Vivid Sydney is back in 2024 with great installations for families and kids!
This year’s Vivid Sydney, explores Humanity - what makes us human, inviting all to connect through shared moments of joy, discovery and creative brilliance.
Here’s our top installations and events to checkout this Vivid Sydney 2024 from the Friday 24th May to Saturday 15th June 2024 from 6PM to 11PM - most of them FREE!
1. Hika Rakuyo - Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour - FREE
This spectacular artwork is a celebration of Hika Rakuyo, a Japanese concept that uses flowers and falling leaves as a metaphor for the transient beauty of life, their fragility and the crucial role they play in our ecosystem. Told through an eight-minute holographic light and laser show, admire the story of native Australian flowers blooming across the dark water of the bay.
On repeat from 6pm, with the final show at approximately 10.45pm.
Country represented by installation: Japan
2. Global Rainbow - Sydney Tower - FREE
Global Rainbow is a beacon of hope and inclusivity and a guiding light above the Vivid Sydney festivities after previously lit up the cities skies around the world.
A spectrum of light reaches out from the Sydney Tower Eye, extending the footprint of the Vivid Sydney Light Walk into the night sky for all to see. Beams of rainbow lasers fan out from the iconic Sydney Tower Eye for up to 40km, uniting us all with Vivid Sydney.
3. Nest - Stargazer Lawn, Barangaroo - FREE
Nest is an expansive circular structure that welcomes you to bear witness to the ritualistic mating dance of the Brolga, the only crane species native to Australia. Creating deep connection to nature and the creatures within it.
Projected onto a transparent surface, the larger-than-life cranes apparitions appear to float in the air and are visible from both out and inside the Nest.
4. BARANI - Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour - FREE
Step back in time to Warrane, a.k.a Sydney Cove, 500 years ago. A time long before the present day climate crisis. A time when humans and nature lived in harmony.
BARANI, a Gadigal word meaning yesterday, offers a bittersweet narrative, rich with historical and cultural significance. This story of boyhood initiation from a Sydney Harbour many moons ago is a reminder to heed First Nations wisdom and the call to connect more deeply with the world around us.
Country represented by installation: Australia
5. Lightscape - Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - TICKETED
Experience the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in a new light, with breath-taking lightworks created by acclaimed local and international artists. Wander beneath towering tree canopies illuminated in colour, stroll beneath larger-than-life flowers and through dynamic, glowing tunnels. Discover moments of wonder to share with everyone around you.
Tickets for this event are timed in 15-minute increments from 5.00pm or 6.00pm onwards depending on the chosen event date. Last entry onto the trail will be 10 minutes after the final advertised timeslot.
6. PORTAL - Barangaroo Reserve - FREE
PORTAL invites you into a surreal, breathtaking moment in time where anything is possible. Towering over 15 metres tall, this commanding installation evokes the Surrealist movement with its otherworldly display of glowing light and atmospheric soundtrack.
Step within this monolith and the soundscape begins. As you take in the dramatic archways, diffuse LED lights pulse in time to the beat.
Country represented by installation: United Kingdom
7. Poem Booth - Hay Street, Darling Harbour - FREE
Prepare to engage with the form in a new way, as you stand in front of Poem Booth. Several poetry machines, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), translate what they see in front of them into unique pieces of poetry. The resulting work will surprise you with its depth, creativity, and connection to what it sees.
Country represented by installation: The Netherlands
8. Superheroes of Science - University of Technology Sydney - Ticketed
Not all heroes wear capes – some of them wear lab coats! This immersive workshop, designed for families and kids aged 8-12, plunges you into the weird and wonderful world of microscopic science.
This experience is fully interactive — you’re invited to poke around the lab, ask questions, make discoveries and gaze into microscopes. Not only is this a chance to hang out with clever and cool scientists and filmmakers, but it’s also an opportunity to unleash your own inner science superhero.
