Join our master of ceremonies, Charlie Pickering, as he counts down the biggest night of the year with the New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2017 broadcast, Countdown Live NYE 2017 on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Television (TV) & ABC iview.
Presented from the Sydney Opera House, Charlie takes us through an evening jam-packed full of unmissable entertainment from an all-star line-up including Jimmy Barnes, Phil Jamieson, Marcia Hines & Kate Ceberano, with plenty of fun for all-ages including the Family Fireworks at 9pm, culminating in the world-famous Midnight Fireworks.
The evening events will commence with the Welcome To Country with Rhoda Roberts (Order Of Australia), followed by The Early Night Show, co-hosted by Hoot The Owl& the one and only Kitty Flanagan. Featuring The Play School Band, jugglers, acrobats & a marching band, it promises to be fun for all the family!
We will cross to ABC ME’s Grace Koh & Giggle And Hoot’s Jimmy Giggle who will be live from Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. There will be a very special performance from Casey Donovan, we take a look at some hilarious Play School auditions & some of our younger viewers give us their views on hot topics and what was the “best-thing-ever” that happened to them in 2017.
At 9pm, the winner of ABC ME’s Design Your Own Firework competition, 7-year-old Lucia from Adelaide, will set the Sydney sky alight with the Family Fireworks display featuring her own unique firework design.
After the 9pm Family Fireworks, Charlie will take us through a variety of hilarious & heart-warming segments including comedianSammy J, who will present his unique take on some of the year’s key stories & a behind the scenes look at the rehearsals for the biggest concert of the year.
Then it is time to do yourself a favour & get your groove on when the legendary Molly Meldrum welcomes Australia to Countdown Live, a live concert celebrating the songs of the iconic show, Countdown, performed by many of our most loved artists.
Audiences can enjoy live: Jimmy Barnes, Phil Jamieson, Colin Hay, Casey Donovan, John Paul Young, Marcia Hines, Kate Ceberano, Ngaiire, Montaigne, Isaiah Firebrace, Mahalia Barnes & Prinnie Stevens. They will be performing the music that is, quintessentially, Australia’s song book, with a few international classics thrown in for good measure.
At midnight, stand by as Sydney becomes the focus of the world as thousands of fireworks light up Sydney Harbour & we welcome 2018.
RUNDOWN HIGHLIGHTS (exact times subject to change):
8:35pm: New Year’s Eve 2017 commences on ABC & ABC iview
8:38pm: Welcome To Country
8:41pm: The Early Night Show
9pm: Family Fireworks
9.30pm: Countdown Live
Midnight: Fireworks
Audiences can watch the full broadcast in high definition on ABC TV with live streaming also available on ABC iview. The Welcome To Country, the Family & Midnight Fireworks will also be available on the ABC TV YouTube channel. The Family & Midnight Fireworks will also be streamed live on ABC TV’s Facebook page.
A rainbow waterfall of fireworks will cascade from the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of this year’s Sydney New Year’s Eve (Sydney NYE) celebrations.
Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said the dramatic ‘technicolour’ fireworks would confirm Sydney as the New Year’s Eve capital of the world again & celebrate Australians saying ‘Yes’ to marriage equality.
“This is a fabulous way to see out 2017 – the year that 4 out of 5 Sydneysiders said a resounding ‘Yes’ to marriage equality” the Lord Mayor said.
“The rainbow waterfall is a well-earnt tribute to the Sydney 78ers who marched for gay rights 40 years ago – it is a reminder of how far we have come & how far we have left to achieve true equality for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex community. It is a wonderful way to ring in the new year & celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras”
“With more fireworks than ever before, this year’s Sydney NYE celebration guarantees to be the biggest, brightest & best in the world”
“Sydney New Year’s Eve contributes an estimated AUD$133 million to the local economy & puts Sydney on the map as a global city for tourism, business, events and creativity on every level”
It takes Sydney fireworks director Fortunato Foti & the crew from Sydney family company, Foti Fireworks International, more than 5,000 hours to create the Sydney NYE display.
“The challenge this year was to create never-before-seen displays. Out of this, we have created some great effects that I am looking forward to sharing with the people of Sydney & the world” Mister (Mr) Foti said.
“This waterfall effect is a first for the Bridge & we have chosen the rainbow colours that work best for fireworks: red, yellow, green, blue, purple & silver”
Mr Foti says there will be more than 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects on the night, setting a new record for the annual event’s 9pm Family & Midnight Fireworks with:
8 tonnes of fireworks – 1 tonne more than in 2016
13,000 shells – 1,000 more than in 2016
30,000 shooting comets – 5,000 more than in 2016
Inner-Sydney artist, Nadia Hernández, is the creative artist for this Sydney NYE and a series of bright artwork designs have inspired a vibrant colour palette for the fireworks.
