Vivid Sydney is dazzling audiences with its most innovative program yet, with close to 300,000 people attending the festival’s opening weekend.
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said the festival had already recorded a seven per cent increase on last year’s opening weekend attendance.
“Visitors and locals alike embrace Vivid Sydney each year and 2016 is no exception with more than 296,000 people celebrating the festival’s shining story of creativity in the first weekend alone,” Mr Ayres said.
“Vivid Sydney is a huge hit with visitors who are sharing their experiences on social media. Over opening weekend, the Vivid Sydney hashtag had over 18,600 mentions and trended at number one on both Facebook and Twitter.
“Early visitor favourites are the spectacular Songlines projection on the Sydney Opera House sails, showcasing Australia’s Indigenous art, the Laser-Dragon Water-Theatre at Darling Harbour and this year’s selfie-favourite, the Cathedral of Light.
“The family focused Chatswood precinct featuring grand projections of dinosaurs and creatures from the Gondwana and Taronga Zoo’s giant multimedia animal lanterns have also been immensely popular with visitors.
“There’s still a bumper program of light, music and ideas ahead including the world-premiere exhibition Björk Digital and the Vivid Ideas Game Changers with Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan.
“With an extra five days to see this year’s festival, Vivid Sydney will light up the city through to 18 June and I encourage everyone to come and be inspired by this magnificent celebration of innovation and creativity in Sydney,” Mr Ayres concluded.
Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency Destination NSW and attracted 1.7 million attendees in 2015.
Visit www.vividsydney.com for more information.
