Vivid Sydney had once again transformed the city of Sydney into an array of vibrant lights, lively music and creative images. For three weeks, starting from 6:00PM to 11:00PM, everyone saw the spectacular lighting of the Sydney Opera House sails, 40 light installations scattered around Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House, Campbells Cove and The Rocks and the transformation of the Customs House into 3D animation mapped sequences.
Considered as Southern Hemisphere’s largest festival of light, music and images, Vivid Sydney also showcased an incredible music program curated by Modular Records’ Stephen Pavlovic. All these highlighted Sydney’s position as Australia’s creative capital and a major Asia-Pacific creative hub with public forums, talks, debates and seminar and conferences.
Compared to the celebration of this winter festival in the past two years, Vivid Sydney 2011 is the most interactive of all. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) turned into an interactive creative canvas where everyone was given the chance to “spray paint” MCA’s exterior with the help of light and interactive technology. It was a fun activity that used a person’s body movements to create colourful splashes, drips and spirals. Many of the light sculptures were interactive too. People had fun grabbing tentacles of a giant glowing jellyfish to stop it from floating into space. People drew artworks using a laser light pencil on a giant sketch pad and brought their own torch to find the friendly fireflies. Because of these interactive installations, Vivid Sydney became much more family-friendly.
On Friday and Saturday, night market at The Rocks became a haven for shoppers and food enthusiasts. Numerous stalls sold specialty items, gourmet food and sweets that made one’s visit to Circular Quay more worth it.
One of Vivid Sydney’s highlights was the Fire Dance at Campbells Cove. On the hour and for four minutes, giant 15-metre high flames danced in time to two different soundtracks. Fire jets threw flames higher than a three-storey house and all the people watching were entertained. Watching the Fire Dance was a great finale to a night of enjoying the Vivid Sydney. Seeing all those lights and interactive images made one look forward to what next year’s festivities would bring.
Ibyang Sanchez is a food and lifestyle blogger. You can find more of her Vivid Sydney photos at her personal blog “A Wife’s Charmed Life” “http://awifescharmedlife.blogspot.com/”
Photo Credits: Christopher and Ibyang Sanchez, Copyright 2011
