Program unveiled for VIVID Sydney 2021

Vivid Sydney 2021 will see Sydney transformed from Friday 6th August to Saturday 28th August - with more than 200 events celebrating the City's diversity, resilience, Aboriginal culture and vibrant creative community.

Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by the NSW Government through Destination NSW, and in 2019 attracted 2.4 million attendees delivering $172 million in visitor expenditure to the NSW economy.

In 2021, the ideas are big, bright, bold and set to work their magic across the city for 23 days and nights. The festival will ignite five locations in 2021, with Circular Quay, The Rocks, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour and Luna Park Sydney all showcasing a mesmerising kaleidoscope of light artworks to wow visitors and locals alike.

Reinvigorating Sydney’s live music industry as it rebuilds, Vivid Music 2021 will deliver more than 50 live shows held in surprising venues to offer one-of-a-kind experiences - Hyde Park Barracks, The Calyx – Royal Botanic Garden, Luna Park, The Bearded Tit and Parliament House will all pull back the curtains to host musical performances.

Festival Director Gill Minervini notes “Vivid Sydney is all about pushing boundaries and transporting festival-goers to a playground of the unexpected. This year’s program delivers fresh and engaging content, bringing feelings of joy, wonder, discovery, hope and excitement to all who absorb it.

“This year the program reveals an incredibly rich and diverse line-up across our ever-evolving cultural landscape including Australia’s rich Aboriginal heritage, Sydney’s vibrant LGBTQI+ culture, and the incredible group of strong, empowered women who continue to ensure Vivid Sydney remains relevant globally.”

NSW Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres adds “through revealing the vibrancy of the full Vivid Sydney 2021 program, there is no doubt this much-loved festival will provide everyone with a multitude of reasons to experience Sydney after dark.

“Now in its 12th year, Vivid Sydney 2021 will be unlike anything you’ve seen before, transforming five locations across the CBD with unexpected light-art installations and projections, eclectic music performances and thought-provoking talks. The Vivid Sydney we know and love will be back, from the creativity and innovation to interactivity and excitement.”

Visitors will connect with powerful stories of resilience through 50 immersive and kinetic light installations and projection artworks all designed to explore and showcase the power of quiet strength.

Vivid Light Curator Lucy Keeler advises “there’s always meaning to a work, and that’s one of the greatest things about Vivid Sydney. With the huge diversity of artists represented, you’re getting a real mix of personal views and beliefs.

“Vivid Sydney’s light art collection demonstrates artists exploring the zeitgeist. This year a response to the themes of isolation, escapism and a need for greater human connection is prevalent.”

Revealing the various artistic interpretations of the resilience theme, the spectacular Light Walk will host the works of 59 light collaborators and 129 light artists from 19 countries, with street installations reshaping old sights and giving never-before-lit buildings a new sparkle in the city skyline.

Celebrating our rich Indigenous culture, the Sails of the Sydney Opera House will be transformed into an impressive new digital rendition of an iconic Martu painting. The new projection, Yarrkalpa - Hunting Ground, 2021 by the Martu Artists and Curiious with soundtrack by Electric Fields and Martu Artists (inspired by Yarrkalpa – Always Walking Country 2014), is inspired by the vibrant collective painting, Yarrkalpa- Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area, 2013 created by the Martu Artists of the Pilbara region, and the award-winning Yarrkalpa – Always Walking Country (2014) artwork by Martu/Wallworth/Anohni. Shard is another beautiful First Nations artwork providing a portal into a world unknown. Featuring LED screen technology, this mind-bending collaboration between young Aboriginal dancers and light artists will challenge what we know about language.

Mandylights’ Our Connected City will shine new light on the city’s landmarks, with over 200 searchlights beaming across the 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.

In a festival-first, the waters of Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour will come alive with a 100 metre floating Light Walk incorporating the large-scale artwork Ephemeral. 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.

Various installations will also explore the wonders of our natural world. Patterns in Nature – a large-scale installation based around the elements of earth, fire, water and air – will weave its spell at First Fleet Park. Created by University of Technology Sydney design students as part of their Vivid School course in 2020, the work pays homage to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, its passion for flora conservation and its support for cutting-edge botanical science.

Symbiosis by Dirty Monitor, located in the heritage-listed roadway of The Argyle Cut, is a new creation specially designed for Vivid Sydney. Through animated 3D paintings and contemplative and poetic music, the work transports viewers into a universe where the human species merges with various living organisms to give birth to new forms of life.

Plus, in a life-affirming light installation set to spark joy in every visitor, Holi is the biggest interactive projection in Vivid Sydney’s history. Set on the Hickson Road Wall near the Park Hyatt, the colourful piece is based on the notion of sharing and of celebrating life and happiness and will invite visitors to leave their own mark on the wall using special effects.

For full 2021 Vivid Sydney program go to vividsydney.com/

Image of large-scale artwork Ephemeral: Sydney-based design studio Atelier Sisu works at the intersection of art and architecture creating large-scale site-specific works that enchant by reinventing places. For Ephemeral's world premiere, they have scattered over 200 larger-than-life illuminated spheres across Cockle Bay, complete with a floating boardwalk, transforming Darling Harbour into a giant bubble bath.