The highlight of Sydney’s Vivid festival, a drone show running over three nights, has been branded “boring” on social media by spectators who flocked to see the spectacle at the weekend.
The Vivid festival is one of the biggest events on the Sydney calendar, attracting millions of visitors each year. It is a great help for the tourism sector during the quiet winter months.
In fact, so many spectators packed into Circular Quay to watch the Love Is In The Air drone show, featuring 700 flying robots, that festival-goers were almost crushed.
But many of those who crowded in to see the show at the weekend were unimpressed, with many users claiming there was little to love about the show.
They claimed it was boring, not as good as last year’s show and had been co-opted by sponsorship and advertising.
The theme of this year’s drone show is Love Is In The Air, but not everyone was in love with the show.
Spectators were left trapped in a terrifying crowd after the Vivid Sydney drone show on Saturday night.
A post on X (formerly Twitter) criticized the use of drones to promote a Netflix show.
‘Sydney Vivid Drone show complete with Netflix logo and Bridgerton promo – can our city get tackier?’
One response to the post agreed: “Vivid used to be exciting; now it’s just another corporate party.”
Many agreed and posted similar comments.
‘The drone show was basically 3 minutes of content and the rest was their sponsors. They literally made the logo of Netflix, Amex and some hotels on the damn drones.
‘Just an excuse for a Netflix ad. Very disappointing.’
Other social media users were also not very impressed with the drone spectacle.
“Is Sydney so boring that it’s all people have to do on a Saturday night?” asked one commenter.
“People are really rushing to see that garbage that doesn’t make sense,” another user wrote.
“Gender equality in heaven is a waste of time,” wrote one aggrieved attendee.
Others commented on the terrifying incident on Saturday night when spectators were trapped in a massive crowd near the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay after the drone show.
“People were pushing, aggressive, yelling, I even felt unsafe,” one person posted.
“Shut this shit down, it’s not worth the massive crowds and inevitable crushing death event that feels closer every year.”
“Sydney Vivid Drone show complete with Netflix logo and Bridgerton promo – can our city get tackier?” wrote one X user
“Is Sydney so boring that it’s all people have to do on a Saturday night?” one social media user wrote about the Vivid drone show.
Many attendees did not find the promised Tekno Train experience all that extraordinary
Another of this year’s Vivid attractions, the Tekno Train, also came under fire.
He live website promotes the Tekno Train as “an immersive sound experience, in which an everyday commuter train is transformed into an extraordinary journey.”
There are two experiences on Tekno Train, ‘The Scenic Route’ and the ‘Tech Express’.
Many social media users didn’t find the experience all that extraordinary.
‘In any other major city in the world, events like the “techno train” would be dancing with a pole. Here you have to sit and pay $30 to ride the train,” one attendee posted.
‘You don’t even need to wait for Vivid to get on the techno train. The Eshays with their sound systems on night trips offer the experience for free sometimes, whether you accept it or not.
‘No drinking or dancing???? Sydney party style hahahahaha.’
Vivid Sydney is described in Destination NSW website as “the largest festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere and the country’s largest celebration of creative industries.”
The website claims the latest edition of Vivid Sydney attracted a record 3.48 million attendees and “generated $206.1 million in visitor spend for the New South Wales visitor economy”.
One social media user returned from Vivid Sydney with more than good memories.
‘Two years in a row and I’m back from Vivid with COVID…’
Vivid Sydney continues until Saturday night, with the final drone show starting at 9.10pm.