9. Vivid Light on Sydney Harbour - Circular Quay and the Rocks - FREE
Vivid Sydney goes to sea, with our ferries and boats lighting up in unison with the city’s skyscrapers and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as they sail across our harbour. This flotilla of colour is a vibrant, dynamic part of a coordinated display — a show that spans sea, land and sky. A reminder that we’re also connected as people, through this shared moment of wonder and light.
List of participating vessels will be available from 25th March.
10. NEOLITHIC - Tumbalong Park - FREE
A hyper-brilliant LED canopy weaves across the structure, with geometric patterns reminiscent of ancient art, while powerful headlight beams reach for the night sky. Neolithic is an ode to our past, our future and the human need for creativity that unites the two.
Trigger warning: this installation contains strobe lighting.
Country represented by installation: Australia
11. Vivid Kids at Tumbalong Park - Tumbalong Park - FREE
Round up the kids and start your Light Walk journey at 5pm each Saturday as our stage lights up with FREE children’s acts ahead of a night of more live music.
SATURDAY, 25 MAY: Buuja Buuja Dance
SATURDAY 1 JUNE: The Beanies
SATURDAY 8 JUNE: Formidable Vegetable
SATURDAY 15 JUNE: The Quokkas
Where light and music meet, Tumbalong Park is your festival go-to for free, contemporary music. Experience an explosion of humanity as the best international voices and local talent take to our stage under the stars for 12 nights of free live music.
12. Neuron - Chinese Garden of Friendship forecourt - FREE
Peek inside the most mysterious, powerful, and wonderous structure in the world – your very own brain.
Neuron is a motion-triggered light installation that represents our neurons and their branches at large scale. These strange yet beautiful sculptures are crafted from translucent material and LED light filaments and are motion responsive.
Country represented by installation: Spain
13. Migrating Light - Walsh Bay - FREE
Travel through time as you connect with the rich human history of our harbour city.
A series of holograms featuring migrants from our past appear before your eyes as their stories of struggle and triumph are told through audio, archival images and personal artifacts.
Country represented by installation: Australia
14. Gumscape with Road and Creatures - Customs House - FREE
Hit the road with national icon Reg Mombassa as retro-futuristic robots, one-eyed koalas and other strange creatures take over Customs House. As one of Australia’s most beloved artists, Reg immerses us in an other-worldly journey, presented in his signature style.
Dog Trumpet will be performing live and free at Customs House on Saturday 25 May at 7.30pm.
15. Connection - Hickson Road Reserve - FREE
As individuals, we are connected by countless invisible threads — a fact Angus Muir explores in this technicolour, immersive installation. Wander through a circular 'forest' of luminous ropes, run your fingers along the strands and press any of the eight interactive posts to set off dynamic patterns.
Step into a canopy thick with countless LED ropes and connect to our shared humanity as each post triggers a unique pulse of coloured light and sound sequences. Play with different combinations to unlock special displays. A tactile and playful opportunity.
Country represented by installation: New Zealand
16. Lighting of the Sails: Echo by Julia Gutman - Sydney Opera House - FREE
Watch as the iconic sails of Sydney Opera House are wrapped in swaths of Julia Gutman’s textural work for Lighting of the Sails: Echo and see Roman poet Ovid’s myth of Narcissus afresh. Not only is this an old story made new, it’s also a collision of bygone craft and modern technology. By digitising centuries-old fabric making techniques, Julia and Pleasant Company have transformed donated textiles into an animated, pertinent epic.
17. Sea, Sand and Stars - Museum of Contemporary Art - FREE
Breathe-taking. Whimsical. Profound. Plunge into Guan Wei’s visionary world at the MCA, as his signature iconography illuminates the night. This is the first time the globally celebrated Chinese Australian artist’s work has been transformed into a light projection, and the results are spectacular.
Witness as stars fall, oceans ripple, and fantastical creatures soar across the MCA’s façade. Sea, Sand and Stars blends the everyday with the extraordinary in a unique exploration of what it means to be human.
