VIVID SYDNEY 2022 PROGRAM UNVEILS BIGGEST, BRIGHTEST AND MOST BRILLIANT LINE-UP EVER

• LONGEST CONTINUOUS LIGHT WALK IN VIVID SYDNEY HISTORY;
• GLOBAL STORYTELLERS AARON SORKIN, GRETCHEN CARLSON & TROYE SIVAN
• HEADLINE VIVID IDEAS; WORLD PREMIERE OF “THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARCIA,” UK’S SPIRITUALIZED & BAXTER DURY TO ROCK VIVID MUSIC; FIRST NATIONS ARTWORK YARRKALPA - HUNTING GROUND, 2021 ANIMATED FOR
• SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE LIGHTING OF THE SAILS;
• PLUS, FIRST EVER VIVID SYDNEY DINNER.

Vivid Sydney 2022 will transform the Harbour City into an illuminating fusion of creativity, innovation and technology from Friday 27 May to Saturday 18 June, with more than 200+ events celebrating the essence of Sydney’s soul including its diversity, beauty, resilience, First Nations culture, and vibrant creative community.

Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, Minister for Tourism and Sport and Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said: “The Vivid Sydney 2022 program is bursting with new events, venues, performances, and experiences, providing even more reasons to visit time and time again. This year we are celebrating the festival’s 12th anniversary, with a bigger, brighter and more brilliant line-up than ever before.

“Audiences will feel energised and invigorated by a number of festival firsts. This includes the longest ever continuous Light Walk winding all the way from the Sydney Opera House to Central Station, the Vivid Sydney Dinner, Vivid Sydney Supper Club and more, as well as all the innovative light-art installations, projections, eclectic music performances, and thought-provoking talks we all know and love.

“Vivid Sydney is an open invitation for Sydneysiders and visitors from Australia and the world, to come and experience Sydney at its creative best after dark. The 2022 festival has been two years in the making and is not to be missed,” Mr Ayres said.

Festival Director Gill Minervini, who will deliver her first Vivid Sydney in 2022, said this year's program captures the essence of Sydney’s soul, exploring what makes the city so unique. “Vivid Sydney tells a compelling story of creativity, innovation, and technology through light, music, and ideas that is distinguishably Sydney, yet authentically universal. The 2022 program delivers fresh and engaging content, bringing feelings of joy, excitement, wonder, inspiration and hope to all who are innately drawn to it,” she said.

In 2022, 11 Sydney CBD locations will ignite, two of which are new, with Circular Quay, Sydney CBD, The Rocks, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour, Darling Square, Darling Quarter, The Goods Line, Central Station, Luna Park and Taronga Zoo, all coming to life with a mesmerising kaleidoscope of light artworks to wow visitors and locals alike.

Staged over 23 nights, the festival will deliver mesmerising art displays, 3D light projections, uplifting live music performances and deep-dive discussions from the world’s brightest minds. Plus, in a festival first, the renowned Light Walk will stretch continuously for 8km, linking the Sydney Opera House to Central Station, with more than 200 LED sculptural birds guiding the way as part of the Future Natives installation.

The Vivid Sydney 2022 Program includes:

THE VIVID SYDNEY DINNER
Great food, talks, music, wine and light collide at the very first Vivid Sydney Dinner – a celebration of all things Sydney. Join host Justine Clarke at Merivale’s Ivy Ballroom, which will be completely transformed into an effervescent feast for the senses on Saturday 4 June, featuring “love letters to Sydney” from renowned artist Ken Done and journalist/author Julia Baird. With music by the Vivid Sydney Brass Band, James Morrison, Ngaiire, Virginia Gay and Kate Monroe, a NSW inspired feast created by chefs Dan Hong and Mike Eggert, and a bespoke lighting experience.

VIVID LIGHT
Visitors will connect with powerful stories of Sydney’s soul after dark, as more than 50 light installations and projection artworks designed to explore and define the city’s character come to life.

Gill Minervini, who curated the 2022 Vivid Light program, said: “I am incredibly proud the Vivid Light program showcases 25 Sydney-based artists delivering a true representation of how Sydney makes us feel: vibrant, awe-inspired, mischievous, uplifted and curious”.

“Vivid Sydney’s Light collection features work from a vast array of artists, from the renowned Ken Done and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, to Luca French, an 11-year-old boy and the youngest artist ever to participate in the Light Walk. It’s very exciting to deliver a refreshed and surprising program that will enthral audiences.”

Revealing the various artistic interpretations of the “soul of the city” creative vision, the spectacular Light Walk will host the works of 62 light collaborators and 114 light artists from 5 countries, with street installations re-shaping old sights, surprising projection sites, large-scale immersive experiences and never-before-lit buildings adding new sparkle to the city skyline.

Works expressing their love story to Sydney include legendary Australian artist Ken Done. In collaboration with Spinifex Group, Done’s work For Sydney with Love will be projected onto the façade of landmark Customs House. Michaela Gleave’s large-scale illuminated text work will see the phrase Endless Love arching over Circular Quay in what will be an Instagram favourite. Temple, by Leila Jeffreys, is a large-scale work in Circular Quay paying homage to Sydney’s bird life and our relationship with them.

Celebrating Australia’s rich First Nations culture, the Sails of the Sydney Opera House will be transformed into an impressive new digital artwork, Yarrkalpa - Hunting Ground, 2021 by the Martu Artists and creative technologists Curiious, with soundtrack by Electric Fields and Martu Artists (inspired by Yarrkalpa – Always Walking Country 2014). The bold projection is inspired by the vibrant, Martumili collective painting, Yarrkalpa- Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area, 2013, created by eight female artists of the Pilbara region.

First Light, a moving Welcome to Country ceremony and performance is another first for Vivid Sydney 2022, celebrating the Gadigal people and Country. Opening the festival on Friday 27 May, audiences will be captivated with a smoking ceremony, stunning performances by NAISDA students, a pyrotechnic display and Sharing the Same Life Essence Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections. Rhoda Roberts AO is the Creative Advisor for First Light.

Mandylights’ Our Connected City will shine new light on the city’s landmarks, with over 200 searchlights beaming across Sydney Harbour, CBD buildings and the Cahill Expressway, while also linking the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in riotous colour. Between them, at Circular Quay, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will morph into a kinetic, visual journey of the work of acclaimed Australian artist Helen Eager, who has collaborated with artists Rico and Julian Reinhold from H0rse, to create New York Sunday. Be transported on a visual journey through Eager’s work, with colour, light, and geometric fortified by a soundtrack from electro-pop musician Paul Mac.

In two festival firsts, the waters of Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour, will dance with the showstopping Sydney Infinity by Oracle Liquid, an epic water sculpture in a scale never seen before in Australia. Featuring dynamic jets, 12 x 80m high water shooters and dramatic lighting supported by a Sydney inspired soundtrack from DJ Pee Wee Ferris, this is set to be an audience favourite.

Also on water, Walsh Bay will come alive with a 100m floating Light Walk incorporating the large-scale artwork Ephemeral Oceanic. Produced by Sydney’s own Atelier Sisu, visitors are invited to walk under more than 200 giant, bubble-like spheres hovering eight metres in the air.

www.vividsydney.com/