This year, the 9pm Family and Midnight Fireworks & the dramatic lighting effects beamed from the Sydney Harbour Bridge will feature new pastel shades including bright orange, pink, lime green & light blue.
Her artwork designs also feature inspirational words including ‘wonder’, ‘harmony’, ‘hope’ & ‘together’, which will feature in the animations projected onto the Harbour Bridge pylons on the night.
“I included these words in the Sydney NYE2017 – Wonder artworks because they reflect my love of Sydney & send a positive message of hope for Australia and the world as we move into a new year” Miss (Ms) Hernández said.
“The words & colours are all about what a wonderful place Sydney is in summer – spending time outdoors with family & with friends – and that sums up NYE in Sydney too”
“It is such an honour to have been chosen by the City to be the creative artist for Sydney NYE2017 – Wonder. This project really has been a dream come true for me”
This year, the Welcome To Country will include a tribute marking the 50th anniversary of the Sydney-San Francisco sister city relationship that will be celebrated in 2018.
A message from the Muwekma Ohlone peoples of the San Francisco Bay area will be projected onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons at the close of the evening’s Welcome To Country.
Sydney New Year’s Eve creative consultant, Rhoda Roberts (Order Of Australia), said the message marked a close connection between the 2 cities’ First Peoples.
“There is a lovely connection between Sydney & San Francisco – both cities are very similar in their geography & both cities have a strong and vibrant Indigenous culture” Ms Roberts said.
“There is a great synergy between the histories of the First Peoples of these 2 great cities. The language, the stories & the rituals of the Indigenous peoples here & in San Francisco have survived recognised and honoured & are still strong today”
At the close of the Sydney NYE2017 – Wonder Welcome To Country, the following words in the language of the Muwekma Ohlone people will appear: “Makkin Mak Muwekma Wolwoolum, Akkoy Mak-Warep, Manne Mak Hiswi!”, which translates to English as: “We Are Muwekma Ohlone, Welcome To Our Land, Where We Are Born, San Francisco Bay Area”.
San Francisco Mayor, Edwin M. Lee, said the city was proud to be included in Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations.
“We are honored that 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of our sister city friendship which has built common understanding, cooperation & partnership across the Pacific” he said.
“In January, our San Francisco delegation will be visiting your beautiful city & joining with your citizens in celebrating 50 years of friendship & to set the foundation for another 50 years of citizen diplomacy”
The Sydney NYE2017 – Wonder program highlights include (times are Australian Eastern Daylight Time):
6pm Pre-Show Entertainment
8:38pm Welcome To Country
9pm Family Fireworks
9:15pm Harbour Of Light Parade
Midnight Fireworks
Getting in & out of the city centre is different on NYE. There will be road closures, on-street fencing & diversions to help people get around safely & move crowds to transport. Visit sydneynewyearseve.com for detailed information.
This New Year’s Eve (NYE) the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Sydney Opera House & the City Of Sydney will be presenting Countdown Live NYE 2017; a concert celebrating the songs of Countdown performed by many of our most loved artists.
Jimmy Barnes, Phil Jamieson, Marcia Hines, Casey Donovan, Montaigne plus many more will provide the soundtrack to the nation’s New Year’s Eve party broadcast via ABC Television, Radio, iView & social media as we sing our way up to the Midnight Fireworks.
In the spirit of celebration, we are looking for the nation’s biggest music fans to join us at the Sydney Opera House’s Northern Broadwalk. So, do yourself a favour & in 25 words or less, tell us what being at this once-in-a-lifetime concert, under the NYE fireworks at the Sydney Opera House, would mean to you.
For further information & terms and conditions, please see below.
ABOUT THE ABC’S COUNTDOWN LIVE NYE 2017 COMPETITION:
Tell us in 25 words or less what being at this legendary concert, under the NYE fireworks at the Sydney Opera House, would mean to you.
Prize: 450 x double passes to the ‘Classic Countdown’ Concert on the Sydney Opera House Northern Broadwalk on Sunday the 31st of December 2017 from 4pm.
PLUS – 1 lucky group of 4 friends will have the chance to win a trip to Sydney including flights & accommodation to experience the concert & the NYE celebrations.
Entries must be submitted via the ‘Countdown’ 2017 competition page.
