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%.
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.
The final Love Is In The Air drone show at Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity has been cancelled. It will not be rescheduled due to the event ending tonight.
Drones are highly vulnerable in rain as well as wind of 28 kilometres per hour (km/h) or higher. The Bureau Of Meteorology Terrey Hills radar picked up a “significant” rain/wind “cell approaching”, which the drone show provider, the Australian Traffic Network, concluded would arrive at 9:10pm, the same time as the start of the drone show. Despite forecasts of south-westerly winds at speeds of 17km/h, the approaching cell must have contained minimum 28km/h winds. They then made the decision to cancel “to ensure the safety of the public” around 8:15pm, with Vivid Sydney announcing it at 8:43pm.
Whilst official online posts referred to “forecasted weather conditions”, screens at the event said “inclement weather”.
We’re obviously monitoring the, the weather all the way through yesterday, yesterday: late afternoon & we’ve got, you know, a team of 10 pilots who would have been full operating, full time operations running, running our drone light show so it was about 8:15 last night our Pilot In Command had to make that difficult but critical decision to cancel the final drone show last night that was scheduled for 9:10. The decision was driven by pilot experience, forecasted rains & continuous monitoring of the Bureau Of Meteorology for 2.5 hours before the planned launch. During this period, we tracked a significant weather cell approaching, expected to coincide with our flight time.
The primary reason for this decision was to ensure the safety of the public. The risk of launching drones in such conditions was too great. Flying in poor weather conditions could lead to drone malfunctions or collisions, posing significant safety hazards to the audience.
The potential for malfunction or loss of control in adverse weather conditions presented an unacceptable risk. The Pilot In Command made his best judgement call for the safety & protection of everyone involved.
We fully understand the disappointment this has caused but the wellbeing of the audience & adherence to safety standards must always come first. We are grateful for the opportunity to be part of Vivid Sydney 2024.
We had 2 amazing drone shows last weekend. We’re as disappointed as everybody else but I’m, I’m, I’m, um, I’m happy that I’m talking at this point at not launching them and having a malfunction.
Vic Lorusso, Australian Traffic Network Chief Executive Officer
Sydney Spectaculars saw the Bureau Of Meteorology rain radar last night & while there was a significant band of rain off the coast, which is likely the cell the Australian Traffic Network saw, the speed at which it was travelling, in our opinion, would not have allowed it to reach Circular Quay by the scheduled end time of the drone show, which might explain why a lot of spectators thought the cancellation was odd in, to them, otherwise fine conditions: The speed of the approaching rain/wind band may have been overestimated by Australian Traffic Network. The 27-minute delay in communication from the Pilot in Command to Vivid Sydney event management to the general public also did not help.
Other than the fact it was the event’s final night, it was not postponed to a later hour as Circular Quay needed to re-open to marine traffic.
Whilst crowds were anticipated to be a third down on last Saturday & Circular Quay has a capacity of around 70,000, 167,000 people were probably affected by tonight’s cancellation.
Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, the Vivid Sydney drone show will not proceed this evening. The show will not be rescheduled, as tonight marks the conclusion of Vivid Sydney 2024. We apologise for the inconvenience & thank you for understanding. Please be patient when exiting.
We’re very disappointed that our final drone show was cancelled. Drone operation is very sensitive & the shows are weather dependent. Public safety is paramount & ‘Vivid Sydney’ follows the direction and advice of the specialist operators of the drones.
Vivid Sydney
In response to a question put by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to Vivid Sydney at 6:30pm about whether the drone show would proceed, organisers said:
Drone shows are very hard to book & there is a shortage of barges currently in New South Wales. Therefore, the limited number of drone shows might have been due to the availability of both drone shows & barges to host them from.
The next day (Sunday 16th of June), the New South Wales (NSW) Premier, Chris Minns, acknowledged that families and children would have been disappointed but said the late notice by Vivid Sydney had nothing to do with “inconveniencing” people:
I am really sorry about last night. A lot of families & a lot of kids were looking forward to it so it’s deeply regrettable & I’m sincerely sorry for it. Uh, the decision was made by the, the drone operator & it was completely weather dependent. They made the call as late as possible not to inconvenience families but to actually see whether they could go ahead with the program in any event. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.
