A 40 kilometre Global Rainbow, by United States artist Yvette Mattern, emanating from Sydney Tower Eye north to as far as Woy Woy on the Central Coast is the standout highlight of Vivid Sydney 2024.
Artist Impression: Vivid Sydney
Yvette Mattern is a visual artist, based in Los Angeles & Berlin, whose work has an emphasis on video, film & public light installations. Her work has been internationally exhibited, with Global Rainbow already appearing in Berlin, London, Toronto & Northern Ireland & she has collaborated with many artists on film and theatre projects including Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer, Al Pacino, Diller+Scofidio and The Builder’s Association among others.
Satellite Image: Google Maps
Vivid Sydney 2024, with its theme of Humanity, will spotlight our love, kindness, compassion & creativity. Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini, said this year will look at how our interconnected world is fuelled by creativity:
Humanity is at the core of everything we do & this year, Vivid Sydney is diving deep into what makes us uniquely human.
We have curated a diverse program that explores the human spirit, designed to foster connections, spark imagination & showcase the multitude of ways creativity enriches our lives. Everyone is invited to be part of this global event in the world’s most beautiful city to connect, create & celebrate.
Illuminating Sydney’s stunning harbourfront & CBD with vibrant bursts of colour, mesmerising artworks & dynamic 3D projections, Vivid Light beckons everyone to immerse themselves in a display of human creativity and experience. In 2024, we emphasise works of grand scale, interactivity & profound meaning, delving into the rich tapestry of human experience through exclusive artist collaborations only found at Vivid Sydney.
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity’ Director
Made of laser beams, Yvetta Mattern is using her Global Rainbow to increase hope for a more inclusive world.
Over at the Sydney Opera House, the centrepiece of Vivid Sydney, the Lighting Of The Sails, will this year be themed Echo (pictured at top of article). Using the projection mapping technology of The Pleasant Company & a soundscape by Angus Mills, Echo sees reality being made of only fabric, a touchstone of the commissioned artist, the most recent Archibald Prize winner, Julia Gutman, who leads us into Narcissus’s shadowy water world, navigating rocky subsoils & dangerous rivers. to ask us ‘What it means to truly see yourself?’
Through puppetry, Echo tells a story of vulnerability & strength, weaving together the imagined and the real, the public and the private & the dark and the light, calling us to look inwards & meet our shadows head on.
My 1st ever animation, Echo is a digital translation of patchworks I’ve made to date alongside a suite of imagery created specifically from the work, all of which have been composed from worn clothing, sheets & blankets donated by my community. The lines between self and other blur.
The work is about the paradox of self-consciousness, the limitations of our own capacity to truly see ourselves & the way our own unconscious wounds spill out into our perceptions of one another. It’s a story about confronting your shadow.
Intimacy lives at the core of my practice. I truly believe that life is just one long conversation or at least that’s what makes it mean something. Echo brings together my interests in narrative, materiality and the psychological in a story that I hope can be simultaneously personal & universal.
I’m incredibly overwhelmed & grateful that this work will be projected on the sails of the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE 2024.
Julia Gutman, ‘Lighting Of The Sails’ 2014 Commissioned Artist
The Sydney Harbour Bridge & city buildings will, once again, be illuminated by Mandylights in their non-interactive soundtracked installation, Our Connected City. The Vivid Light Walk is also the same length – 8 kilometres – stretching from the Sydney Opera House/Circular Quay to Central Station via the Sydney Harbour foreshore & The Goods Line.
In Cockle Bay at Darling Harbour, the annual water/light/laser/projection show returns, though for now without pyrotechnics & this year is called Hika Rakuyo, which is a Japanese concept that uses flowers & falling leaves as a metaphor for life’s transient beauty. Focusing on native Australian flowers, this 8-minute show, on loop & produced by ETERNAL Art Space of Japan, uses holograms as well with the last show concluding at approximately 10:53pm each night.
In a surprise move though, no drone shows were announced at the Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity media launch. In a response to Sydney Spectaculars’ request for comment, Vivid Sydney hinted that a future drone show announcement will be made.
Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2013 – Shine Creative Ambassador, Reg Mombassa, will be using his artwork from that event on Customs House this year in a projection mapping show, in collaboration with The Spinfix Group, titled Gumscape With Road & Creatures. Judging by the photo below, they have already done 1 projection of it!
Photograph: Vivid Sydney
It’s a journey into a microscopic world of bacterial monsters (just what we need after COVID-19!) but leaving us questioning our collective identity & humanity’s meaning. The best night to visit it is Saturday 25th May as at 7:30pm, Reg Mombassa will be there in front of Customs House in person performing free live music as part of the band, Dog Trumpet. This may mean the projection show does not have an official soundtrack.
Vivid Music in 2024 elevates artist stories & connects audiences in a diverse range of spaces, from cultural institutions & theatres to free & accessible spaces across the Vivid Light Walk. Hear music in new parts of our city & gather to celebrate voices from all around the world, artists who remind us that songs vibrate at the centre of our shared humanity.
