Vivid decides to make most attractions free due to cost of living crisis
Vivid Festival Director Gill Minervini says the decision to make 80 per cent of Vivid's attractions free is because 'the cost-of-living crisis is very real for all of us'.
'The crowds have been great, the response has been really good,' Ms Minervini said.
More than a million people have attended the light festival already, with attendance being up 10 per cent from last year.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
We asked Nigella Lawson where she'd eat in Sydney if she had a day to roam
You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger international fan of Sydney's and Australia's food scenes than British cookbook and TV personality Nigella Lawson. You just need to look at her Instagram account to see her enthuse about the restaurants she has visited here over the years. It's why Vivid's creative director, Gill Minervini, invited Lawson to host three dinners as part of this year's festival. Just before the 280 guests arrived for her three-course curated dinner in the reimagined Muru Giligu Tunnel in Martin Place, Good Food snared 10 minutes of her time to talk about her favourite topic: eating. You're a big advocate of Sydney's food scene. Why? I haven't eaten in every city in the world, but the reason why I love eating in Sydney is that I think the food is extraordinarily good. There are chefs who are really inspirational for me, but it's done in an informal setting. I don't mean Sydney itself, but at restaurants. What interests me is really exquisite food but [done] in a rather relaxed, unpretentious setting so it feels very inclusive … Obviously, the variety of food in Sydney is enormous, and I think that's partly because, like all port cities, there are people from so many different cultures, and that feeds into the food culture. But there's a particular sort of attitude, an Australian attitude, which is perhaps less bound by tradition so it'll allow itself to drink in and absorb many cultures, and then somehow will spin them and merge them and come up with something that is very direct, very unpretentious, very Australian, and that's fascinating.

Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
We asked Nigella Lawson where she'd eat in Sydney if she had a day to roam
You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger international fan of Sydney's and Australia's food scenes than British cookbook and TV personality Nigella Lawson. You just need to look at her Instagram account to see her enthuse about the restaurants she has visited here over the years. It's why Vivid's creative director, Gill Minervini, invited Lawson to host three dinners as part of this year's festival. Just before the 280 guests arrived for her three-course curated dinner in the reimagined Muru Giligu Tunnel in Martin Place, Good Food snared 10 minutes of her time to talk about her favourite topic: eating. You're a big advocate of Sydney's food scene. Why? I haven't eaten in every city in the world, but the reason why I love eating in Sydney is that I think the food is extraordinarily good. There are chefs who are really inspirational for me, but it's done in an informal setting. I don't mean Sydney itself, but at restaurants. What interests me is really exquisite food but [done] in a rather relaxed, unpretentious setting so it feels very inclusive … Obviously, the variety of food in Sydney is enormous, and I think that's partly because, like all port cities, there are people from so many different cultures, and that feeds into the food culture. But there's a particular sort of attitude, an Australian attitude, which is perhaps less bound by tradition so it'll allow itself to drink in and absorb many cultures, and then somehow will spin them and merge them and come up with something that is very direct, very unpretentious, very Australian, and that's fascinating.

AU Financial Review
4 days ago
- AU Financial Review
Heavyweights cosy up at Gold Dinner's $84.3m charity bash
Whether it was conservative talkback king Ray Hadley declaring his love for former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally, the impromptu eruption of fireworks from the nearby Vivid light festival or the free-flowing Bollinger, the atmosphere within the marquee at the Gold Dinner 2025 was decidedly toasty.