Entrants must acknowledge that they are responsible for their accommodation in & own travel to Sydney to be eligible to enter.
Judges will select the entry they deem to be the most creative. Winners will be announced on the 13th of December.
Media Release: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Have you been wondering all year what this year’s Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) theme will be? Wondering when it will be revealed? I wonder if it will be a wonderful theme this year. I wonder if the answer is ‘on the tip of your tongue’?
Ah, good spotting! The theme for Sydney NYE2017 is Wonder!
In recent weeks, the Sydney NYE website has been quietly updated to include the theme & artwork details for this year’s event on their website’s ‘About’ page. As we guessed, the theme is all about Sydney being a true ‘wonder in summer’.
The artwork above, which is part of a “suite of stunning designs” is the work of Nadia Hernández, a multi-disciplinary designer based in Sydney, who is this year’s Sydney NYE ‘creative ambassador’ (Though the creative ambassador role has been reduced significantly since 2015 – it’s more of a ‘local artist’ role now with local fashion designers & paper artists contributing works to the past 2 editions of the event).
Through her unique paper-cut design, she has brought to life the sense of wonder you get during Sydney’s summer whilst capturing the vibrant mood & cultural diversity of the city.
The Coin
With less than 2 months to go, the Sydney New Year’s Eve 2017 – Wonder coin, produced in partnership by the City Of Sydney & the Royal Australian Mint, has gone on sale!
The Sydney New Year’s Eve 2017 – Wonder coin represents the unbridled wonder, exuberance & hopes of the world on New Year’s Eve. Add it to your Sydney NYE coin collection & treasure it for memories of a precious moment in time.
With a mintage of 5000, this 1/2 an ounce 99.9% silver coin with a diameter of 35.89mm is a fantastic souvenir to keep of this year’s event.
Reverse Side Of The 2018 $1 Coloured Fine Silver Frosted Uncirculated Sydney New Year’s Eve 2017 – ‘Wonder’ Coin. Image: Royal Australian Mint.Obverse Side Of The 2018 $1 Coloured Fine Silver Frosted Uncirculated Sydney New Year’s Eve 2017 – ‘Wonder’ Coin. Image: Royal Australian Mint.Packaging Of The 2018 $1 Coloured Fine Silver Frosted Uncirculated Sydney New Year’s Eve 2017 – ‘Wonder’ Coin. Image: Royal Australian Mint.
This latest coin represents the halfway point of the Sydney NYE coin releases. There are 5 coins left to be released, one each year.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcasts
The duration of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television (TV) & iView broadcasts are unconfirmed still but regarding content of the TV broadcast, whilst no major details have been revealed, this small teaser of details was released recently:
Join ABC in a star-studded evening to count down the biggest night of the year with the New Year’s Eve 2017 spectacular event broadcast. Enjoy an evening jam-packed full of unmissable entertainment, comedy, and music, as well as the Family Fireworks at 9pm, followed by the world-famous Sydney Midnight Fireworks.
Well at least the Midnight Fireworks are now officially confirmed to be part of the TV broadcast! Anyway, that small teaser is too vague for now to confirm if it will be different to or the same as the previous ABC NYE broadcasts of recent years.
But have hope! We believe the ABC is planning a special pre-recorded segment for the TV/iView broadcast on the scientific branch of astronomy from none other than Sydney Observatory!
Whilst we do not know for sure what form this segment will take, an educational segment has not been done in the previous 4 ABC broadcasts which have relied mainly on children’s, music & talk/comedy/game show-style programming. This could indicate a change of direction in the ABC’s production of the NYE TV/iView broadcast. I wonder if this will be the case?
Educational segments have been done before on NYE broadcasts but those were mainly just ‘explainers’ on how fireworks are created (a lesson in chemistry!). Astronomy has little to do with pyrotechnics but in any case, on NYE, everyone is looking at the night sky anyway (well, for fireworks at least – don’t forget the time!) so why not explore the cosmos while you gaze skywards too?
The iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House tonight turned gold to mark the most widely celebrated Hindu festival, Diwali.
New South Wales (NSW) Premier, Gladys Berejiklian & Minister For Multiculturalism, Ray Williams, hosted a community reception at the Museum Of Contemporary Art to celebrate the occasion.
“Tonight, we mark an occasion which brings millions of people in Australia & around the world together by lighting the sails of Australia’s most iconic institution” Miss Berejiklian said.
