Ultimate Guide to Vivid Sydney

The 15th annual Vivid Sydney is upon us, once again transforming the city into a smorgasbord of light, music, ideas and food with its world-famous projections, provocative installations and on-the-pulse programming. We know it can be overwhelming if you haven’t planned properly, which is why we present to your Sydney Travel Guide’s guide to Vivid Sydney.

What is Vivid Sydney?

It’s hard to whittle such an all-encompassing festival like Vivid Sydney into one neat sentence or promo tag. Much like SXSW Sydney, this is a multi-faceted behemoth of a cultural event, aimed squarely for culture and community with a desire to celebrate, foster and evolve creativity in all its many forms.

Since it debuted in 2009, back when it was named Smart Light Sydney, Vivid Sydney has grown to become one of the most unique and effective celebrations of creativity, innovation and technology the world has seen. There are elements of the Austin’s original SXSW in there, but a strong sense of identity custom-fit to Sydney’s cityscape and world-famous harbour has made Vivid Sydney unlike anything the we’ve seen before.

And the tourism numbers agree. In 2024, Vivid Sydney attracted 2.42 million attendees. And while that falls short of the 3.28 million visitors who attended in 2023, it still generated a massive amount of success for Sydney, injecting over $180 million in the NSW Visitor Economy.

Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW in close collaboration with the artists, musician, thinkers and creators that bring their curatorial knowhow to make the event a truly world-class celebration. Unsung heroes like Ben Marshall, Head of Contemporary Music at Sydney Opera House and Curator of Vivid LIVE, and Vivid Food curator Gill Minervini constantly nail the brief for wide-ranging, interesting lineups that fit into Vivid Sydney’s four pillars of Light, Music, Ideas and Art.

Vivid Sydney 2025 Dates and Theme

Vivid Sydney runs from Friday, May 23 to Saturday, June 14, 2025.

Much like the Biennale, Vivid Sydney runs on a theme each year. For 2024, that theme is “Dream,” centered around ideas of the fantastical and the surreal; hinged on the notion that dreams have the ability to inspire and unite people. Conversely, there are a few Vivid Sydney events that play into the opposite: nightmares.

Vivid Sydney Highlights

It’s hard to pick through the full Vivid Sydney 2025 program and distill it down to just a few highlights. Across 23 nights, the festival dresses Sydney with awe-inspiring art installations, 3D light projections, live music performances, immersive experiences, food markets, one-off dining events, and unique keynote discussions from some of the world’s leading creatives.

The Vivid Sydney festival does everything it possibly can to celebrate and inspire, while acting as an incubator for collaboration and networking. Spinning this program into different strains helps tackle people’s niche interests, from the 100% free Vivid Light Walk to the underrated Vivid Music program at Carriageworks, straight through to the Vivid Chef Series.

But you’ll want at least some highlights, I guess. Here’s five underrated Vivid Sydney events I think will end up being the well-rounded highlights when this whole thing is done for yet another year.

Echoes of the Block: A Live & Local Blak Hip Hop Collaboration

Carriageworks has managed to come up with one of the most unique and interesting events in Vivid Sydney’s entire history. The steady rise of Blak hip hop (First Nations hip hop, that is) has been dominating Sydney’s musical consciousness as of late. And the organisers clearly see the value in helping bring that energy into Vivid Sydney, enlisting Koori Radio who will be conducted an open collaborative festival where the line between artists and audience blurs completely.

By day, Carriageworks will be filled with some of Sydney’s finest First Nations rappers and singers who will open up the collaborative process in front of attendees. At night, Koori Radio will broadcast live, so people can see the creative process in real-time and form a deeper connection to the music.

Where: Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015
When: Thursday, June 5 – Sunday, June 8
Price: Free (need to pre-register at night)

Sigur Ros at Sydney Opera House

Ethereal Icelandic band Sigur Ros are no strangers to Sydney, but their three-stop stop at Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE will be a unique experience. For a band that pretty much redefines the idea of provocative music, seeing them play alongside the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be an incredible experience. They’ll be playing the first three days of Vivid Sydney before continuing on with the rest of their Australian tour. We’re getting chills just thinking about it!