Julian Ramundi, ‘Vivid Music’ 2024 – ‘Humanity’ Curator
Talking of music, Vivid Music in 2024 will expand to a new ‘Machine Hall Precinct’ in old Electricity Substation Number 164 at 183 Clarence Street with headliners of Deerhoof, Jen Cloher and No Fixed Address while down at Tumbalong Park near Darling Harbour, Tumbalong Nights returns for 12 nights with artists including Budjerah, grentperez (who performed at the last Sydney NYE concert) and Mallrat. Curated once again by Sydney Opera House’s Contemporary Music Head, Ben Marshall, Vivid Live also returns at the Sydney Opera House, featuring more than 50 Australian and international artists including Air, Arca, Underworld, Fever Ray, Snoh Aalegra, Sky Ferreira, Devonté Hynes, Sydney Symphony Orchestra with United Kingdom conductor Matthew Lynch & many more plus another annual series of Studio Parties.
And what’s bigger than Vivid Music? Vivid Food! Returning after its successful inaugural edition last year, Vivid Food in 2024 will see the popular Fire Kitchen relocated to The Goods Line while the 2023 sell-out Residence will return but the 2024 chef & host restaurant is still a mystery. A new VividPlace Food Trail just south of Circular Quay will feature a short but tasty journey through the ‘market’ stalls of 20 restaurants/bars while a unique bar snack & cocktail experience titled Auroeae (not May 29) will feature at Bennelong Bar by award-winning chef, Peter Gilmore.
In its 2nd year, the festival’s newest pillar Vivid Food explores how food is often at the core of the human experience, acting as both a vibrant expression of diversity & a powerful connecter. Blending internationally celebrated cuisine with authentic local food experiences, Vivid Sydney 2024 presents renowned & culturally diverse food cultures in Sydney to the world.
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity’ Director
Plates With Purpose – A Taste Of Ukraine (4 June), allows you to show your solidarity with Ukraine through the 10-course cooking by Ukrainian refugees while a showcase of women in Aussie gastronomy & winemaking will feature at A Culinary Canvas by Danielle Alvarez (from 7 June). The Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon Lookout & renowned chef Luke Mangan will also again feature as Table on Tuesday-Thursday nights.
Carriageworks will also feature once again for 13 days & nights with both Vivid Music & Food events.
Lastly, Vivid Ideas will feature this year After The Fact, a nightly current affair discussion series (27 May-14 June except 5 June) featuring Sydney NYE2008-2010 Creative Director, Rhoda Roberts & The Games Of The XXVIIth Olympiad: Opening Ceremony – Awakening Co-Director, Stephen Page among others. You can also peek into someone else’s window and discover a universal human trait at Window Dressing (not on Mondays). Shifting Perspectives is another installation, featuring dancing & a mirror maze (29 May-1 June) to bend your mind in a perception deception. In our opinion, rhese latter 2 installations deserve to be a part of Vivid Light rather than Vivid Ideas.
The Vivid Ideas program of 2024 offers the panel discussions, conferences & talks for which it is renowned, but this year we’ve broadened the program to include events that express ideas in less traditional formats. Think performance, walking tours, a 1-on-1 experience with a stranger, meditations and cryptoscopophilia!
Rachel Healy, ‘Vivid Ideas’ 2024 – ‘Humanity’ Curator
You can also foster connections with new people at the critically-acclaimed A THOUSAND WAYS: An Encounter (29 May-14 June except 4 June) or join a different influential Australian each night as they present a curated series of films at the Golden Age of Humanity (Tuesday, Thursdays & Saturdays).
Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director Gill Minervini, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, has also hinted there are still “stratospheric” “big” Vivid Ideas announcements to come!
Tickets for Vivid Sydney 2024 ticketed events went on sale on March 11.
We’re getting set for the 14th Vivid Sydney. It’s an important event every year that Sydneysiders & visitors alike have come to love. It’s not just a light show. It’s a celebration of light, music, ideas & food – a program full of rich cultural experiences that resonate with locals & visitors alike.
Vivid Sydney brings together important parts of Sydney’s culture – Light, Music, Ideas & Food. It celebrates what’s great and unique about our city and our state & creates a uniquely Sydney experience. That’s why it’s been so popular over so many years.
This year’s festival will have a variety of free & cost-effective events on offer to provide many opportunities for people to come together & celebrate.
Last year, the festival achieved the biggest attendance on record & the largest visitor expenditure in its history, with more than 3.48 million attendees generating more than $206 million in visitor expenditure.
We look forward to welcoming Sydneysiders & the world as they come & experience first-hand Sydney at its creative best at Vivid Sydney 2024.
John Graham, New South Wales Minister For Jobs, Tourism, The Arts, Music & The Night-Time Economy
Sydney Spectaculars 
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