Bring Vivid to Parramatta. The plan: TBD
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Sydney’s annual ‘Festival of Light, Music and Ideas’ has become a smashing commercial success since its launch in 2009, drawing locals and tourists alike to the streets of the CBD and around the harbor in the dead of winter.
The event has slowly grown in size and scope. Lighting was initially limited to the city center in its inaugural year but has expanded to include North Sydney, the Star, Carriageworks in Redfern, Taronga Zoo, Surry Hills and Chatswood.
As the state government reviews arts and culture policies in NSW, they are looking at how cultural events like Vivid could be better funded across the state. Current policy has left local government “to do a lot of the heavy lifting at major cultural events,” said Matt Levinson of the Urban Think Tank Committee for Sydney.
“This is obviously true of Parramatta and the western and southwestern hubs, which host some of the city’s hottest cultural productions and have audiences clamoring to get in [to such events].”
“Being involved in events like Parramatta Nights and Parramatta Lanes, as well as the Sydney Festival shows at Parramatta CBD shows that the audience is there and growing incredibly fast. When the new airport opens in 2026, this will increase rapidly, we have to start building the cultural infrastructure for it.”
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