Aussie Arts in Sydney – Vivid Sydney & Sydney Film Festival

Headed to Sydney during late May and early June?

If so, the city has a couple of cool adventures that lie a bit more on the artistic side of travel. We’ve been researching this area a bit more lately, since it looks like our next travel plans will lie in Southeast Asia and will hopefully allow for some travel to Australia & New Zealand as well. I wanted to highlight a couple of cool things I discovered that are going on in Sydney, so if you are there during May and June, you can check them out.

Vivid Sydney (May 27 – June 13)

Vivid Sydney is a city wide event that takes place after dark as iconic buildings and sculptures light up the night. It’s been going on since 2009 and this year is planned to be the biggest and best year yet. There are multiple events planned including a fire dance at Campbell Cove and interactive light sculptures (kids can climb on them!) throughout the city. I’m not going to lie, when I read about rainbow life-size men and social networking fireflies I was intrigued. Here’s what the Vivid Sydney website has to say about the event:

“People of all ages will enjoy this sensory experience, interacting with diverse and colourful sculptures including an enormous sketchpad where you can draw your own light art, a giant crystal spiderweb shimmering in the dark, a social network of friendly fireflies that that react to torch light and a group of rainbow life-size men.”

Of course, the headliner of the project is the world famous Sydney Opera House, which will be lit up and will feature musicians from around the world as well. There are plenty of hotels in Sydney near the Opera House, which I’m sure will make a visit even more convenient. If you are in Sydney during this time period, I don’t think you can miss Vivid Sydney. Most of the installations are free and it appears to be a really unique city wide event–be sure to schedule a couple free nights to see some of the cool happenings around the city.

Sydney Film Festival (June 8 – 19th)

If you are into indie films, this will be a must see event on your trip to Sydney. I am partial to film festivals because I love watching movies made by independent people. On one hand I think it is great to support local, smaller video artists and directors, and on the other hand it just seems like most independent movies have better story lines. You can tell that the people involved with the movies put their heart and souls into them and are probably ecstatic to have their film on a big screen. Supporting people like that really makes me happy.

With titles like How To Start Your Own Country and Troll Hunters–sign me up! I’m particularly intrigued by Life In A Day which was created by footage submitted by people all over the world that was all shot in a single day–July 24th, 2010. I love ideas like that. Hotels near Hyde Park and hotels in Darling Harbour would make perfect locations for hitting up some films and also seeing other tourist attractions that Sydney has to offer. The Sydney film festival showcases both Australian and International movies. Individual tickets are $17, but they have bulk ticket and group rates to bring the costs down.

Have you been to any of these festivals? If so, please let us know. 🙂

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

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