Talk about a glow up!
If you live in Sydney, an easy judge of how fast the year is getting away from you is by how fast the Vivid Lights Festival comes around.
For anyone who doesn’t live in Sydney, here’s the answer: this year is going really bloody fast because Vivid is almost here.
As an FYI for anyone who doesn’t know or may have forgotten, Vivid is an annual festival which combines lights, holograms and art installations to bring Sydney Harbour to life.
Some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the opera house, are lit up with shapes and colours.
The 2019 program is one of the most magical yet.
This year, the Sydney Opera House’s sails will be lit up with dancing images of Australian flora from LA artist and videomaker Andrew Thomas Huang.
Customs House will be covered in neon underwater creatures in a themed projection show called Under The Harbour.
Dory where you at?
There’ll also be a range of immersive light installations including a pop-up ‘winter camp’ in Barangaroo (with a giant), a ‘robot spaceland’ in Darling Harbour, 300 colourful animal sculptures in Taronga Zoo, a 28-metre playable harp in Chatswood and a field of 500 fireflies in the Royal Botanic Garden.
Check out the full list of list installations and projections here.
Pixar has also partnered with Vivid this year, and will be projecting our favourite characters from their animated films onto the façade of the Argyle Cut in the Rocks.
What a lot of people don’t realise (or maybe it’s just us) is that Vivid is a lot more than just a light show. Vivid Music and Vivid Ideas present a bunch of musical acts and guest speakers to inspire you.
This year you can watch live performances from The Cure, folk-rock singer Sharon Van Etten, American singer Maggie Rogers, FKA Twigs, and more.
Vivid Ideas this year scored Spike Lee as its big ticket speaker. Yes, Oscar winner Spike Lee.
And there’s one more thing; Vivid Sydney has launched its inaugural Vivid School.
Vivid School will give High School students in Years 9-12 the opportunity to meet artists behind the event’s acclaimed light installations, and to learn more about the processes involved in the light art production to inform them about careers in creative industries.
Which is pretty cool.
Vivid School will cover four different topics and run for up to four full-day school programs from Monday 27 to Thursday 30 May.
We weren’t joking when we said Vivid 2019 was the best yet. And there’s plenty more where that came from. Check the Vivid Sydney website for more details.
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Written by Krisinda Merhi
Images: Vivid Sydney
