shining in the sky at night. It wasn’t until I go there that I realized that the lights were part of the light show at Darling Harbour, people were actually controlling the colors and the direction of these lights shining in the sky. They kind of reminded me of the bat signal and people could point them into the night sky and draw pictures or just swing them around.

Later in the show, I walked down to Darling Harbour and took a boat ride around the Sydney Harbour to see the harbour all lit up. However, Darling has its fair share of lights. Darling has this spectacular water show in the middle of the harbour with fireworks, lasers, and water shooting out of the bay. It reminded me a little of the World of Color at Disneyland.

The Maritime museum also has a beautiful movie showing the importance of keeping our oceans clean. There was a massive lit-up Ferris wheel and even glow in the dark graffiti. When you shined a black light on the wall, you could see the beautiful artwork graffiti artists had drawn. The whole area is lit up including the ferry boats coming in and out of the harbour.

I took a harbour cruise around and got to see the rest of Sydney harbour all lit up. The Bridge, the Opera House, and pretty much all of the Rocks were covered in lights along with a lot of the buildings surrounding circular quay.

The Opera House and the Museum of Contemporary Art had colorful projections on them, showing different abstract art. The Opera house had a video showing different aspects of biology in an abstract way.

I watched it for a long time just watching the video change from one thing to another. The Museum of ContemporaryArtt showed more of crayon drawn pictures being drawn on the old architecture.

I also walked through the Botanical Garden which had Christmas lights strung up all along the trees and glowing sunflowers lining the path.

I even got to be part of the show. There was one installation where they handed you glowing headphones that changed color with the type of music you were listening to while we took in the glowing show around us.

Vivid Sydney is such an important part of the city. It is a massive party shared by both the locals and the tourists. It is different every year and it was really cool to have seen it while I was here. If you are traveling here in winter definitely take the time to check it out.