The people of New South Wales, it turns out, share a universal truth: no festival is complete without good food. Whatever the theme, gastronomy proved to be one of the most powerful threads running through the celebration and the travel experience surrounding it.
Australia is, as widely known, a country shaped by successive waves of migration — from the Indigenous Aboriginal peoples, to Filipino, Indian and Micronesian communities, followed by European, Latin American, Chinese, Korean and Japanese settlers — all coexisting across a vast continent and building a richly diverse society.
That diversity has produced a culinary culture where the best techniques and traditions from each community converge. The result, many argue, is food and drink of higher quality than what any single-tradition country could produce on its own.
Vivid Sydney, one of the largest festivals in New South Wales, centers on light and media art while weaving in food festivals, music performances and humanities events throughout the city.
Among the festival's four main themes, the food strand — Vivid Fire Kitchen — drew large crowds and emerged as one of the event's most celebrated highlights.
Global travelers drawn to the fire flavors of Barangaroo
On the hillside of Barangaroo, west of Sydney's The Rocks district, Vivid Fire Kitchen came alive. Visitors received vouchers through a simple registration process and could use the credit to choose from dozens of food pavilions, topping up with cash if they wanted more.
At this outdoor event set within the Barangaroo Reserve, locals and international tourists alike enjoyed open-fire cooking, street food and pop-up bars.
More than 60 chefs and culinary experts, each leading their own teams, presented a wide range of gastronomic content. The Vivid Fire Pit — where chefs cooked themed dishes live before an audience — and Food for Thought, a series of informal talks on food and culture, gave Sydney's culinary tourism an added dimension.
Set in a casual dining space inspired by Australia's backyard outdoor eating culture, the program featured open-fire cooking demonstrations, talks, tastings and live music.
In June, a "Dessert Takeover" put sweet dishes front and center, while a range of beverage programs — including sommelier tastings, wine sessions and cocktail workshops — kept the drinks flowing.
Global food brands spanning barbecue, pizza and desserts joined the lineup, and live music and DJ performances lifted the festival atmosphere further.
Behind the Fire Kitchen grounds, signature Vivid Sydney light installations — including "Molecule of Light" — created an immersive experience where food and light art came together.
Particularly striking was the sight of visitors gathered around a large bonfire where light and flame intertwined, eating their chosen dishes and sharing easy conversation — a scene that recalled the warmth of fireside gatherings from a simpler time.
Art and night views woven into the culinary festival
Perched on a gentle rise, the site offered colorful views of the Sydney skyline and harbor. Travelers who had spent the festival days absorbed in sights and sounds found their happiest moments here, where eating was added to the mix.
The Vivid Fire Pit featured four live cooking demonstrations performed by chefs before large audiences. Leading Australian chefs rotated through the stage, presenting new menus and cooking experiences each day. Demonstrations included explanations of the dozens of techniques used to achieve the right flavor, aroma and texture — even in something as familiar as chicken barbecue.
Food for Thought brought together chefs, writers, restaurant operators and other culinary experts for talks and demonstrations on food, culture, sustainability and the future of eating. The program varied its theme by day — spotlighting New South Wales wines and produce on Mondays and Tuesdays, and focusing on First Nations cuisine on Wednesdays — giving visitors a chance to experience food not just through taste but through deeper understanding.
The Marquee Stage offered live music performances in a relaxed setting where guests could enjoy food and drinks while taking in the show.
The Vivid Fire Kitchen program was an open culinary celebration created by Vivid Sydney in collaboration with Motti+Smith.
Vivid friendships forged at Yotam's food concert
World-renowned chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi hosted a separate tasting-style food talk concert — "A Shared Table" — not at Barangaroo but in the city center.
Offered as both dinner and lunch programs in the heart of Sydney's central business district, the event gave travelers a rare opportunity to experience Ottolenghi's culinary world firsthand — his signature use of fresh ingredients, vivid colors and generous abundance.
Each session drew long lines of eager visitors. Over a glass or two of wine, travelers from different countries became friends. Jenny and Young, flushed with good food and Australian wine, clasped each other's hands and shook them warmly upon first meeting — a bold, joyful connection of the kind that Vivid Sydney, in all its liveliness, seemed to inspire at every turn.
Ottolenghi drew applause for his naturalist philosophy of cooking. "In preparing food, being driven by technical perfectionism or by what others think is not ideal — it actually gets in the way of the human side of cooking," he said. "What matters is thinking about how to build on what each region produces, enjoying that process freely, and knowing that a little sweetness, saltiness or acidity to stimulate the palate is enough."
New South Wales runs a Regional Dinner Series focused on food culture, shining a light on local ingredients and talent. The program draws on Ottolenghi's culinary philosophy — rooted in seasonality and locality — and adds a global gastronomic sensibility to elevate the inherent value of local produce. It reflects the same ideas he shared at his food talk concert.
Sydney travel expanding — and beyond
Vivid Music also ran as a core element throughout the Vivid Sydney festival.
The music program brought together international artists and local Australian musicians across a diverse lineup of performances. Small-scale busking touched the hearts of passersby, while EDM beats gave travelers an exhilarating release. The light art, too, might never have fully come alive without the music to accompany it.
Vivid Minds — which invited visitors to reflect on the mindsets needed to navigate life today and in the future — also left a quiet impression. An expansion of the earlier Vivid Ideas strand, it combined art, performance and ideas into a humanities program that earned recognition as a new genre of mixed cultural experience, encompassing lectures, panel sessions, immersive experiences and performance art.
Vivid Sydney may be over, but New South Wales continues to offer a full range of experiences for travelers: diverse attractions and culinary experiences in and around Sydney — including Manly Beach, Sydney Harbour National Park and Garigal National Park — encounters with unique Australian wildlife, and wellness programs such as floating yoga, trekking and East-West fusion therapies.
In addition, tourism authorities are encouraging visitors to venture beyond central Sydney into the broader state — north to the Hunter Valley for wine, horseback riding and nature-focused travel; south to the Southern Highlands for pristine nature, gardens and wholesome cuisine; and east to the romantic coastal scenery of Jervis Bay and Wollongong.
Reporting assistance provided by Destination NSW, the New South Wales tourism authority.
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