Where: Sydney Opera House
When: Friday, May 23 – Sunday, May 25
Price: From $119

Dreams of the Future

In partnership with Sydney Writers’ Festival (which opens on May 19), this one-night-only event will bring together an extraordinary lineup of writers, from poets and songwriters to novelists and journalists. They will read original short works that envision a world beyond our horizon.

Highlighting the power of the spoken word, rapper and change-maker Ziggy Ramo, artist, activist and screenwriter Aretha Brown and award-winning journalist and filmmaker Patrick Abboud are some of the names on the lineup.

Where: Sydney Town Hall, 483 George St, Sydney NSW 2000.
When: Saturday, May 24 from 8pm until 9:15pm.
Price: Adult from $40, concession from $35

Firetalk

Gather around the fire to hear stories shared by contemporary First Nations writers, poets and songwriters. The tradition of fireside storytelling has carried the sparks of history, language and ancestral understanding across time, and Firetalk honours this living tradition.

Curated by Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money, and presented in partnership with Sydney Writers’ Festival, these powerful performances will take place on each of the three Wednesdays of the festival.

Where: Barangaroo Reserve, Walumil Lawns, Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000.
When: Wednesdays, May 28, June 4 & 11 from 6:30pm to 7pm.
Price: Free.

Vivid Sydney Experiences

Vivid Cruises

Floating out on Sydney’s perfect harbour is always going to be a good choice, but it takes on a different form during Vivid Sydney. Looking back over a city that’s completely given itself over to gorgeous, immersive light installations and innovative projections brings our skyline to life like nothing else. Watching it all unfold in one big epic vista is going to be worth it.

The only question is, what Vivid Sydney cruise should you take? Just about every cruise company if offering a cruise to see Vivid Sydney, here’s two I think we are particularly worthy right now.

Captain Cook Cruises is offering several different Vivid Sydney cruise packages, including ones that come with a dinner on the harbour. The most economical is the simple Manly Vivid Sydney sightseeing cruise ($39-$55) that’s most popular amongst tourists. The approachable price point and front row seats to the 8pm Vivid fireworks gives you real value, plus you won’t have to put up with Vivid’s notoriously massive ferry queues. A lot of tourists will be in town so this is a smart way to help your experience run smoother.

Another great option is Tribal Warrior’s $35 Vivid Sightseeing Cruise, which gives you two hours on the water leaving from Man O’War steps and sailing around the harbour until 8pm. Note that the cruise will only take place on two nights throughout the festival, first on Saturday, May 31 and then again on Saturday, June 7.

Vivid Kayak Tours

If you want something a bit more intimate and low-profile than climbing onboard a boat to sail around Sydney Harbour, take note that there are a few kayak tours you can take during Vivid Sydney. Seeing the lights dance across the harbour while you’re floating in your very own kayak is one of the best ways to take it all in each year.

If floating around Darling Harbour is the preference, opt for the $130 Moonlight Sea Kayaking Experience. Both 6pm and 8:30pm sessions will set out on the water from HMAS Vampire Pavilion at the Australian National Maritime Museum, which will be one of several buildings around Darling Harbour brought to life with its own narrative-driven projection, complemented by a local Indigenous choir echoing throughout the area.

It wouldn’t quite be the same experience if you weren’t also paddling on over to Circular Quay and floating around Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. This is where Vivid’s most postcard-worthy perspectives are found so hit up the $165 City Lights Night Paddle, which takes guests out on single kayaks for a 1.5-hour sightseeing tour of Sydney Harbour, leaving from Kirribilli.

Vivid Bridgeclimb

Bridgeclimb is a bucketlist experience on any day of the year. Climbing to the very peak of Sydney Opera House and admiring 360-degree views of the world’s most beautiful harbour is an experience that goes beyond its price tag. During Vivid, the whole dynamic is flipped with summit climbs priced at around $340 each. Night climbs are fully guided and last for three hours (two hours on the bridge), limited to 14 people per group, and take in the full scope of Vivid’s iconic projections.

Vivid Sydney Program & Lineup

The full Vivid Sydney 2025 program and lineup was revealed on March 12, listing all the immersive experiences, food markets, one-off dinners, concerts, keynotes and light installations that will take up the 23-night festival this year.

