Walk into the light with the annual Vivid Sydney festival

The annual Vivid Sydney festival is a stimulating mixture of dazzling lights and ideas, and one of the reasons to visit the city

- Uday Bhatia

There are the classic reasons to visit Sydney: the Opera House, the beaches, as a base to head out to the vineyards of Hunter Valley a couple of hours away. To this a newer, fourth reason can be added: Vivid Sydney. This festival had its 13th edition earlier this year, the second since its return after the covid-19 pandemic. It saw some 3.28 million visitors-a record turnout.

This massive response shows how, in its short existence, the festival has become a mainstay of the city's cultural calendar, drawing visitors from across the continent and outside. The festival has four broad umbrellas-light, music, ideas, food. It's the light installations that make Vivid Sydney a unique attraction, transforming public places from parks to tunnels into dazzling works of art.