Anyone looking forward to the return of lights, ideas, and music festival Vivid Sydney this June is in for a bit of a rude awakening. The festival, which has since become a global icon for the harbour city, has been pushed back until later in the year. That leaves a big chunk of June open, making way for a newly announced placeholder winter festival called Sydney Solstice.
Given Sydney Film Festival has also had to postpone proceedings, Destination NSW – the state’s tourism and events body – is hoping Sydney Solstice will satisfy anyone hoping that the city’s usually vibrant June social calendar will still be brimming with at least some sort of large-scale Vivid-adjacent event built on the pillars of live music, performances, comedy, workshops, food and drink, exhibitions, and installations.
Sydney Solstice is hoping to satiate that need for the city’s arts and entertainment industry, spreading across two weeks with a program shared between some of Sydney’s liveliest and most convenient areas. This includes the CBD, The Rocks, Barangaroo, Glebe, Paddington, Darlinghurst, Newtown, Chippendale, and Darlington.
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The new festival will kick off on Tuesday 8 June and run up until Sunday 20 June, although the actual program of events has yet to be confirmed. Destination NSW are still very much in planning mode for the festival, with the current announcement really only serving to assure Sydneysiders that their winter won’t be kicking off without a refreshing – and necessary – breeze giving life to the city’s dining, drinking, entertainment, arts, and cultural scenes.
Destination NSW has hinted that they will be focusing on Sydney-based and intrastate talent across the aforementioned pillars, which should provide more than enough to fill the program with all types of exciting events that’ll hopefully reignite the city and get that local economy pumping.
Expressions of interest are currently being held from any businesses interested in taking part, casting the net wide to try and curate a collection of restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, promoters, and arts and cultural organisations. This call-out will be valid until early April, after which hopefully Destination NSW is able to announce specifics as to what we can expect from Sydney Solstice.
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