“The lighting of the Sydney Opera House signifies the ancient tradition of lighting ceremonial lamps at this time, marking the eternal triumph of light over darkness”
“More and more Diwali is marked by all the communities across NSW & is one of the most celebrated and anticipated events in our multicultural calendar”
Diwali is a significant time when Indian & South Asian communities light diyas or ceremonial lamps which symbolise lifting of spiritual darkness & new beginnings.
Mister (Mr) Williams said Diwali was a time for all members of our communities to reflect on the rich cultural diversity of our state.
“The NSW Government appreciates & recognises the outstanding contribution of the Indian and South Asian community in our state” Mr Williams said.
“Diwali’s central message is universal & inspires confidence and joy in our collective future as the people of NSW”
The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit up for Diwali on Tuesday the 17th of October with the support of the NSW Government.
Vivid Sydney is inviting Expressions Of Interest (EOI) from individuals & organisations across the creative industries spectrum to participate in the world’s largest festival of light, music & ideas in 2018.
Minister For Tourism & Major Events, Adam Marshall, said “Vivid Sydney brings together leading global creative innovators for 23 days & this year, attracted a record 2.33 million attendees from around the world”
“The festival celebrates its 9th anniversary in 2018 & is set to be another spectacular display of art, technology & innovation. It is undoubtedly a grand platform for artists, musicians, creative professionals, educators and businesses to showcase their expertise to local and international audiences & I encourage everyone to submit their EOI and be part of this exceptional event” he said.
The Vivid Sydney EOI invites submissions across the festival’s 3 program pillars – Light, Music & Ideas.
Vivid Light transforms the city into a kaleidoscope of colour with awe-inspiring light sculptures & large-scale architectural projections onto iconic landmarks. Artists, designers, creative industry practitioners, equipment suppliers, businesses & educational institutions are invited to present their ideas, designs, concepts & interest for inclusion in Vivid Light.
Vivid Music features an extensive program of performance, multi-genre musical collaborations, contemporary and experimental music at venues across Sydney & includes the Vivid X|CELERATE program, a partnership with the City Of Sydney which is devoted to celebrating Sydney’s blossoming musical talent by awarding grants & marketing support to venues, artists & promoters with good ideas. Submissions are being sought from across the industry including music venues, producers, promoters, industry associations & innovators interested in being part of Vivid Music.
Vivid Ideas celebrates & champions creativity & innovation; connecting audiences & creative professionals with world-class creators, makers & thinkers, to share cutting-edge insights, market and industry updates & building tools and skills for the future. Events which ignite a national conversation, bring professional practitioners to Sydney for training and development & which actively build networks throughout the Asia-Pacific region are sought for Vivid Ideas.
Applications close at 5pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday the 7th of November 2017.
Vivid Sydney is owned, managed & produced by Destination New South Wales (NSW), the NSW Government’s tourism & major events agency. Vivid Sydney will be held from Friday the 25th of May to Saturday the 16th of June 2018.
It began in 1989 and in 1990, became the centrepiece fireworks display of Australia Day In Sydney & 27 years later in 2017 moved locations with confirmation coming in a 9th of October 2017 media release ironically titled ‘Darling Harbour To Benefit From Bigger, Brighter Australia Day 2018’ that the ‘Australia Day Spectacular’ will be relocated:
Sydney’s annual fireworks display, ‘The Australia Day Spectacular’, has a new home this coming year in Circular Quay with ‘Live At The Quay!’ becoming part of the live broadcast of the ‘Australia Day In Sydney 2018 – Live At Sydney Opera House’ concert on Channel 10.
The “bigger, brighter” positive changes to Darling Harbour’s Australia Day In Sydney celebrations are the addition of an extra The Wiggles concert & an “enhanced entertainment program” as part of the Children’s Festival.
Since 2014…
In 2014, Australia Day In Sydney re-introduced fireworks on Sydney Harbour for the 1st time since 1988 as part of the P&O cruise ships appearance. This continued until 2016.
Also in 2016, a new nationally-televised concert titled Australia Day – Live At Sydney Opera House was introduced which featured a fireworks display in Circular Quay at it’s conclusion. This was the 1st nationally-televised Australia Day In Sydney fireworks display since 1988 & the most fireworks displays held as part of Australia Day In Sydney (3 – Darling Harbour, Athol Bay & Circular Quay) since 1989.
2017 saw 2 fireworks displays (Darling Harbour & Circular Quay) & the un-eventuated rumour of green & gold projections on the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons & the Sydney Opera House.
No doubt the trend showed fireworks in Sydney Harbour on Australia Day were going to become a regular and more major occurrence but removing Darling Harbour’s fireworks altogether was far off the horizon in our eyes until that October media release.
