Name: Our Connected City
Start: 2026-05-22T08:00:00
End: 2026-06-13T13:00:00
Location: Circular Quay and The Rocks

It’s your turn to light up Sydney Harbour's world-famous skyline - even the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Each year, Sydney Harbour’s iconic landmarks...

Location:

Circular Quay
2000 NSW
Australia

Price:

Free

Artist Details

Mandylights

Mandylights is an Australian lighting and show design firm. Since 2006, the company has designed immersive light artworks, spectacular world tours, corporate, experiential and broadcast events in over sixty countries around the world. The team has produced work and collaborated with Vivid Sydney since 2011.

Bailey Pickles

Bailey Pickles is an Australian composer, arranger, and singer-songwriter. His talent was recognised early when he was selected for the Sydney Conservatorium's Rising Stars Program at 10 years old. Under the tutelage of Carl Vine, Bailey's musical journey has flourished, leading to collaborations with icons like Dermot Kennedy and Guy Sebastian. His genre-spanning talent has earned him the role of composer for Vivid Sydney 2024's score Our Connected City. Bailey's work, including the viral hit Memories, merges modern pop with cinematic depth, crafting an emotionally rich soundscape that speaks to all walks of life.

Event Details

It’s your turn to light up Sydney Harbour's world-famous skyline - even the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Each year, Sydney Harbour’s iconic landmarks and sparkling waters unite in a spectacular, synchronised display of colour using dynamic lasers, searchlights and projections. In a world-first, this Vivid Sydney we’re inviting any and all artists – young and old, aspiring or expert -- from across the globe to design their own light show to dance across the city’s skyline for 30 seconds.

Ready to make your mark? Simply head to the Your Connected City interactive panel below and create via a simple-to-use design tool your own colours and gradient, powered by Mandylights and set to a sonorous score by Australian composer Bailey Pickles.

Each night, Vivid Sydney will showcase ten user designs every ten minutes, totaling 4,600 creations across the festival’s 23 nights! They’ll dazzle across a canvas unlike any other, with more than 38 searchlights plus 18 landmark buildings and locales, including the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Gateway Tower and the Cahill Expressway.

And be sure to leave your name, home city and country so we can credit you! If selected, we’ll let you know exactly when your design will play. Plus, we’ll email you a photo of your creation, too.

During Vivid Sydney, you can tune into a live stream of the soundtrack for Our Connected City by composer Bailey Pickles here:

To enter Your Connected City, simply fill in your name and city, then select a colour or gradient from the selection below and select which of the buildings you'd like to design the lighting for. Once you're happy with your design, simply hit submit. We'll be publishing a name of successful entrants just before Vivid opens on 22 May as well as displaying selected names on lightboxes around Circular Quay.

Image credit Destination NSW

Country represented by installation: Australia

Access and Inclusion

Audio Described Audio Described - Audio description is a service provided for patrons who are blind or have low vision. Trained audio describers give live, objective, verbal descriptions.
Features Audio Features Audio - The event features audio.
Wheelchair Accessible Wheelchair Accessible - Access to the venue is suitable for wheelchairs (toilets, ramps/lifts etc.) and designated wheelchair spaces are available.