The full Vivid Sydney lineup can be found at the event’s official website.

Vivid Sydney Venues

Vivid Sydney is best thought of in sections, with all the light installations and events occurring in five different zones, including Martin Place, which hasn’t been an official part of Vivid since 2018.

1. Circular Quay & The Rocks
2. Barangaroo
3. Darling Harbour
4. The Goods Line & Inner City
5. Martin Place

Vivid Sydney Food and Drink

While many of the collaborative dinners that make up the Vivid Chef Series and headline events like a feast in a tunnel curated by Nigella Lawson have sold out, there are still numerous food and drink specials on during Vivid Sydney for you get to across.

Once you’ve worked up on appetite from strutting along the entire Vivid Light Walk, head up on the 32nd floor of InterContinental Sydney. The hotel’s incredible Aster rooftop bar hangs over Circular Quay with a 27-degree vista that scans both the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. With the view taken care of, the bar has had the good sense to put together a Vivid package at $169 per person. You’ll get to choose from three curated flavour profiles (sweet, spicy or adventurous) that have each been themed with a bespoke cocktail and canapes, following by a shared entree and main course paired with two glasses of wine.

Did you know there’s a way to dine at Bennelong for less than $100 during Vivid? Yep, Peter Gilmore has put together a special Vivid menu at Bennelong Bar priced at $65 per person. It’ll be offered throughout Vivid, with four bespoke snacks paired with a specially made Dream Theatre cocktail built with Full Circle Summer Berry gin, smoked white rum, purified guava and VIVID Pearls. There’s a more upscale $285 per person three course Vivid menu as well with a class of Charles Heidsiceck’s Brut Reserve NV on arrival.

Vivid Fire Kitchen is a 23-night, free-to-attend food festival with some of the world’s best pitmasters, roasters and BBQ-ers coming together on The Goods Line. Back to another year, the fiery food event will have a series of cooking demonstrations and talks about fire cooking posted up alongside stalls from some of Sydney’s best restaurants, food trucks and more showing off every conceivable angle to the deathless trend of cooking over an open-flame.

New for Vivid 2025, the glamorous section of Surry Hills known as Hollywood Quarter will be turned into a massive, free and delicious block party on Saturday, May 31 for Hollywood Dreaming. The history of this area, which includes local favourites The Rover, Pellegrino 2000, Nomad and Golden Age Bar, will be cleverly displayed and reimagined to align with Vivid Sydney’s spectacular visual edge. All of the area’s best restaurants and bars will be staging pop ups, with plates of food priced from $15 to $20 each and pop-up bars from The Rover, Tio’s and Golden Age Bar.

Vivid Sydney Tips and Tricks

There are a number of tips and tricks that locals use to make the most of Vivid Sydney and try to cover the event highlights in one or two days so they don’t have to contend with the swarms of visitors who show up for this light festival each year.

At the very least, you should be planning your route in advance and looking at the Vivid Light Walk map so you can decide on your best course of action. We recommend starting at Circular Quay soon after sunset (around 5pm) and making your way around the harbour from there. This is because Circular Quay would get much too busy at peak hours (6pm – 11pm).

This is the first Vivid Sydney that’s had the Metro and Light Rail in place at the same time. Take advantage of the fact that it’s now much easier to move around Sydney and get to places quickly, like from Circular Quay to Barangaroo.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When is Vivid Sydney 2025 taking place?

Vivid Sydney 2025 starts on Friday, May 23 and runs up until Saturday, June 14.

2. What is the theme for Vivid Sydney 2025?

The theme for Vivid Sydney this year is simply “Dream.”

3. Are the light installations free to attend?

Although Vivid Sydney organisers copped some heat in previous years for charging an admission price for the bigger, more unique light installations, the Vivid Light Walk will be completely free for all this year. Every light installation that makes up the 8km Vivid Light Walk is free to view, to interact with, and to take photos of.

4. Why won’t there be a drone show at Vivid Sydney this year?

The popular Vivid drone show won’t be returning this year due to safety concerns.