This leaves New Year’s Eve & Vivid Sydney as the only events where you can watch fireworks in Darling Harbour. With Vivid‘s future currently looking possibly bleak, it could mean fireworks in Darling Harbour could be reduced to 1 day a year soon compared to 2016 when fireworks were a weekly occurrence.
This sudden reduction may be due to the Harbourside Shopping Centre (they had put on the weekly Saturday night fireworks) putting their revenue into something with more return on investment or maybe with a lot of development occurring around Darling Harbour (Hotels, apartments etc.) the New South Wales (NSW) Government has put restrictions on fireworks usage in Darling Harbour?
A cynical person could say the reduced fireworks frequency is to increase prices of apartments, hotels etc. around Darling Harbour by providing a more quieter night-time experience for residents/guests despite Darling Harbour originally being designed as a tourism area.
Back to the event though, Darling Harbour has a capacity of 40,000 people while the combined vantage points for Circular Quay is around 100,000 people. However, with the fireworks in Circular Quay rather than in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge some views might be obscured due to the ferry wharves & the Australia Day 2018 – Live At Sydney Opera House concert (which would also act as a mental barrier to the north-western areas of the Sydney Opera House).
The hosts of the Australia Day 2018 – Live At Sydney Opera House concert are Grant Denyer and Sandra Sully & they will introduce musical artists, Anthony Callea, Marcia Hines, Christine Anu, Guy Sebastian, John Paul Young, Casey Donovan & Dami Im to the stage.
The Australia Day 2018 – Live At Sydney Opera House concert is also ticketed by ballot with the ballot closing back on the 18th of January.
The theme for Australia Day In Sydney 2018 is Everyone, Every Story. Organisers are expecting record attendance.
‘Live At The Quay!’
2018 sees Circular Quay being the main home of the Australia Day In Sydney fireworks with the new Live At The Quay event which features the well-known Australia Day Spectacular.
Pre-fireworks entertainment includes:
6:30pm: The Australian Army Band
7pm: Heritage & Working Boat Parade: Features ‘Australians Of The Year’ Interviews
7:30pm: Welcome To Country & Sydney Cove Cup
The fireworks are likely fired from 5 barges & will feature ground display and 100mm aerial shell fireworks all produced by Foti International Fireworks. To compare, Sydney New Year’s Eve (Sydney NYE), since 2007, has featured 300mm aerial shell fireworks.
We are also trialling a new Fireworks Spectacular rating system this year & based on what we know, for these fireworks displays, from the Sydney Opera House vantage point, we are giving it a rating of 300 while on a boat on Sydney Harbour, a maximum rating of 555. For comparison, an average fireworks display would receive a rating of 125 whilst Sydney NYE’s rating would be in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
The fireworks entertainment includes:
8pm: Djapana – This would be similar to Sydney New Year’s Eve’s ‘Welcome To Country’. Featuring Koomurri Dancers, KARI singers, Sydney’s new ferry fleet & fireworks, it includes a tribute to Dr G Yunupingu & a performance of Djapana, a Yothu Yindi song.
8:30pm: Journey To Become Australian – Accompanied by a yacht ballet, jet skis, a lighting display & fireworks, opera musical pieces are sung by Lorenzo Rositano & choir in a tribute to opera as we explore the journeys that our newest citizens have taken to become Australians.
9pm: ‘Legendary Australian Musician’ Performance: Anthony Callea? Marcia Hines? Christine Anu? Guy Sebastian? John Paul Young? Casey Donovan? Dami Im? Who will it be? Accompanied by drag artists from the Broken Heel Festival, it is a musical performance, most likely by Christine Anu, set to fireworks.
9:15pm: Australia Day Spectacular – Set to an Australian soundtrack sung live, a massive fireworks display with a jet ski & fly board performance.
With the Australia Day Spectacular now in Circular Quay, this means for the 1st time ever, Australians can watch it in full on television (TV) due to it being held in conjunction with the Australia Day 2018 – Live At Sydney Opera House concert.
It is on Channel 10/WIN between 7:30pm & 9:30pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Check your local guides for broadcast times outside of NSW.
Simply, like the Australia Day In Sydney website says:
If you’re mad about fireworks, Circular Quay is the place to be this Australia Day.
Note: This post updates as more information becomes available.
The updated website does not confirm the event’s theme. In fact, it gives no signal to a theme at all. Given there are no more Bridge Effects, there is a chance they could decide to stop doing themes and make the event ‘just a fireworks display’. They are, though, still trying to give the event some sort of creative touch as we’ve seen through the release of the logo in July.