I know families are doing it really tough at the moment & the free entertainment that comes about as a result of Vivid & the drone show is welcome because it means you can take your kids and family out & it doesn’t cost anything to see it.
We are determined to see more of that in Sydney particularly over the next 12 months. This one didn’t go ahead but there will be many more opportunities in the months & years ahead.
Last Saturday’s crowd was not good. Mistakes were made. I think there was an under-appreciation of how many people would go out there.
To give the organisers credit, they did a major walkthrough the next morning. No one tried to, I guess sort of, um, sweep it under the rug. They did a huge walkthrough with Police, emergency services & Vivid organisers. As a result of that, there were more road closures.
We are a major city. We should be able to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people even close to a million people on our foreshores. We have done that for the fireworks.
Our job is to communicate for the best way for people to have fun & enjoy it. I am confident that we have learnt the lessons notwithstanding the fact that last Saturday wasn’t great.
Chris Minns, NSW Premier
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity‘ Director spoke on both topics:
You know, over 2 million people from Sydney & around the world came, uh, to what is the biggest event in Australia & you know, it was fantastic.
I can’t lie it’s, its, you know, a show about love & I was heartbroken.
We will be reviewing all of our plans in, including drone plans &, & crowd management.
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity‘ Director
Due to a forecast of a high chance of showers, Vivid Sydney in The Goods Line is cancelled tonight along with 2 Vivid Light Walk installations, Neolithic & Horizon. The Vivid Light Walk installation, Embrace, is also in non-interactive mode. Nest & Portal are also with limited access.
Due to continued bad weather, including lightning being detected within the radius of Sydney’s CBD, please be aware of the following changes to the Vivid Light Walk tonight: 🔥 𝗩𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗻 and all other displays at #TheGoodsLine are closed for tonight ✨𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻 in #Barangaroo will not be open tonight ✨𝗡𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰 in #TumbalongPark will not be open tonight ✨𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 in #CircularQuay is in non-interactive mode Access to ✨ 𝗡𝗲𝘀𝘁 and ✨ 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹 in #Barangaroo is limited for the remainder of the evening due to wet weather impacts. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you are visiting #vividsydney this evening, please keep a close eye on our social channels & digital screens for further information/updates & please take care when traveling.
Vivid Sydney
High chance of showers forecast for tomorrow, but they are forecast to ease & be less likely during the evening. Tomorrow is also the last day of Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity.
Speaking on Today this morning (Monday 10th of June), the NSW Premier said he believed the crowd size could be attributed in part to the cost-of-living crisis and the draw of a large-scale free event & said the resulting crowd crush criticism was “fair”:
Not good & not enough. We need to do better. We didn’t anticipate the crowds on that night. What I can say is that the organisers, the NSW Police worked quickly to learn from the mistakes of the night before. They did a major walkthrough with all the agencies, Destination NSW as well as NSW Police.
Some street closures were brought in earlier in the day. Some of the crowd barricades were moved to different sections & the following night worked better.
I’m grateful that we learned from the mistakes of the night before but I want to see families out enjoying Sydney. I know people are doing it tough at the moment. When you’ve got free entertainment & this is an opportunity to get with your families to spend time together, you’re going to take it up & enjoy something that doesn’t cost any money. We’ve got to make sure it’s a safe night out. Get out there and enjoy it.
Chris Minns, New South Wales Premier
Vivid Sydney & NSW Government agencies undertook the major walk-through on Sunday morning according to news.com.au.
Last night, the 2nd of the 3 drone shows occurred but thankfully, capacity limits were enforced this time & no incidents occurred. The final Love Is In The Air drone show is on at 9:10pm, Saturday the 15th of June, which is also the final night of Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity. Crowds are expected to be significant but two-thirds the size of last weekend’s drone shows’ crowds.
