Overview
- The city-wide Vivid Sydney festival begins Friday May 22 and runs to June 13, with about 1,000 drones scheduled for 22 performances across 11 nights.
- Organisers say safety is the top priority and worked directly with NSW Police, emergency services, security firms and fencing contractors to stage the drone program and add indoor contingency events for bad weather.
- Festival director Brett Sheehy expects roughly 2.5 million visitors and the NSW government positions Vivid as a key driver of its long-term visitor-economy goals, which include raising tourist spending over the coming decade.
- This year’s program expands daytime activations and keeps more than 80% of events free, pairing large public light installations with headline concerts and talks at venues such as the Sydney Opera House.
- The return of drones follows last year’s cancellations driven by crowd-safety costs and risks, and the new plan could boost hotels, restaurants and shops while leaving organisers vulnerable to weather-driven cancellations and tight crowd controls that will shape visitor access.