For the fifteenth year in a row, Vivid Sydney is back, baby—and just in time to help Sydneysiders dream big during pride month. From now until Saturday 14 June, catch some of the most boundary-pushing queer artists, musicians and cultural icons as they celebrate this festival of art, innovation and technology.
As part of Vivid Sydney’s lineup, visitors can choose from four event categories (light, music, ideas and food) all catering to a wide variety of interests while interrogating one central concept: what’s in a dream?
And because the festival is hosting more than 100 awe-inspiring art installations, 3D light projections, live music performances, underground nightclub events, and thought-provoking discussions throughout the city, it can be difficult to figure out exactly which events tickle your fancy.
So, here’s a quick rundown of Not Safe For Queers’ top 5 events to help you celebrate Vivid Sydney this pride month!
Japanese Breakfast LIVE (3 June)
In a big win for Sapphic Sydneysiders, Vivid Sydney is bringing Japanese Breakfast Down Under for the first time in almost a decade.
A singer, songwriter, guitarist and bestselling author, Michelle Zauner – aka Japanese Breakfast – is returning to Australia, bringing their beloved dream pop and electronica to the Concert Hall for their Vivid LIVE debut. Having just released their brand new album, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’, Japanese Breakfast’s performance is sure to be one of the festival’s hottest tickets.
Law And Life: Transgender Stories (5-7 June)
Here at the Australian Theatre for Young People, five trans performers (Charley Allanah, Vonni, Norrie May-Welby, Jeremy Moineau and Kavitha Savisami) and one lifelong ally (solicitor Katie Green) share their lived experiences navigating gender, identity, legality and survival.
For a lot of trans people, the core of survival in a system stacked against them is creativity—so expect pageantry, song and outside-the-box-and-binary expression. Beyond the camp and colour though, this evening lays bare an important and necessary conversation. We must face up to the discrimination embedded in our culture and law, its human impact and what can be done to create a better, more inclusive world.
Sound Escape (7 June)
Sound Escape is Vivid Sydney’s ultimate day-into-night party. With over six hours of music across four stages, you can enjoy queer beats from a number of LGBTQIA+ artists.
Part of Vivid Sydney’s Music program, Sound Escape will see City Recital Hall transformed into a surrealist dream of light and sound, with the indoor music festival offering electronic and indie sounds in the main stage Hall of Mirrors, cult queer party Heaps Gay taking over the ground floor Grand Voyeur, funk beats in Bar Eden and a good ol’ fashion rave in The Board Room.
Heaps Gay Grand Voyeur stage artists are Haiku Hands (DJ Set), Soju Gang, Tseba, Stev Zar, Fried Pork Chop, prettyboi.zeke and host Rocky Stallone. Keep an eye out for special guests throughout the night, including from performance art icons The Huxleys and Bendy Ben.
Pania + Devaura LIVE (12 June)
Towards the end of the festival, enjoy a night of genre-defying R&B, soul and hip-hop, led by two fierce voices in the Australian music scene: Pania and Devaura.
While Pania herself may not be queer, she’s been labelled as one of Australia’s freshest new voices—with a unique fusion of R&B and hip-hop, that’s earnt her comparisons to SZA and Jhené Aiko.
Performing alongside Pania, however, is Devaura, a bisexual icon in the Sydney scene who blends smooth vocals with hard raps and atmospheric beats, crafting moody, genre-bending R&B that’s soulful and hypnotic.
The Pink Pony Supper Club (12 June)
In 2025—the year of Chappel Roan—it’d be rude not to saddle up for a night of unapologetic celebration at the Pink Pony (Supper) Club.
Here at Mary’s Underground, the queer anthems come thick, fast and larger-than-life. From Cher to Gaga, Freddie to Whitney, belt out the tracks that filled dancefloors, fuelled movements and made us all feel flirty, fabulous and unstoppable.
With powerhouse vocal dynamo Shannen Quan, trans composer and performer Lawrence Hawkins, ‘Daddy’ hitmaker Nick Pes, cabaret/musical theatre queen Jenni Little, legendary icon Paul Capsis and the magnetic Emily Havea lighting up the stage, this is more than just an opportunity to singalong. It’s a love letter to freedom, identity and pure, unapologetic queer joy.
BONUS: Lighting of the Sails: Kiss of Light by David McDiarmid (23 May – 14 June)
A defining voice of late 20th century radical counterculture, David McDiarmid fused art, fashion, nightlife with bold activism and unapologetic self-expression. On the 30th anniversary of the artist’s death, Lighting of the Sails: Kiss of Light transforms his life’s work, rooted in activism and provocation, into a new animation projected onto the Sydney Opera House.
Featuring four key bodies of work—the Bedsheet Paintings, Disco Kwilts, and the Kiss of Light and Rainbow Aphorisms—the animation draws forward McDiarmid’s punk, queer sensibilities to the present day, broadcasting the experiences of a repressed minority while embodying complex truths, absorbing fear and preserving memory.
Across seven minutes, Kiss of Light reveals how McDiarmid used irony, humour and fierce intimacy to celebrate diverse gender and sexual identities. By honouring the utopian underpinnings of his work, Kiss of Light is a rallying cry for equality, inclusion and freedom, reminding us that joy, curiosity and creative rebellion build a better world.
Vivid Sydney runs until 14 June. Tickets on sale now.