Vantage points for the Vivid Sydney drone show have reached capacity. Please avoid Circular Quay and The Rocks. Other Vivid Sydney locations are operating at Barangaroo, Darling Harbour and The Goods Line.
Vivid Sydney‘s Love Is In The Air drone show resulted in 2 near-crowd crushes, 1 behind the Overseas Passenger Terminal in The Rocks & 1 at the intersection of Albert & Phillip Streets. The Rocks near-crowd crush occurred before the show had even started.
The Rocks near-crowd crush was the worst near-crowd crush since, though slightly not as bad as the one that occurred at the Moore Steps in 2016. It was 5 times larger in size but less serious in terms of medical incidents, of which there were none.
The scientific definition of a crowd crush is when crowd density reaches 9 to 10 people per square metre & this number is sustained for a significant amount of time but a density of 6-7 people per square metre is when people become uncomfortable & the situation becomes dangerous. When Circular Quay’s capacity of 70,000 for Vivid‘s drone shows are reached, the density should be about 1-2 people per square metre.
1 woman told The Daily Mail that VividSydney 2024 – Humanity staff were failing to direct the crowd out of the chaos:
We waited 1 hour standing to see 10 mediocre drone formations & a bunch of ads & took us 30 minutes to just leave the spot.
We had to get on top of the grass bedding to avoid the crowded part. It’s half a metre high but we have kid & elderly.
In the crowd there are baby less than a year old crying. Even as an adult. I felt pushed around. Very, very badly organised. Don’t recommend.
Vivid Sydney attendee
Sydney Spectaculars believes 94,000 people were caught in it. Both near-crowd crushes lasted until 9:50pm – half an hour after the drone show concluded.
I felt like I was going to die. It was terrifying. All it would have taken was just 1 person pushing too hard or for someone to fall over for the situation to have catastrophic consequences. There was no form of crowd control. It was shocking & clearly poorly managed.
People were barging through the eating areas to try to find their way out of the crowd. 1 of the women sitting down to eat said people who came to the restaurant were leaving because so many people were in the alfresco area.
It’s sad that businesses were losing money when ‘Vivid’ is designed to bring business to the CBD (central business district). We decided to keep pushing through the crowd until we were at a laneway & were able to bail out & then we went home.
Vivid Sydney Attendee
‘Love Is In The Air’ drone show near-crowd crush on Argyle Street looking west from West Circular Quay (Photograph: The Daily Mail)
After the drone show, New South Wales (NSW) Police reportedly weren’t told anything & according to Today, the riot squad had to remove metal barriers to let the crowd leave the area from all directions. According to 9News, the mounted unit had to be called in.
Red – Near-crowd crush Locations, Purple – Drone Show Location
Absolutely dangerous scenes at Vivid festival. After the 9:10pm drone show finished, there was a crowd crush starting to happen by the overseas passenger terminal. Police had to step in to remove barriers because of how serious it was.
People management very poor. For example people flowing into dead ends like the food trucks near the passenger terminal entrance and had to turn back.
Last year, the extraordinary crowds for the Written In The Stars drone show created a ‘traffic jam’ from the Circular Quay railway station/ferry wharves after the show due to 98% of people trying to immediately go home. Last night, trains were still at capacity as late as 11pm – when the lights of Vivid go off each night, most likely as a result of the crowds which were anticipated to be 4 times as large as last year.
Australian Associated Press reporter Scott Bailey said people were squeezed in like cattle with no security or event staff to be seen:
Was as if organisers didn’t account for anywhere near the crowd they got.
Scott Bailey, Australian Associated Press Reporter
We were there part of this crowd & it’s very scary. We were pushed from side to side by the crowd. Many kids were crying & parents pushing prams didn’t know where to go. We heard the police saying they were not told anything. 1 mother was crying she lost 2 of her children. It was a total disaster. No proper coordination. They closed lots of areas which was a problem, so difficult to exit.
Vivid Sydney attendee (‘CitrusHoneyComte‘ Daily Mail commentator)
The Love Is In The Air drone show is on again tonight (Sunday 9th June 2024) and next Saturday – the final night of Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity, both at 9:10pm. Attendance is expected to be just as crowded tonight for the drone show.
