Whilst Vivid Sydney was again creatively well done with their theme of Humanity, numerous things put a downer on this year’s edition.
During & after the recent edition of Vivid Sydney, a lot of people who attended Vivid Sydney were claiming the iconic Light Walk was not as interesting as previous years so, we decided to compare the 2 previous Light Walks.
Our analysis reveals what people thought was the case in 2024 – the Vivid Light Walk was not as entertaining as the previous year. The below graphs are designed to follow the Light Walk, from Bennelong Point to Railway Square. The lower the line, the less entertaining the Light Walk was.
As you can see 2023’s line is notably higher & fluctuating more than 2024’s line, this signals an entertaining Light Walk with something new always around the corner, particularly at the Museum Of Contemporary Art, the Sydney Harbour Bridge south-eastern pylon, Tumblalong Park, the Powerhouse Museum & Central Railway Station. Whilst Barangaroo Reserve was a significant rise in attention-grabbing, the line notably dips at the Barangaroo development just south of the Reserve & around the western and eastern shores of Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour – the only parts deemed not entertaining, though Cockle Bay’s dip is due to the best vantage point for the Bay’s water light show being on the southern shore.
2024’s line though is nearly flat with the Light Walk only entertaining around West Circular Quay & around Tumblalong Park and The Goods Line. Again, take into account Cockle Bay’s water light show. This time the line only significant peaks at The Goods Line. It seems like The Goods Line has been a target for this year’s edition particularly as the popular Fire Kitchen of Vivid Food (The Fire Kitchen is not part of the Vivid Light Walk) was relocated there after making its debut at Barangaroo Reserve in 2023.
Vivid‘s planning relies on interest from the artists. Expressions of interest (EOI) are advertised in August the year prior, closing around October. If there are less EOIs, there will be less installations – nothing Vivid Sydney can do about that. In 2023, there were 54 Light Walk installations. This year, there was 32 Light Walk installations – a decline of 40%.
And whilst the drone shows themselves was good, don’t get me started on their logistical planning…
The lack of activation in Walsh Bay & Barangaroo Reserve could have spread crowds out but given the line is so low, those areas may have looked like any ordinary night for spectators & so they turned around and headed back into Circular Quay, exacerbating the crowds waiting &/or watching the drone show.
I will point out that Vivid may have made another critical error here. Whilst last year’s drone shows were obviously extremely popular, the organisers may have only received 1 EOI for a drone show & for 3 nights only due to availability. They may then have accepted it as ‘better than no drone show’ and forgot to take into account the concept’s popularity due to the well-used EOI process. This was partly how the 2016 near-crowd crush occurred.
A counterargument to that is that the event’s director, Gill Minervini, personally creatively directed the drone show. She also creatively directed the extremely popular 2023 drone shows called Written In The Stars so she will have been well aware of their popularity & thus could have insisted on a requirement for more drone shows or none at all.
Those near-crowd crushes may have had an effect on the attendance as it occurred on the busiest day of the event. The next 2 days were expected to be the 2nd & 3rd busiest days of the event. The event’s final night was also expected to be a significant night with the final drone show but that drone show got cancelled. Whilst Circular Quay reached capacity the night after the near-crowd crushes, this might not have been enough to indicate usual attendance as we predicted a quarter of a million people to attend & Circular Quay’s capacity is around 70,000 so we can only be sure that 70,000 people attended the 2nd scheduled drone show unlike the previous night, where we are sure a quarter of a million people showed up, capacity wasn’t enforced, resulting in 94,000 affected by the near-crowd crushes.
All this has resulted in a first for Vivid Sydney – a decline in attendance & not just a small decline. It was 900,000 people less at 2.42 million. This after breaking the record last edition to 3.3 million. Whilst we speculated Vivid‘s approaching peak in 2017, the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent 2 consecutive cancellations, prolonged the time before Vivid reached its peak. Last year’s drone shows resulted in an extraordinarily high record attendance, which puts to question why organisers didn’t see how 2024’s drone shows wouldn’t be as popular.
Whilst Vivid Sydney‘s creativity is ensured, its logistics and engagement (and not just on social media) needs improving.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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