For now, there is no reason to worry about the event’s theme as most years the theme isn’t confirmed until early December. It is usually just small clues revealed until then.
And the release of the logo in July did have one possible clue – 5 words placed within the logo, ‘Dance!, Radiate!, Wonder!, Hope! & Together!’. These words seem to capture the pondering of what the upcoming year will gives us when we celebrate NYE at a party in Sydney’s summer, which has been the general narrative of the event’s creatives in recent years. This interpretation of those 5 words may be incorrect – we will just have to wait & see.
But The Daily Telegraph last month revealed a small clue to this year’s theme by revealing this year’s theme to the Dawes Point Very Important Person (VIP) Viewing Area as Sunset. That event is also being styled to a beach-house. Previous years of that event have featured lanterns, deckchairs & give-away thongs so this beach-house ‘style’ could be nothing new particularly when Central Sydney implied back in May that that event will be downsized as “the large scale catering and entertainment will not be a part of the (VIP Viewing Area) plan”.
The website also confirms the event program, which is identical to last year’s, with the Sydney Opera House still a part of the Midnight Fireworks. It’s been 5 years since they re-introduced it in 2013 as part of the Sydney Opera House’s ‘decade of renewal’ so it’s likely now it will remain in the Midnight Fireworks for another 5 years at least.
A light show is confirmed to be on the Sydney Harbour Bridge again at least during the Welcome To Country but it is highly likely it will feature during the 9pm Family & Midnight Fireworks too. But what will this light show look like? Again, we’ll have to wait & see.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections are returning but so far, with no new changes – even no sign of the theme being projected onto them in different languages (though messages will still be shown in different languages).
There is also a new Ticketed Events webpage on the website for those wanting to get the once-in-a-lifetime experience of Sydney NYE they have always imagined.
Sydney NYE is also trialling new accessibility orientation sessions in the 4 days before the event. These sessions, led by an information booth volunteer, will guide individuals/groups along preferred routes from public transport to vantage points & back. This will allow for familarisation of the route by guests with the volunteer pointing out any event day-only changes. Bookings are essential as spaces are limited. Click here for more information.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) television coverage will be on ABC1, starting at 8:35pm and will feature closed captions, while internet streaming will be done via ABC iView, the ABC TV Facebook page, the ABC Australia YouTube channel & Sydney NYE’s website. The latter, will be global, so no need to worry about geoblocking this year.
Apart from ABC iView, all internet streams will be of the Welcome To Country, 9pm Family & Midnight Fireworks only.
Let’s hope organisers have solved copyright issues so the non-Australian audience can listen to the proper fireworks soundtracks live again. The displays are not the same without them.
On Tuesday, Vivid Sydney revealed this year’s attendance figures – a record 2.33 million people over the event’s 23 days but this also represented the slowest growth in the event’s history at 1% up on the previous year. In other words, just an extra 20,000 visitors.
Attendance growth has been declining since after 2014 – the year after the Sydney Harbour Bridge was introduced into the event – and by this trend, should mean future editions of the event would have smaller crowds than in previous editions which has never happened before. This is because next year could see Vivid entering negative growth for the 1st time.
Graph showing the growth of attendance year on year since the 2010 edition (2nd ever edition)
The only good news is that interstate & international visitation, at 247,712 visitors, is still growing at 35% up on last year. This should signal that the Sydney/New South Wales (NSW) market for Vivid has reached it’s peak. In regards to Sydneysiders and NSW residents, this means the number of first-time visitors to Vivid Sydney is now being outweighed by the number of visitors who think the event is no longer worth visiting.
This could be the result of several effects:
Crowd Levels
The crowds have been increasing year on year particularly in the ‘iconic’ area of Vivid Sydney – Circular Quay. Due to a combination of a rare East Coast Low & poor crowd control for the increased attendance after that weather event, last year’s event saw near-crowd crushes occur. Organisers have since improved their crowd management arrangements and had the fortune of no significant weather events this year too. On weekends, crowds around Circular Quay have reached uncomfortable levels resulting in the weekend visitors not returning as regularly as they should due to the experience, particularly as their availability to visit on other nights is more limited due to work and school etc. even if they are local. This is no doubt a contributing factor.
Terrorism Fears
Whilst the least likeliest of the reasons to be contributing, the pedestrian nature of Vivid Sydney combined with the road closures & very high crowd levels, in today’s environment, may be enough to put people off particularly once they have visited the event for the 1st time, knowing they have experienced it once in their lives, they don’t have to risk it again.
