Every year Vivid Sydney, the Southern Hemisphere’s leading multi-artform festival, transforms Sydney into a vibrant hub of creativity, innovation and community connection.

Over 23 nights, light installations, music, ideas and food inspire global audiences and encourage cultural exchange across the Harbour City. This year the festival theme of ‘Dream’ will spark connection, wonder and reflection.

If you haven’t visited Vivid Sydney before (or need a refresher), read on. Discover the best vantage points to see the Light Walk, how to score the best tickets and where to savour the most delicious food and drinks. Find everything you need to know below.

Sydney lights up at 6pm every night

From Friday, 23 May to Saturday, 14 June the lights turn on each night at 6pm. This is when the festival’s light installations and projections spring to life across the Vivid Sydney Light Walk from Circular Quay, across the CBD to the Goods Line. 

This year the entire Vivid Light Walk is free for everyone to enjoy. New buildings and landmarks that feature as part of the festival this year include Museum of Sydney, The Bond in Barangaroo and Challis House in Martin Place. Also making a welcome return is the Argyle Cut in The Rocks and the CTA Building in Martin Place. 

The Vivid Sydney Light Walk

The Vivid Sydney Light Walk is an 8km stretch dotted with all the festival’s Light installations and projections. For its 15th year, the festival footprint has been redesigned to present five zones: Circular Quay and The Rocks; Barangaroo; Martin Place and CBD (for the first time since 2018); Darling Harbour; and The Goods Line and Inner City. Each connected zone will feature events from each of the festival pillars; Light, Music, Ideas and Food.

Be sure to wear some comfortable shoes and make sure you pack your camera – or make space on your phone to capture some stunning shots. Read our photography tips from Australia’s leading landscape photographer Daniel Tran so you can take some pictures that really stand out.

Top tip: take your time to explore the Light Walk over multiple nights!

Vivid Sydney is so much more than a light festival

Let music move you

The Vivid Music program offers a diverse range of exclusive concerts, free gigs and a late-night Supper Club. There’s something to get everyone moving.

Tumbalong Nights will return to Darling Harbour with a focus on music in diaspora communities and First Nations artists singing in their own languages. Featuring local pop darlings Winston Surfshirt and Ayesha Madon, the free concert series will also include V-Pop sensations Mỹ Anh and Chi Xê, Grammy-winning African artist Dobet Gnahoré, Stella Jang from Korea, India’s Zaeden and former bass player for Prince, MonoNeon. 

Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House and Vivid Sydney at Carriageworks are a great place to start if you’re looking for global and local music icons. With multiple venues, there is always someone incredible to see, plus you when taking in a Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House show you can also enjoy the stunning projections on the Sydney Opera House sails.

This year, Oxford Art Factory will host UK rapping sensations Pete & Bas and Newcastle’s Steel City Dance Discs, Metro Theatre will see local labels Bad Apples and NLV Records celebrate their 10th anniversaries in separate events, and City Recital Hall will host German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream as well as Soccer Mommy.

Plus, every Thursday and Friday of the festival, Mary’s Underground is transformed into Vivid Sydney Supper Club. A hub of late-night cabaret, curators Rhys Nicholson and Georgia Mooney have a jam-packed program of comedy, music and left-of-field variety nights up their sleeve.

Leave with a fresh perspective

Vivid Sydney’s Ideas program is a forum for inspiration. An opportunity to challenge and reshape how we think about the world and our place in it.

Beyond just talks, we explore this year’s theme of dream through live performances, walking tours, panel discussions, immersive dance pieces and other thought-provoking experiences. 

D.W. Pine, Creative Director of TIME Magazine, will deliver the keynote ‘Where Do Ideas Come From?’ and internationally renowned scientist Professor Matthew Walker will present ‘Why We Sleep’ to delve into one of the most important but least understood aspects of our lives.

Free Vivid Ideas events include the weekly Firetalk series at Barangaroo Reserve, bringing together First Nations storytellers, and Endling, a major new physical theatre work performed nightly by Sydney’s Legs On The Wall.

Hungry for more

Vivid Food offers a smorgasbord of dining options and has never been more enticing. In a festival exclusive, internationally renowned food writer and TV cook, Nigella Lawson will curate three Vivid Sydney Dinners in the recently opened pedestrian tunnel Muru Giligu in Martin Place. Or enjoy the best of the world’s flame-cooked street food at Fire Kitchen, there’s something for all tastes and budgets.

Adjacent to the Fire Kitchen, Maryanne Street will transform into the Spice Lounge for Vivid Sydney – a place to spend time around the fire and take it all in. Carriageworks' legendary Night Market is also back for 2025, with young guns from Sydney’s top bars and restaurants stepping into the spotlight.

In addition to the culinary delights the Vivid Food program has to offer, Sydney is packed with incredible bars and restaurants for quick bites or a full degustation. The city gets very busy during Vivid Sydney, so we recommend making a reservation of you’re planning a sit-down dinner.

Getting here and home again

Our advice is: leave the car at home. There is limited parking and several road closures in the CBD, so opt for public transport instead. You can take the newly opened Metro, a train or bus to Wynyard, Town Hall, or Martin Place to be close to the action, or catch a ferry into Circular Quay. It’s a great way to see the lights from the water!

There are also accessibility facilities and services available to Vivid Sydney visitors who need them, such as accessible drop-off and pick-up points, and bookable accessible mini-buses.

Vivid Sydney is for the whole family

Vivid Sydney is for everyone – including the little ones! If you’re visiting with children, we recommend getting here early to beat the crowds, and consider visiting earlier in the week as the Light Walk can get very busy on the weekends.

There are also free ID wristbands available at Vivid Sydney Information Booths, which are helpful should your child get lost. You can also download a printable map of Vivid Sydney to keep to hand so you can find your closest information point or plan a meetings point should your group get split up.

Stay up to date

Make sure you’re the first to know about events, tickets and all things Vivid Sydney by signing up to MyVivid Newsletter. You can even let us know your preferences, so you hear about the events we think you’ll love.