Is the future of Aussie festivals looking brighter – literally?
It's almost time for lights, camera, action as cities across Australia gear up to glow this winter. Each year, millions flock to light festivals across the country, with cutting-edge technology creating bigger and brighter displays. From Vivid Sydney and Canberra's Enlighten Festival to Rising Melbourne, Illuminate Adelaide and Tasmania's Bicheno Beans, it would seem that our nation's love for light is ever-growing.
But are these illuminated spectacles the future of Aussie festivals? It seems these events are stepping up to fill the flickering gap left by our fading music scene, blending impressive light displays with top-tier musical performances.
Australia's biggest and undoubtedly most popular light display, Vivid Sydney, launched as a humble winter tourism activation in 2009, featuring a projection on the Sydney Opera House sails, in addition to colourful light installations around Circular Quay and The Rocks. What began with 200,000 attendees has grown into a massive 23-night spectacle, drawing more than three-million visitors from around the world. In 2016, the festival expanded to include Vivid Music – a broader program of concerts and gigs across the city – with the 2025 line-up set to feature 23 nights of free music at Tumbalong Park and 50 innovative acts at Sydney Opera House, including Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and proud First Nations hip-hop sensation Miss Kanina.
Like Vivid, Melbourne's flagship winter festival, Rising, bathes Melbourne's landmarks and labyrinthine laneways in a new light. The beloved arts spectacular combines interactive light installations and art with music and food, providing a platform to spotlight 327 of the world's most eclectic talents, including British indie-pop girlie Suki Waterhouse, Brooklyn rap legends Black Star (aka Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli), and Wiradjuri dance artist Joel Bray.
Australia's festival capital has its own dazzling light-centric festival to rival the likes of Vivid and Rising, with Illuminate Adelaide also seamlessly blending art and light with music and technology. In 2025, the festival will be headlined by Night Visions – a brand-new, multi-sensory journey through Adelaide Botanic Garden, utilising cutting-edge light, lasers, projections and sound. The accompanying music program is set to be unveiled on April 29, with the first confirmed performance by Icelandic experimental techno duo Kiasmos, who will take the stage at Hindley Street Music Hall for their first Australian performance in eight years.
Our country's love for light goes beyond just festivals. From Uluru's famous Field of Light installation to the immersive Moama Lights trail in regional Victoria and the recently launched Illumina light show on K'gari, there are many ways Australia is celebrating light. This year, the Gold Coast's underrated outdoor art spectacle, Wonder at HOTA, Home of the Arts, is embracing the glow with its biggest and boldest artwork yet.
Titled 'Cloud Play', the breathtaking 530-square-metre kinetic sculpture by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics will light up the sky above the gallery, complemented by a soundscape that blends ancient Indigenous knowledge with an original score and natural sound recordings by Saltwater man Lann Levinge, operatic artist Jose Carbo, and didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton. Visitors can wander through the outdoor space beneath the colourful canopy of 'Cloud Play', as they enjoy a suite of events, including Strictly Baz Luhrmann: The Concert, a queer celebration headlined by Natalie Bassingthwaighte and The Huxleys, and free concerts by local talents including The Good Band and Sounds Like Gold Coast.
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