Country represented by installation: Australia
18. Stateless - Barangaroo - FREE
The flickering light of a candle in the dark. A symbol of hope. Remembrance. The human spirit.
This moving and thought-provoking installation features over 4000 solar-powered LED candles placed along the sandstone blocks of Nawi Cove. Each candle stands for the increasing number of stateless people around the world and is an invitation to acknowledge their plight and tenacity.
Country represented by installation: Australia
19. Dark Spectrum: A New Journey at Wynyard Tunnels
An electronic labyrinth of light, colour and sound pulses through one-kilometre trail in the abandoned railway tunnels underneath Sydney’s Wynyard Station features eight themed chambers, each with a monochromatic colour scheme and backing track of electronic dance music.
A spectacle of illumination, the journey takes visitors through 300 rhythmic lasers and strobe lights, 500 hanging handmade lanterns, 250 search lights, 700 illuminated arrows within an intricate maze, and much more.
Dark Spectrum is suitable for a wide range of age groups to enjoy. However, please be advised that children between the ages of 6 and 12 must be accompanied by an adult; children aged 5 and under are not permitted into the event.
Customer discretion is advised when purchasing tickets for those who may not be comfortable amidst an immersive, high-volume experience. The experience takes place along a one-way system in a series of underground tunnels with limited exits once inside. Some of the lighting sequences will include flashing, flickering and patterned effects, as well as strobe effects. Smoke and haze effects may be used in some areas of the route.
20. Embrace - First Fleet Park, The Rocks - FREE
Embrace is a verb. To hold. To accept. To include or contain. Step inside the circle of this interactive installation and actively embrace the joy of human connection.
Taking inspiration from children’s paper chains, a circle of life-sized silhouettes responds to human touch. Stand between the figures, reach out and touch the silhouettes on either side and watch as a ripple of light radiates around the circle.
Country represented by installation: Australia
21. Encounters Before The Tree - Barangaroo - FREE
Encounters Before the Tree explores this connection in a geometric light display that asks us to see beyond the canopy.
Watch as a hypnotic projection, inspired by nature’s hidden mathematical codes, slowly moves across a series of eucalyptus trees. The effect of transforming something natural into something strange and unknown is disconcerting and reminds us of nature’s hidden beauty and the patterns that exist within all living things.
22. Faces of Change - Circular Quay and the Rocks - FREE
The grey of the Harbour Bridge Pylons explodes into a kaleidoscope of surrealistic, colourful life. Watch as Indigenous artist Tori-Jay’s exaggerated characters explore humanity’s deep connection to nature, through the prescient story of the Torres Strait 8 (TS8).
Each member of the TS8 is represented in Tori-Jay's surreal hand alongside their totem — Great Blue Heron, Dugong, Sea Birds, and Crocodile — as the sea starts to rise and swallow them.
23. Chairwave - Watermans Cove - FREE
This innovative, kinetic, and illuminated seating system invites spontaneous interactions and authentic connections between individuals.
As you approach, Chairwave responds playfully, making a seat available for you and several 'strangers'. Once you accept, the adjacent seat opens, enticing the next person to join you.
Country represented by installation: The Netherlands
24. Our Connected City - Circular Quay and the Rocks - FREE
Above the city, one hundred and fifty searchlights cut upwards into the night sky, tracing lines of light across the clouds. Below, on the surface of Sydney Harbour, thousands of individual light sources are reflected in the mirror-like waters of Circular Quay.
These lights connect us, our city and our environment. They all work together in perfect synchronisation and uniformity. A reminder of how we can all work together for a brighter future.
Country represented by installation: Australia
You may have noticed that Wild Lights at Taronga Zoo was not represented this year. Taronga has made the decision to not present Wild Lights while they take stock of their creative offering while still furthering Taronga's commitment to a shared future for wildlife and people.