The line-up for this year’s Vivid Sydney has been announced, with the festival set to run for the first time since 2019.
International acts on the line-up include Spiritualized, Perfume Genius, Moses Sumney, Nils Frahm, Cate Le Bon and Boris. They will join Australian artists such Paul Kelly, Tkay Maidza, Sampa the Great, RVG and HTRK at the top of the bill.
This year’s edition of the festival – which is set to run between May 27 and June 18 – will mark its return after cancellations in both 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many artists who were originally named as part of the line-ups for previous years’ events – such as Sampa the Great, BLESSED, Georgia Maq, Gordi, Liars, Low Life, Miiesha and Tiny Ruins – are present on the bill for this year’s festival.
Highlights at the Sydney Opera House include Sampa the Great finally bringing her show ‘An Afro Future’ to Australia on May 27 and 28, after several cancellations. She will be joined by special guests Mwanjé, KYE and C.FRIM. Between May 27 and 31, Paul Kelly and his band will perform four career-spanning nights on the Opera House’s Northern Boardwalk, joined by Thelma Plum.
Sydney-based artist collective Astral People will hold two birthday events on June 3 and 4. The first will feature the likes of Hiatus Kaiyote, Mildlife and Yussef Dayes; the latter, meanwhile, features Youngn Lipz, Arno Faraji, Barkaa and Briggs. Japanese noise-rock trio Boris will perform their 2002 album ‘Heavy Rocks’ in full on June 5, and Nils Frahm will debut an exclusive performance, dubbed ‘Music For Sydney’, on June 15, 16 and 17.
This year’s ‘Lighting of the Sails’ event is titled Yarrkalpa – Hunting Ground, 2021. Two years in the making, it features a large-scale digital artwork created by Pilbara’s Martu Artists and Sydney creative technologists Curiious, with an accompanying soundtrack by Electric Fields.
Eveleigh venue Carriageworks will also host performances across the festival period – including Divide and Dissolve on June 3, Cate Le Bon on June 9, CHAI on June 10 and Perfume Genius on June 11.
Elsewhere on this year’s bill are the likes of Meg Mac, Hermitude, KUČKA, Ed Kuepper and Jim White, 1300, A.GIRL, Gordon Koang and Haiku Hands.
“It has been a genuine privilege to put together this year’s Vivid LIVE program for the city I love, and in doing so it’s clear that Sydney isn’t the same city it was in 2019, or 2020, or even last year,” commented Ben Marshall, Sydney Opera House’s Head of Contemporary Music and this year’s Vivid LIVE curator.
“In 2022, we are all feeling the deep communal need to experience art and live concerts together.”
See the full Vivid Sydney 2022 program here.