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Vivid Sydney will return in 2017 with a full line-up of musical acts at the Sydney Opera House and a new display at Barangaroo for the annual light festival.

The 23 night-long festival will offer Vivid Music’s biggest program to date, and provide a global forum for creative conversations at Vivid Ideas.

Running from 26th May to 17th June, the Sydney Opera House will again host Vivid Live, which this year will see more than 31 international and Australian music performances throughout the venue as well as the annual Lighting of the Sails, created by local director Ash Bolland.

Vivid Live curator Ben Marshall said for nine years Vivid LIVE has been a home for the “cutting-edge in local and international contemporary music.”

He added “having witnessed Sydney creative Ash Bolland’s work for a long time, it’s also a great honour to have his mesmerising Audio Creatures on our sails with commissioned music by Vivid Live alumni and powerful iconoclastic electronic producer, Amon Tobin.”

Sydney harbourside precinct Barangaroo will make its Vivid debut this year, as part of the festival program announced by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Premier Berejiklian advised “Vivid Sydney returns with its biggest program ever, shining brightly for the first time at Barangaroo, with an illuminated trail of installations weaving through laneways and past the waterfront at the new business district.”

Vivid Light
For the first time, Vivid Sydney’s vibrant kaleidoscope will stream into a new precinct at Barangaroo, with a trail of installations winding through intimate laneways, past waterfront vistas and into a foodie paradise. Visitors will be immersed in A Day in the Light, an outdoor theatre of light and sound that lets them become part of the artwork, and treated to optical illusions at Trapdoor, which tells the stories of Barangaroo’s past.

The festival’s bright lights will return to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney with an expanded trail that will take visitors through the heart of the beautiful harbourside oasis. 

At the heart of the Vivid Sydney light walk, the Sails of the World-Heritage listed Sydney Opera House will be bought to life by a series of imaginary creatures curated and designed by acclaimed cinematographer, editor, and graphic designer Ash Bolland. Audio Creatures will show creatures interacting with the environment, morphing and moving between each other across the iconic Sails.

The City’s icons will once again be transformed, including the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia with Organic Vibrations, a collaboration between Australian artist Julia Gorman and the Paris-based creative and artistic collective, Danny Rose. Interactive lighting display Dreamscape will let visitors put their own colourful mark on the city’s skyline from Circular Quay along the Cahill Expressway to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Vivid Music
The beat of the Vivid Music program is stronger than ever with over 250 events in this year’s line-up. 

In a Vivid Music first, Vivid Sydney has partnered with the City of Sydney to deliver a program across a multitude of city venues. Showcasing grassroots and emerging local music talent, highlights will include a new roof top festival from Cake Wines, Pie in the Sky, and a showcase of Women in Electronic Music at Oxford Art Factory.

Kings Cross returns with an exciting line-up of performance music, art, ‘Avant Cabaret’, and cutting-edge, independent and immersive theatre with a bohemian flavour, part of the Vivid KX program.

Vivid Ideas
The Vivid Ideas program will continue to challenge and inspire with more than 200 events exploring the changing face of the creative industries. Iconic American artist Shepard Fairey, who blurs the boundaries of art and design, headlines the Vivid Ideas line-up. His body of work includes his Barack Obama HOPE campaign, the OBEY GIANT art project, and this year’s ubiquitous ‘We The People’ initiative.

Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency. 

For more information visit www.vividsydney.com

Images: Sydney's MCA bathed in paint (top, courtesy of Danny Rose) and Sydney Opera House gets lit up (below, courtesy of Destination NSW).

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14th July 2016 - VIVID SYDNEY’S CREATIVE DIRECTOR JOINS THE AUSTRALIAN EVENT SYMPOSIUM

1st June 2016 - TARONGA ZOO SHINES A LIGHT ON THREATENED SPECIES DURING VIVID SYDNEY 

30th May 2016 - LIGHTS TURNED ON FOR 2016 VIVID SYDNEY SPECTACLE

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