Innovation Perception
Vivid Sydney consists of 3 parts – Light, Music & Ideas. The latter two only make up approximately 14% of the event’s visitation. This is partly because they are ticketed niche events in limited capacity venues. Vivid Light, therefore, is the main attraction. It is a free mainstream event & in venues without capacity limits (though if crowds do increase any further, capacity limits may be needed. Good thing they already implement crowd controls on the busy nights!). No wonder it makes up 86% of Vivid’s visitation!
Vivid Music & Ideas are easy to give people reasons to return to. A new, rather than repeating, line-up of musicians & talkers always allows new audiences to experience these parts of the festival as long as the line-up participants are popular enough to sell significant amounts of tickets. They also increase the possibility of returning visitors as they already know the event’s standard.
Vivid Light, though, is more difficult. To most people, it is just lights & patterns. This is despite new narratives being told via light each year & organisers giving new artists the opportunity to shine. After all, lighting artists aren’t exactly the most well-known type of artists.
This is probably Vivid Sydney‘s biggest problem particularly when combined with the crowd levels. Why return, to suffer in the crowds, when it looks the same as last year? If they want NSW visitors to return, they need to revitalize Vivid Light. Organisers have done this in previous years with the introduction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour in 2013 (to great effect) & Taronga Zoo and the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2016 (both proving popular).
But once introduced though, they don’t visually innovate which sees audiences leaving as they ‘have seen it all before’. For example, the Lighting Of The Sails (Sydney Opera House projection show) was introduced when the event started in 2009 as a projection show of patterns. 8 years later, despite incorporating new narratives, themes & artists to the show annually, still ‘looks the same’ to the everyday person.
Making things look different would help but it will be a great challenge. If this is not solved, Sydney/NSW visitation to Vivid will decline. So let’s assume they don’t visually innovate as the case has been since 2009…
The usual strategy of expanding the event by making ‘major-mini Vivids‘ (complete with their own projection show) in new locations to solve this problem won’t work (though it will solve crowd problems to an extent if they are to iconic locations such as Bondi Beach & Manly) as, unless they visually innovate regularly, it will lead them back to where they are. It would give a brief one-off attendance boost though.
Given the event is a government event (run by the NSW Government), governments are mainly focused on:
Publicity (e.g. social media) – this allows them to promote Sydney to future visitors of Sydney.
Revenue (e.g. Music/Ideas ticketing & NSW Government-run public transport) – this goes towards event costs as well as other NSW Government expenditure.
Economic Benefits (e.g. gross domestic product growth etc.) – visitors to Vivid increase revenue of businesses such as accommodation, restaurants, airlines etc. which, in turn, raises revenue for other businesses along the supply chain that, again in turn, helps pay their employees & lastly in turn, raises revenue for the NSW Government through taxes etc. to spend on community services (such as Vivid & public transport), which brings the economic cycle back to full circle.
Vivid Sydney currently brings AUD$143 million to the NSW economy.
If organisers decide to focus on interstate/international visitation from now on, given it’s continued growth & increasing economic impact, a reasonable strategy would be to reduce the Vivid Light Walk to it’s 7 ‘must-sees’:
The Lighting Of The Sails (Sydney Opera House projection show)
32 Hundred Lighting’s annual Sydney Harbour Bridge & city buildings interactive light display
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s annual projection show on the south-eastern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Plus the other 2 ‘must-sees’:
A Light For The Wild (Taronga Zoo)
Darling Harbour’s multimedia show
This means all the smaller light exhibits (about 50 in total) along the Vivid Light Walk would disappear, allowing more focus on the internationally iconic light displays & more space for crowds to flow. These smaller light exhibits are targeted more towards Sydneysiders so if organisers want Sydney/NSW visitation to be stable in the short term, another reasonable strategy would be to give these smaller light exhibits new homes in the Sydney suburbs. Chatswood would be a great place to start to test this out but it could be expanded to include certain ferry wharves along Sydney Harbour with it’s nearby parks/public spaces:
Manly
Parramatta
Watsons Bay
Cockatoo Island
Milsons Point
North Sydney
Mosman Bay
Birchgrove
Cabarita
Kissing Point
Having them near ferry wharves allows them to be linked to the central Vivid hub of Circular Quay by Harbour Lights. In the end, it depends which Sydneysiders like Vivid the most – is it the ones who live on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, the ones who live in the eastern suburbs or the ones who live in the western suburbs? If they are in places far away from Sydney Harbour like in Campbelltown, maybe they can incorporate Vivid into the rail services with a Light Express or Light Rail (pun intended)? Connecting railway stations could be decorated with lights & maybe some train carriages could be spruced up with special lights for the occasion. Other locations that could accommodate the small light exhibits could include:
Fort Denison
Other Sydney Harbour Islands
Barangaroo Reserve, Barangaroo
We said earlier that moving to new locations would not work but just to emphasize what we said earlier, that is only if they do not visually innovate those locations each year so if they move the smaller light exhibits to the above locations, it should work as long as new small light exhibits that look completely different from previous years’ exhibits are put on display each year.