Victor Dominello attended Saturday’s drone show and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that crowd control was “non-existent from what I saw”.
It was human sardines. These are New Year’s Eve crowds but on steroids. No-one anticipated how many people would be on the foreshore
Victor Dominello, MyGov Advisory Group Chairperson
Vivid Sydney attendee, Anthony Warren, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “something bad” was going to happen as people tried to leave the area saying he could not see any crowd control people:
Looking at the crowd, you could see it was all families and people with prams, and they were packed together like sardines. It could have gotten so much worse very quickly, if someone started running or shouted ‘fire’. They had nowhere to go.
People didn’t know where to go and started to crush. People with babies, prams, elderly people — I noticed some were quite distressed. It was quite confronting to see.
People looked a bit panicked but were trying to keep their cool.
People just could not get out – there were people stuck there for over an hour, just standing & I noticed some of the barricades were being disassembled, which eventually eased the crush.
Anthony Warren
Another attendee wrote that she was sorry she went to the event:
A huge crush saved by a random opening a barrier. Bloody lucky no one panicked. The worst crowd control. No coordination, direction & clearly untrained crowd management staff…
Vivid Sydney attendee
Sydney Spectaculars anticipated this would happen since the drone show was announced in late April, publishing on Friday an article on the drone show stating:
Whilst we cannot be 100% sure when predicting crowd numbers, Sydney Spectaculars is expecting 194,000 people to attend per long weekend drone show in 2024, about a 270% increase on last year, due to the limited number of drone shows. Circular Quay cannot handle this amount of people at once. As implied earlier, Circular Quay’s capacity for a drone show is around 70,000 people. To have nearly 3 times that amount is dangerous, especially with a Harbour on 1 side. People falling into the water, crowd crushes & impatience leading to violence is all very possible if this situation plays out.
The full cancellation of most of Vivid Light on the just recent Saturday didn’t help. That meant about 174,000 people missed out their night and may return, most likely, on the drone show nights. That would add an extra 58,000 people per drone show to the numbers above. In other words, 252,000 people per drone show – nearly 4 times the amount of the average drone show audience of last year.
Sydney Spectaculars
Our article was only published on Friday, a day prior to the 1st drone show, for 3 reasons:
Sydney Spectaculars is currently working on a major project, resulting in less time to write.
Vivid Sydney should have learnt the lesson from 2016 plus they have issued capacity limits in the past.
To avoid extra publicity of the drone show, adding to the predicted crowds.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared in my life. Everyone pushing from all sides with no escape.
Our predicted quarter of a million people attending did occur as 7 News reported that 500,000 extra trips on public transport were made. If there was 1 trip to the drone show and 1 back home, that would equal to a quarter of a million people.
Staff described the events last night as like New Year’s Eve
Howard Collins, Transport For NSW
Vivid Sydney slowly realised the chaos about to ensure. They did deliberately hold off their drone show announcement by 3-4 weeks after the main media launch, most likely to avoid the publicity but last week, they announced the Facebook LIVE live stream would be screened near the stage in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour & on the day of the 1st drone show they announced that Macquarie Street between the Sydney Opera House & the State Library Of NSW will be closed to traffic between 8:35pm & 9:20pm due to the Love Is In The Air drone show.
Unlike previous years, we believe Vivid Sydney did not enforce capacity limits last night. Instead they just encouraged people to “avoid” Circular Quay. If you are planning to attend, arrive before 8:40pm – that’s 40 minutes before the drone show starts.Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini, says capacity limits will be enforced tonight.
According to ABC News, Vivid Sydney & NSW Police met this afternoon (Sunday 9th of June).
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said this morning said that extra police would be on duty tonight for the 2nd drone show. As we’ve said before, more police just takes up more space. Mr Park also advised people not to go to the foreshore unless it was necessary:
It’s an incredibly popular event. It’s a long weekend. It’s good weather at the moment, people are out and about. Police advise that there was a lot of people there, a lot more than expected. They’re not saying anyone was injured or there was any serious incidents. The crowd was able to disperse, uh, very quickly.
