Vivid Sydney transforms Sydney Harbour into a canvas of light, music and ideas

SYDNEY, May 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivid Sydney (25 May – 11 June), now in its fourth year, was officially opened tonight with 'Lighting the Sails' of Sydney's iconic Opera House, unveiling a celebration of 3D colour projections and digital artistry by multi-award winning German design team, URBANSCREEN.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/55928-vivid-sydney-festival-2012/

The largest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, Vivid Sydney features light art installations around the harbour foreshore, live music performances at the Sydney Opera House and over 100 creative industry events in the Vivid Ideas program.

Developed by Destination NSW as part of the NSW Government's new tourism and events agenda, Vivid Sydney reinforces Sydney's position as Australia's global city and creative hub of the Asia Pacific.  The festival is expected to attract over 500,000 people in 2012.

This year's Vivid Light includes over 60 light art sculptures, 20 more than in 2011. From interactive games, mobile artworks using social media, illuminating skyscrapers and 3D mapping projections, to international installations from Germany, France, Poland, Hong Kong, Scotland, USA, Brazil, Singapore, and New Zealand.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) will showcase a world-first interactive collaboration between music icon will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), and renowned Sydney artist Justene Williams, where members of the public can 'play the building'.

Vivid Sydney also recognises the original inhabitants of Sydney with light projections expressing visual impressions of the six seasons of the Aboriginal calendar.

Vivid LIVE, opened by UK's, Florence and the Machine, features over 25 live music events including two world premiere. Highlights include; Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 'STOP THE VIRGENS', The Temper Trap, Sufjan Stevens, Janelle Monae & The Archandroid Orchestra, Imogen Heap and many more.

Leading ideas innovators will converge on Sydney for Vivid Ideas with over 100 creative industry and public events, double the number of 2011. Highlights include keynotes from Cory Doctorow, author and co-founder of world famous weblog Boing Boing; Chad Dickerson, CEO of Etsy; UK fashion talent, Henry Holland, from House of Holland, Jake Nickell, founder of Threadless and an appearance by VICE founder and CEO Shane Smith.

The Vivid Sydney program is available at http://vividsydney.com/

Stills, video and time-lapse are available and will be regularly updated at http://www.multivu.com/players/English/55928-vivid-sydney-festival-2012/ with all final broadcast quality video (PAL/NTSC) also at this URL from midnight Sydney time (May 25).