Given it is a NSW Government event, smaller crowds can provide incredible political ammunition particularly when the event is spectacular, extravagant & expensive (Vivid costs nearly AUD$8 million – slightly more expensive than Sydney New Year’s Eve). It also does not help when climate change, electricity prices & economic downturns are political issues as they increase the motivation for political opponents to attack the NSW Government for producing an event that less and less people attend.
As long as Vivid Sydney attracts sufficient positive publicity & produces a profit or economic growth that outweighs the event’s costs, the NSW Government is going to support it even if attendance declines. If Vivid does not do one of them or crowds begin to decline, political opponents will begin to argue that:
The NSW Government mismanages events or;
People have forgotten or are going to forgot it’s existence hence argument 4 (below) or;
People do not care about it anymore hence argument 4 (below) or;
It is a waste of taxpayers money.
If crowds begin to decline next year, political debate could begin. Of course, like I said earlier, visual innovation is key here & could allow all that to be avoided. But if the status quo remains unchanged, crowds will decline, likely to result in major changes that do not help the event regrow (such as less lights) especially if interstate/international visitation declines too. The latter would guarantee all the arguments to be thrown at the NSW Government as it allows the failure of all key factors for government events. The NSW Government, unless they visually innovate the event, would, as a result of growing pressure, withdraw Vivid‘s funds resulting in it’s obvious cancellation.
Graph showing Vivid Sydney’s attendance to date, our predicted attendance rates & what the attendance trend would have been had attendances not grow even further in 2013 when the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour were incorporated into the event for the 1st time
At the current rate, Vivid may cease to exist in 4 years. We hope not. So if you are not from Australia or from interstate & wish to experience Vivid Sydney in all it’s glory, it’s probably time for you to check it out. Just in case the lights switch off…permanently.
And if you are from Sydney or NSW, try & support Vivid by attending next year (particularly if you have never been) or encourage your friends/family members who haven’t been before to go & see it for the 1st time. It is a truly iconic Australian event, a Sydney Spectacular. Otherwise, you must be over Vivid so prepare for a eventual return to Sydney’s dim & empty winters unless, of course, organisers revitalize the event beyond our wildest dreams leaving us no choice but to visit again!
So Sydney, are you really over Vivid? It seems like you are.
If you are from Sydney or NSW, tell us what would bring you back to Vivid. Is it more security, better crowd management or just something new and worthy of seeing? Tell us in the feedback form below:
New South Wales (NSW) Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has invited the largest ever Japanese travel trade delegation to visit Vivid Sydney 2018 in a bid to build on the record number of tourists who took part in this year’s festival.
Japan is the 6th largest market for international visitors to the state. In the year ending in March 2017, NSW welcomed 165,000 Japanese visitors who stayed 3.1 million nights & contributed an estimated AUD$339 million to the NSW visitor economy.
Ms Berejiklian made the announcement in Tokyo overnight at the global launch of the Vivid Sydney 2018 dates.
“We are seeing a resurgence of Japanese visitors to our shores & we want to see that grow even further” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Not only is this great for forging closer ties with Japan but more tourists coming to NSW is vitally important for our local economy”
Ms Berejiklian announced that the NSW Government’s tourism & major events agency, Destination NSW, had invited a record 50 Japanese travel agents & wholesalers to experience Vivid Sydney 2018.
“This will be the largest ever Japanese travel trade delegation to be invited to come & experience Vivid Sydney first hand & then return home to sell Vivid Sydney packages for 2019” the Premier said.
In 2017, 5,062 Vivid Sydney packages were sold to visitors from Japan, up from 4,710 packages in 2016 (a 7.5% increase).
Ms Berejiklian revealed a record 2.33 million people attended this year’s Vivid festival.
Vivid Sydney 2017 attracted 247,712 national & international visitors, an increase of around 35% on 2016. These visitors stayed a total of 804,399 nights (up 30%) & contributed over AUD$143 million (up 30%) to the NSW economy.
Vivid Sydney 2018 will be held from May 25th to June 16th.
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