We’re saying to people that if you can see the city, you’ll be able to see the light show. You don’t have to be right down there at the foreshore.
NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park
In regards to the drone show, the drone show only faces the southern side of Circular Quay so if you’re on the northern side while you can see the city & the drones, you will see a back to front drone show. The only view of the drone show is on the southern side of Circular Quay and from The Rocks, both places where you can see the city. However, for Vivid Light in general, the main walk is the 8km foreshore walk from Central Railway Station, via Barangaroo, to the Sydney Opera House. For Vivid Light in general, you do not need to be at Circular Quay as the NSW Health Minister states. NSW Police will also tonight more move barriers if needed to, according to 7News.
It’s slow & it’s busy but we will ensure your safety if you listen to what’s said.
NSW Police Detective Superintendent, Jodi Radmore
Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini, said that all agencies working at the event, including NSW Police, Ambulance & Transport For NSW, had vast experience in managing big crowds & were prepared. She said more police officers were sent to the near-crowd crushes when they occurred. She also urged people to exercise “patience, kindness and tolerance” at future drone shows:
The crowd did move safely through the festival. Yes, it was very busy but like when you go to a football game or a concert, it was a very big crowd, all moving out at once. Of course, we’re always reviewing our plans & have continued to do so today, as we do every day with this event. Police will have a lot of officers on site. We will be closing some of the areas earlier when they’re full & a variety of other operational things are in place for tonight so yes, we’re hoping that it will be a smooth & enjoyable experience for everyone.
It will be slow. If you need to stop & have a rest, stop and have a rest but we just ask for people to bring their understanding & their patience to see this fabulous drone show in the best harbour in the world. Some people weren’t comfortable in the crowds but we just, um, ask people to be very understanding to one another. Be very kind to one another.
Not all people felt afraid for their safety & of course, we’ve acknowledged that some people felt uncomfortable in the crowd but the crowd did move safely through the egress through the festival.
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity‘ Director
Vivid Sydney organisers work with government partners & agencies to plan & deliver a successful & safe event including to manage the crowds that turned out to see last night’s drone show.
Event and security personnel monitor crowd flow & implement scalable measures to manage crowd flow at various points if required, particularly on the busy nights and peak periods.
This includes advising visitors that certain areas have reached capacity and adjusting infrastructure to support crowd flow
We understand that a large number of people leaving a major event at the same time can be slow & challenging and are grateful to the public for their patience and cooperation.
We encourage our festival attendees to plan for their Vivid Sydney visit & stay up to date including via our social media channels and the digital signage around the footprint.
Vivid Sydney spokesperson
At the conclusion of yesterday’s drone show (Saturday 8 June 2024), officers working for ‘Operation Vivid’ 2024 assisted the large crowd in leaving Circular Quay.
Larger than expected attendees resulted in pedestrian traffic congestion, particularly in and around the transport hubs; however, the crowds dispersed after a short period and there were no injuries or incidents reported.
NSW Police continue to conduct a highly visible and coordinated policing response to this year’s ‘Vivid’ event.
As of 8:40pm, Vivid Sydney is telling attendees of Vivid Sydney tonight, particularly of the Love Is In The Air drone show at 9:10pm, to avoid Circular Quay.
Earlier tonight, Vivid Sydney announced Macquarie Street between the Sydney Opera House & the State Library Of New South Wales will be closed to traffic between 8:35pm & 9:20pm due to the Love Is In The Air drone show.
We are experiencing large crowds for the Vivid Sydney drone show this evening. Please avoid Circular Quay. The show will also be live streamed near the stage at Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour.
Unlike last year when drone shows featured on 7 of the 23 nights, this year the number of shows is halved with the drone shows only be held on 3 nights in June – the 8th, the 9th & the 15th. These dates are the final night of Vivid Sydney 2024 and the main weekend nights of the King’s Birthday long weekend.
