Sydney’s annual festival of light, music, ideas and food will return for its 23-day program, including a new selection of daytime events.

Running from Friday 22 May to Saturday 13 June, the 2026 Vivid Sydney program will explore the breadth of the city’s creative identity across Vivid Light, Vivid Music, Vivid Minds and Vivid Food. This year, the festival has announced an expansion into daytime activities, before the city lights up again each night in Vivid’s signature glow.

More than 80 percent of the festival remains free, including the entire Vivid Light Walk, an unbroken 6.5‑kilometre journey featuring over 43 installations and projections created by local and international artists. The Vivid Light Walk stretches across Circular Quay, The Rocks, Barangaroo and Darling Harbour, with additional venues in and around the CBD hosting Vivid Music, Vivid Food and Vivid Minds events that bring the entire city into the experience.

Vivid Minds

Vivid Minds invites audiences to engage with leading storytellers and cultural thinkers. This year’s program features Academy Award–winning filmmakers Sean Baker (Anora, The Florida Project) and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Hamnet), alongside influential music commentator Zane Lowe, Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Jerry Saltz and bestselling author Roxane Gay. Together, their conversations will unpack cultural shifts and the forces shaping today’s artistic landscape.

Midweek Minds is a weekly series of rapid-fire keynote talks and discussions that showcase contemporary creative practice, featuring architect Dong-Ping Wong, designer and researcher Mindy Seu, The New Yorker creative director Nicholas Blechman, and filmmakers Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs.

Vivid Light

Vivid Light returns with a grand sense of scale, anchored by two landmark centrepieces.

The festival’s tallest installation at 23 metres, Molecule of Light by British artist Chris Levine, will be on show at Barangaroo Reserve. The laser and sound installation will fuse single‑frequency beams, geometric light patterns and a solfeggio soundscape inspired by ancient healing frequencies, creating a meditative atmosphere.

Obstacle by Melbourne collective Reelize will ignite Wulugul Walk with a 45‑metre high‑resolution LED installation to create a pulsing corridor of colour and movement after dark.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will become a canvas for Vaiola, a projection‑mapping work by Sāmoan‑Australian artist Angela Tiatia, whose practice explores gender, neo‑colonialism and performance. The piece reflects on vaiola, the life‑giving and healing force of water, weaving restorative symbolism with Tiatia’s deep connection to her ancestral home.

Across the harbour, renowned French artist Yann Nguema will unveil a major new work, Opera Mundi, illuminating the Sydney Opera House sails. This original commission reflects on the transformations found in nature and the elemental forces that inspired Opera House architect Jørn Utzon.

For its 16th year, Vivid Sydney will transform Cockle Bay with a nightly laser show set to music, sending choreographed beams of light sweeping across the harbour sky. Running continuously throughout the evening, the presentation will feature four shows each hour, marking it the most ambitious free laser show ever staged in Australia.

Vivid Food and Vivid Music

Vivid Food promises to unite world‑leading and local chefs and producers – including Yotam Ottolenghi, Mark Best, Luke Mangan, Sharon Salloum and Annita Potter and more – to celebrate the breadth of NSW dining and the stories behind every dish.

Meanwhile, Vivid Music has a curated program of artists from around the globe, alongside special events, interactive experiences and performances. The Sydney Opera House will host performances by Mitski, Mogwai, Jeff Mills, King Stingray, Erika de Casier, Sparks, Cate Le Bon, Cass McCombs and a tribute Gil Scott-Heron led by Brian Jackson featuring Yasiin Bey.

Visit Vivid

Minister for Jobs and Tourism Steve Kamper says Vivid Sydney 2026 will “redefine how we experience our city”, delivering a bigger and bolder event program that will come to life both day and night.

Tickets for Vivid Sydney are on sale now. For more information and for a full list of events, go to vividsydney.com

Lead image from Mindy Seu’s ‘A Sexual History of the Internet’ event. Photo: Supplied.

Related: Melbourne Design Week reveals 2026 program.