One of Sydney’s major modern tourism drawcards, the annual Vivid Festival, has been rescheduled in an effort to ensure community health and safety in the wake of the city’s ongoing COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Announced by NSW Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism, and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, Vivid Sydney will now take place from 17 September and run until 9 October. It was previously scheduled to take place from 6-28 August.
However with Sydney’s lockdown extended until 30 July at the earliest (at the time of writing), the NSW Government made the call to push back the festival to allow time for the state to contain the current outbreak and take the first steps back to normality.
“We all want to see Sydney shine through the spectacular show of creativity and innovation that is Vivid Sydney in September and October this year,” Minister Ayres said.
“The recent outbreak has presented a new challenge for everyone, and the health and safety of our citizens and entire event community involved in Vivid Sydney is our foremost concern.
“Destination NSW will continue to work with NSW Health and other agencies to deliver a COVID-safe Vivid Sydney later this year, with support from our event partners, artists, sponsors, and suppliers.”
Full details of the revised program for Vivid 2021 are still being worked through with venues and event owners confirming amended logistics. Ticketholders for paid events will be able to use existing tickets for rescheduled dates or seek a refund from ticket agents.
After being cancelled entirely in 2020 due to the pandemic, Vivid continued its strong run in 2019 as a major tourism drawcard, with the most recent event injecting AUD$172 million in expenditure to the NSW visitor economy.
Despite this, Minister Ayres said it was not possible to guarantee the event will go ahead if the current COVID-19 outbreak could not be contained in time.
“Vivid Sydney will only proceed if it’s safe to do so,” he said.