It should be noted that last year, only 6 nights were originally announced for drone shows. The 7th and final night were unannounced & unplanned but added due to the extraordinary demand for it. There is every chance additional nights will be added for 2024 but if they are added, they will only be on/announced around the 10th-14th June as an idea of 2024 drone show crowd numbers wouldn’t be confirmed until the 1st drone show on the 8th but if last year is any indication, there should be a drone show on at least all of these nights.
Given the halving of drone shows, Vivid runs the risk of making what is already the most popular nights of the event – the weekend nights of the King’s Birthday long weekend – too popular as spectators may hold off on their visit until these drone show nights, which are very few in number, given the extraordinary crowds received for them last year. This is because people like to have the most complete experience in the shortest amount of time possible, particularly given the only time most people can allow themselves to have a holiday is that long weekend due to the public holiday on the Monday for the King’s Birthday.
Last year, 71,428 people attended each Written In The Stars drone show on average (including the surprise 7th drone show) – an at-capacity crowd for the drone show. 500,000 in total. Crowds seemed to peak around the drone show as it was an ‘event within an event’. It was not something that ran all night for 3 weeks. It happened only for 10 minutes per night or 3% of each Vivid Light night, for only 6 nights. It is literally blink-and-you-will-miss-it compared to the scale of the night, but it was a noticeable feature of the Vivid Light program/of the 23-day event, even though it was only advertised for just 6 nights. Being an unticketed event didn’t help to gauge likely crowd numbers pre-event but Circular Quay’s capacity was likely monitored and just within safe limits, even though the crowd may have been inconvenienced by having to wait to access Circular Quay’s transport hub due to the amount of people trying to get there all at once post-drone show.
Vivid Sydney has cautiously avoided promoting the drone show this year. They left it off the media launch announcement most likely to avoid it receiving maximum publicity, leaving it 3-4 weeks before adding it to their website and announcing it via social media.
Whilst we cannot be 100% sure when predicting crowd numbers, Sydney Spectaculars is expecting 194,000 people to attend per long weekend drone show in 2024, about a 270% increase on last year, due to the limited number of drone shows. Circular Quay cannot handle this amount of people at once. As implied earlier, Circular Quay’s capacity for a drone show is around 70,000 people. To have nearly 3 times that amount is dangerous, especially with a Harbour on 1 side. People falling into the water, crowd crushes & impatience leading to violence is all very possible if this situation plays out.
The full cancellation of most of Vivid Light on the just recent Saturday didn’t help. That meant about 174,000 people missed out their night and may return, most likely, on the drone show nights. That would add an extra 58,000 people per drone show to the numbers above. In other words, 252,000 people per drone show – nearly 4 times the amount of the average drone show audience of last year.
Vivid Sydney seems to have realised the possibility of chaos as they are suddenly promoting the fact that the drone show will be live streamed in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour but who goes out of the way to watch a drone show live stream in a park? That live stream will make no difference. In the end, this is just a warning to be cautious for now. Vivid Sydney has capacity limits, which we expect will be enforced but how would 66% of the 252,000 people react to missing the drone show?When Sydney NYE returned after the COVID-19 pandemic, latecomers to the Midnight Fireworks caused a crowd crush to occur in The Rocks and some even tried to watch from a pyro-laded Sydney Harbour Bridge. We expect the crowd to shift around The Rocks as this is the only potential vantage point left due to its uphill incline. Some may resort to watching from the Cahill Expressway & Sydney Harbour Bridge southern on-ramp walkways or even from a window of a tall building. Some may be clever enough to watch from Fleet Steps or in that vincinity.The crowd will likely then build up around Dawes Point, following the Vivid Light Walk if they are coming from that direction or throughout the CBD if they are showing up just for the drone show. This potential scenario we are predicting is significantly larger than the NYE2022 late crowd build-up, crush and security breaches. Notably, Vivid Sydney once had an even more serious but heavily under-reported crowd crush. Has Vivid Sydney learnt the lesson? Are they now underestimating the popularity of drone shows over Sydney Harbour? In any case, whether chaos ensues, or crowds are managed well, to spread the crowd out, Vivid Sydney should have been of the opinion – either more drone shows than last year or none at all.
