Big ideas to boost Australia’s biggest events

The City of Sydney is calling for fresh concepts and innovative ideas to make some of Australia’s biggest events better than ever.

As part of an open process, the City of Sydney invites organisations, visual artists, curators, collectives, producers, architects, animators, set designers and visual effects designers to participate in the call for ideas.

The City of Sydney is looking for ideas that demonstrate creative excellence, innovation, accessibility and appeal to a global audience, with capacity to broaden the creative contribution of its festivals and major events including New Year’s Eve, Sydney Lunar Festival and Sydney Christmas.

Ideas can range from a small individual effect as part of an event, to a larger concept reimagining an entire event.

Proposals should align with the City of Sydney’s commitment to sustainability and may include activities with improved environmental performance.

Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore AO said the City of Sydney is looking for proposals that are similar in scale, timing and impact to its existing events program and will fortify Sydney's position as a global events powerhouse.

“We want to explore new technologies and ideas that may be included in our major events to showcase Sydney’s creative innovation to the world – this could include drones, light shows and projections – but the sky’s the limit,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Our aim is to build on Sydney's status of producing cutting-edge, dynamic and extraordinary events that push the boundaries of innovation and leave a lasting impact on attendees and audiences.”

Concepts must be adaptable and able to be experienced by a live and broadcast audience where applicable. They should be visible and accessible to a large-scale audience across the relevant precinct and reflect the traditions and objectives of the event for which it is designed.

A shortlist of respondents may be selected to workshop and develop their ideas with the City of Sydney or participate in a procurement process to bring their idea to fruition.

As part of the call out, the City of Sydney will conduct a briefing at 2.15pm on 28 September in person at Town Hall House and online. Applications closes at 11am on Thursday 26 October.

For more information and to register for the briefing visit cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

Media contact Elaine Kelly. Phone 0477 362 550 or email [email protected]

For interviews with Lord Mayor Clover Moore, contact Paul Mackay. Phone 0436 816 604 or email [email protected]