Opening Ceremony at the Fourth Annual Vivid Sydney Festival

Description: Sydney is once again transformed into a spectacular canvas of light, music and ideas when Vivid Sydney takes over the city after dark from May 25 to June 11, 2012. Vivid Sydney is a major celebration of the creative industries and the biggest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting over 400,000 attendees in 2011. Now heading into its fourth year, Vivid Sydney was ranked in the Top Ten global ideas festivals by the influential Guardian newspaper in the UK. Vivid Sydney highlights include the hugely popular immersive light installations and projections; performances from local and international musicians at Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House and the new Vivid Ideas Exchange at the The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) featuring public talks and debates from leading global creative thinkers. Opening Vivid LIVE, the UK’s Florence and the Machine performed with the Ceremonial Orchestra featuring over 40 performers on stage. Highlights of Vivid LIVE program include Karen O in ‘STOP THE VIRGENS’, The Temper Trap, Sufjan Stevens, Janelle Monae & The Archandroid Orchestra, and Imogen Heap. Vivid Ideas will offer a robust program that consists of creative industry and public events focusing on ideas, innovation, discussion, and collaboration. Highlights of the program include keynote talks 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 Shane Smith, VICE founder and CEO. Creative industry business events during the festival include X Media Lab, Song Summit, Mumbrella 360, CeBIT Australia, and SPARC Design. Other exciting additions to the program are a partnership with the Sydney Film Festival, the Etsy Success Sydney microbusiness conference, ABC Rage 25th anniversary exhibition at Carriageworks, and a direction-¬‐setting think tank with industry leaders on building the creative economy in NSW. Visit www.vividsydney.com or http://bit.ly/vividsydneyinfo for more details and multimedia.