As Vivid as ever

The great Vivid light show thing has been coming to Sydney for a few years now. It was invented to provide a bit of a tourist attraction at the time of the year when sensible tourists knew to stay away, because winter had just arrived.

Officially it's not just a 'light show thing'. It's an annual festival of light, music, and ideas, but the other stuff would be happening anyway, just with different branding. And it's the lights that bring out the punters (and photographers). By the million, allegedly.

I got there last night to do my annual review. My verdict: It's very photogenic! Well worth a visit.

And yet more Vivid

Sure it's only a light show, and some are saying they're livid about Vivid being only a light show once again. But I went back anyway to see a little more.

This time to Circular Quay, the Opera House, and the Botanic Gardens (celebrating their 200th year as 'Australia's oldest scientific institution' with a light show).

Vivid again

It's Vivid time again. Better go and check it out, I thought. I never could quite decide what Vivid's for, but it's been getting bigger year by year, and the punters are liking it. The crowds are big.

Rather than the prime Circular Quay venue, this time I went to see some of the newer, more peripheral sites. Like Martin Place, Central Park, The Galeries, and Pitt St Mall.

Norbert the Nautilus and his vivid Chatswood friends

Sydney's Vivid festival comes round at about this time every year. It started as a light show, then a sound-and-light show, and this year it's billed as a festival of light, sound, and ideas!

I even went to one of the 'ideas' events the other evening. It was a talk at Sydney University about the 'inhuman' photography of the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. His pictures were OK, but the 'art-appreciation' bullshit that got spoken by the presenter and by the handful of enthusiastic questioners remaining in the much-dwindled audience - gosh, not an ounce of meaning could I find in any of it!










So let's get back to the good old light show! It's expanded this year, and now takes in several new venues. One of these is Chatswood.





I went along last night to check it out, and yes, it's not a bad little light show. You don't have to be pretentious if you're just a light show. It seemed to be all about aquariums and marine molluscs like the nautilus. A nautilus called

Norbert was featured prominently, and he had friends who were jellyfish, or were young ladies in brightly coloured lycra costumes.

All very colourful, and all good fun. It got the crowds out in Chatswood on a cold Saturday night, and there should probably be more of it!