Vivid Sydney 2023 will be a historic edition of the Sydney Spectaculars for good reasons for now. We will go into detail about this in a post-event review. But this final week will determine whether there will be any negative reasons it will be historic.
Vivid Sydney started in 2009 and after exploding into popularity in 2013, the crowds have consistently grown to the point that in 2017, I wrote a lengthy opinion article called Vivid Sydney Has Potential For Disaster. It has consistently been the most popular Vivid article on this site from its 2016 publication. Since then, Vivid has implemented some of my recommendations, some successfully, some poorly. There are still things Vivid needs to do to improve crowd management, but this week will determine if they have left it too late.
In summary, Vivid Sydney 2023 will be historic for being the 1st time Sydney New Year’s Eve is no longer the most creative event on Sydney Harbour and as well as heralding in the next era or ‘revolution’: the use of drone shows on Sydney Harbour.
Drones show did not pop up overnight. Vivid held the 1st Sydney Harbour drone show in 2016 – a 1-night 100-drone world-record breaking drone show (video above). It took another 6 years before they re-appeared as a 500-drone show on Sydney Harbour in January 2022 as part of Elevate Sydney. Vivid also brought it back last year as a 1-night show but up to 600 drones. These previous 2 shows set the southern hemisphere record. Drone shows were also held for The Everest Barrier Draw & the re-opening of the Art Gallery Of New South Wales. Noel Sydney was held one twice a night in the week before Christmas. In January this year, Elevate Sydney became the 1st annual Sydney Harbour drone show and right now, Vivid has become Sydney Harbour’s 2nd annual and most popular drone show.
Crowds have unexpectedly spiked during the times drone shows are held & even more surprising, everyone is leaving as soon as the drone show has finished. Combining this with the fact this is the 1st post-COVID-19 pandemic edition (last year’s edition was held despite significant cases of COVID-19 in New South Wales), director, Gill Minervini, has declared crowds are about 38% higher than last year.
Last year’s edition was record-breaking – 2.58 million people overall or 112,000 people per night on average. Taking into account the 38% extra crowds – Vivid Sydney 2023 is set to have a mind-blowing 3.5 million visitors overall or 155,000 per night on average – and we are in the middle of the most popular period to visit Vivid Sydney – the King’s Birthday long weekend. So far, 2 million people have been confirmed to have attended – just a half a million off the record so far.
The final 2 Written In The Stars drone shows are at 9:10pm on Monday & Wednesday night – the Monday being a public holiday. Luckily, unlike in 2016 when a crowd crush occurred near the Moore Steps, Vivid Sydney has been preparing for the extraordinarily sized crowds to converge for these final 2 drone shows particularly Monday night’s. Today, in addition to the existing transport advice, organisers released some special transport advice for this Monday and Wednesday:
If travelling by train or light rail, hop off/on at Town Hall and walk down/up George Street to/from Circular Quay. This walk will take about 20 minutes both directions.
From 8:30pm to 9:30pm, trains will not stop at Circular Quay directly from/to certain stops. A list of the stops is at the end of the article. For all other stops, trains will not drop off passengers at Circular Quay on Monday only. This means between 8:30pm & 9:30pm on drone show nights, trains will not stop at Platform 1 – the Harbour Bridge view platform – as people are crowding out the platform not to catch a train but for the ‘perfect’ view of the drones. As a result, all trains during those times, will leave from Platform 2 – the Customs House platform. If you want a similar view, find a publicly open nearby building that has publicly accessible views of Circular Quay or go to the Cahill Expressway walkway, directly above Circular Quay train station.
A lot of customers tend to congregate on the platform, to get a nice view of the drones over Circular Quay. It’s very important, obviously, that we maintain the safety of that platform.
Sydney Trains Chief Executive Matt Longland
From 5pm Monday to 1am Tuesday & 9pm to 10:30pm Wednesday, the Circular Quay, Bridge Street, Wynyard & Queen Victoria Building light rail stations will not be operating. Remember, Vivid Light ends at 11pm each night.
New South Wales Police also announced extra police resources will be deployed on Monday.
Remember, you can also watch Monday’s Written In The Stars drone show online live or watch a stream of Sunday the 28th of May’s drone show by visiting our ‘Watch LIVE’ page.
Like we wrote in 2016, extra police officers will only take up more space. The Circular Quay Platform 1 problem won’t be solved unless they empty & close access to the platform at 8:30pm. We believe they will do that but there has been no confirmation of it. In any case, we advise to not use that platform to watch, photograph or film the drone show. The advice given by organisers won’t alone reduce crowds but will make getting to & leaving Vivid Sydney a lot easier if implemented. Instinct will lead people to still head to Circular Quay train station to head home as that would be normally the quickest way (particularly in the 10 minutes post-drone show unless your stop is listed below). Until Vivid implements correctly the recommendations I made in the 2016 article, we can only rely on their advice: please arrive and head home via a George Street walk & Town Hall train/light rail stations.
You can also consult these resources:
But the final question is – has Vivid Sydney learnt the lessons of 2016 yet or will it be too late? We’ll find out the latter by Thursday.
Don’t forget to not bring your drone (unless you have approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority)! And if you see illegal drone use to report it here!
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Stations Trains Won’t Come From Or Go To At Circular Quay On Monday & Wednesday Between 8:30pm & 9:30pm
- Ashfield
- Bankstown
- Liverpool
- Campsie
- Cabramatta
- Fairfield
- Flemington
- Marrickville
- Lakemba
- Petersham
- Newtown
- Homebush
- Guildford
- Lewisham
- Canterbury
- Belmore
- Berala
- Canley Vale
- Dulwich Hill
- Croydon
- Erksineville
- Merrylands
- Stanmore
- Leppington
- Edmondson Park
- Summer Hill
- Hurlstone Park
- Punchbowl
- Chester Hill
- Macdonaldtown
- Warwick Farm
- Birrong
- Wiley Park
- Yagoona
- Regents Park
- Yennora
- Carramar
- Sefton
- Casula
- Villawood
- Leightonfield
Sydney Spectaculars 