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A man watching the Vivid Sydney lights from across the hardbour
Photograph: Destination NSW

The best things to do at Vivid Sydney 2023 that are free or cheap

All the coolest (and cheapest) experiences and activities you can get up to in town this glowy season

Maya Skidmore
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Maya Skidmore
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It's no secret that Vivid is usually quite overwhelming. With the pumping crowds, winter chill, and intense sensory overload of massive immersive light shows, the whole experience has the potential of making you feel more than a little lost. 

This year, we've put together a list of all the best free and moderately priced activities, events and illuminations you can get around this Vivid season. Whether it's remarkable glowing things you can gaze at, mind-blowing talks, or getting to see Sydney turn rainbow from far, far  above, we have you covered. 

The one thing that's for sure? You won't get bored. 

Stay in the Vivid-know with our ultimate guide to where to eat, drink and sleep during Sydney's shiniest time of year.

The best free, cheap and cool things to do at Vivid

Price: Free

Getting to see the Opera House light up for Vivid is one of the festival's undeniable highlights (sorry, we had to). This year, the vibrant work of iconic Australian painter John Olsen will form the entirety of the moving projections that will illuminate the white sails from 6-11pm every night from May 26 to June 17.

Olsen's vivid body of work from over 60 years will be brought to life on the Sydney Opera House for Lighting of the Sails: Life Enlivened. Prior to his recent passing in April at the age of 95, Olsen worked closely with the team who is bringing 15 of his famous artworks to the iconic billboard of the Opera House sails. Find out more here.

  • Things to do
  • Fairs and festivals

Music enthusiasts and frugal festival lovers can lose themselves in 12 nights of free entertainment at Tumbalong Nights. Sponsored by Commonwealth Bank’s Indigenous Careers, the stage will light up with unmissable acts like Youthu Yindi, Kutcha Edwards and Dan Sultan. We're all about it. 

 

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Price: Free

Elemental is an essential – 'elemental', in fact – stop on the Vivid Light Walk. It combines spectacular 80-metre "water shooters", light projections, flames and pyro technics, for a dramatic in-water show that can be viewed from promenades on all sides. The creators say the installation celebrates the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. It plays on rotation every night during Vivid Sydney, from 6-11pm until June 17. Watch it from either Cockle Bay Wharf or Darling Harbour. (As with other shows, you can listen to the soundtrack if you download the Cinewav app, get your audio ticket and press play.)

Price: Free

This Vivid installation is rubbish. No, really. The Last Ocean is a massive tessellated ‘ice sheet’ made of reclaimed ocean plastic. This is your chance to step onto the icy wonderland of Antarctica without harming it. During the day, the surface swirls between captivating shades of blues and whites. Then, at nightfall, your movements upon the expansive artwork stir the seas, causing them to splash up and shift the ice’s shape and colour under your feet. It's on Barangaroo's Stargazer Lawn, and it lights up every night of Vivid from 6pm to 11pm.

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Price: Free

Written in the Stars is the biggest drone show in the Southern Hemisphere. Involving more than 1,000 drones, this 10-minute Vivid Sydney show is a journey through our solar system. The ‘drone show’ is way more entertaining and moving than it sounds. The thousand or so drones fly in coordinated movement like flocks of birds, changing position and also colour to make crazily realistic 3D shapes – such as a giant ‘whale’, breaching from the surface of the harbour – in the sky above you. The show is set to the moving soundtrack of ‘The Planets’ by Gustav Holst, remixed by Peewee Ferris (the audio is available on the Cinewav app. Download it to get your audio ticket and press play). It's only showing on select nights during Vivid, from 9.10pm. Look to the skies on: Wed May 31, Sun Jun 4, Wed Jun 7, Mon Jun 12, Wed Jun 14 (that is, unless we get bad weather). For the best views of the drone show, head to the Circular Quay foreshore – anywhere from the Sydney Opera House to the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Price: Free 

For all the little light enthusiasts, head to Cadmans Cottage. Vibrant drawings made by small hands will bounce along the historical cottage all night long. Following a theme of 'Endangered Species', 12 young artists aged between 7 and 14 collaborated with a team of designers and animators at the Spinifex Group to create bright, moving art that reflects their own joyful perception of Australia's native animals, and as such, how important it is that we protect them. 

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