As no extra drone shows were added before the opening weekend, which was another record-breaker in attendance, a couple of weeks ago, we would likely not find out how big the audience for the drone show is until the most popular Vivid Sydney night – the Saturday of the King’s Birthday long weekend – and by then, it is too late as there is only a week left of the event & whatever chaos would ensue the worst has already happened. People would have made plans for those 3 specific drone show nights and most people would likely be unable to change their plans to attend new dates. Drone shows are very difficult to book due to high demand so this may be the reason for only 3 drone shows this year (particularly as there was no Lights On! moment drone show like last year) but as we said before – either more than last year or none at all.
Anyway, back to the drone show itself, Love Is In The Air is a 10-minute drone show held at 9:10pm, assuming the weather is allowable for it to go ahead. The creative team behind the show is the same as last year’s Written In The Stars drone show with the technology provided by Australian Traffic Network, concept & direction by Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini & the soundtrack by Pee Wee Ferris (aka Pipi Le Oui). However, the show will be smaller than last year’s by 300 drones. In 2024, it will be a 700-drone show. While the theme of love is obvious, it will focus specifically on romantic love, telling a love story through drones with the creation of universal love symbols along the way.
After the drone show, we expect all but 2% of the crowd to leave Vivid Sydney. The remaining 98% will head home. Out of those heading home, 4% will walk to Martin Place to catch a bus, 9% to walk to Town Hall for the light rail while 87% will head to Circular Quay to catch a ferry or train. Out of those heading to Circular Quay, 6% will catch a ferry while 94% will catch a train. I don’t need to explain what happens next regarding trains but here are some tips for those heading to Circular Quay ferry wharves & train station.
For ferries, instead of waiting at Circular Quay, if you want to ultimately head to Pyrmont Bay, or a wharf west of Barangaroo, walk the direct route (20 minutes) or the Vivid Light Walk (46 minutes) to Barangaroo Wharf to catch the ferry. If it is urgent, remember there are private water taxi services available if they are not already booked.
For trains, instead of waiting at Circular Quay for a connecting train: If your station is on the Northern/North Shore/Western lines, walk the 10 minutes to Wynyard to catch a direct train home. If your station is on the Eastern Suburbs/Illawarra/South Coast line, walk the 13 minutes to Martin Place to catch a direct train home instead. If your station is on the Blue Mountains/Central Coast/Newcastle line, walk the direct route (35 minutes) or pass the time by walking the Vivid Light Walk (1 hour & 25 minutes) to Central for a direct train home.
Remember, the Vivid Light Walk switches off at 11pm so try & enjoy the lights before heading home to help spread out the ferry & train usage.
For more details on Love Is In The Air, click here.
The 2024 drone shows remain an exciting highlight as part of this year’s Vivid Sydney program & we are confident that everyone will be amazed by the artistry and innovation on display.
Each year, Vivid Sydney reviews and refreshes the program across Light, Music, Ideas & Food, with the focus on delivering a more impactful & refreshed experience for our audiences.
Although the number of shows has decreased, the duration & complexity of each performance are just as incredible. We encourage you to attend one of the drone show nights & enjoy the amazing view firsthand.
For more information on the 2024 drone shows & Vivid Sydney, please visit our website www.vividsydney.com.
Due to a forecast of a thunderstorm with possible heavy falls, tonight’s Fire Kitchen & Lightscape are cancelled along with 7 Vivid Light Walk installations. The 7 installations are:
For Lightscape ticketholders, you will receive an email shortly from the event owner with further details, including how to rebook this experience or request a refund.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and remind those visiting Vivid Sydney this evening to keep an eye on our digital screens on the footprint for further updates.
Vivid Sydney
A thunderstorm is forecast for tomorrow, but no cancellations have been announced yet for tomorrow.
For Lightscape ticketholders, you will receive an email shortly from the event owner with further details, including how to rebook this experience.
Since our initial post, the forecast for Sunday the 2nd of June has improved. As a result, Sydney Spectaculars no longer expects a cancellation for that date.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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