‘Bloody beautiful’: This Sydney landmark with a dark past gets the Glastonbury treatment

It arose out of a need for a short-cut across the narrow peninsula that straddled The Rocks and Millers Point. In 1843 convict chain gangs began to carve a deep channel connecting the two sides of the spit, near where engineer John Bradfield would plant the giant feet of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. By the late 1800s that landmark, the Argyle Cut, was the haunt of cutthroat crime gangs. Heath Campanero and Simon Connell are turning the Argyle Cut into a time machine. Steven Siewert For Vivid, the creative team that painted the big screens of the two main stages at Glastonbury is turning the 50-metre-long cathedral like cave into a “time machine rave”, filling it with lasers, smoke machines and a throbbing electronic soundtrack. The winter festival will be “lights on” from Friday with illuminations across Circular Quay and The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Barangaroo , Sydney CBD, Sydney Opera House and Carriageworks . At the Opera House French artist Yann Nguema’s Opera Mundi will light up the sails in honour of Jørn Utzon’s architectural masterpiece. Over 22 nights, the festival will focus on the harbour front with a shorter unbroken 6.5-kilometre Light Walk, new daytime events and 22 drone shows. One thousand drones will write swirling galaxies, Fibonacci spirals and luminous nebulas into the night sky, all set to the haunting score of award-winning composer Antony Partos. “Melancholia, tension, satire, requiems – that’s my happy place,” says Partos. Inside the Argyle Cut. Destination NSW Vivid Lights-On Louie Douvis From the Nevada Desert of Burning Man festival comes a pulsating LED light dome, The Prism , offering a meditative, tranquil space during the light walk. At The Rocks, NeonDynamo’s Heath Campanaro and Simon Connell have created a seven-minute, “mind-melting” projection on the curved ceiling and walls. For TIME:WARPED , they have partnered with ER Productions – of Dom Dolla, Kylie, Dua Lipa and The Chemical Brothers fame – and Heckler Sound, with composer, Mitch Sloan, who scored last year’s soundtrack to Vivid’s Customs House projection. “We really wanted to be immersive as opposed to just projecting onto a surface,” Campanaro said. “It’s hundreds of thousands of years of rock that’s been cut through to create that tunnel, and you can see the rock strata, the generations of time in a really physical sense. It’s got a mixed history. Lots of convict stories and bad guy stories, it was quite a dangerous location. So that gave us this sense of time and our concept. “We’ve stretched the projection down the walls, and introduced haze and a lot of lasers to create a kind of high-energy club vibe. The concept of projection and laser coming together into a show has never been delivered for Vivid before. It’s cool, and bloody beautiful.” Customs House as it will be illuminated for Vivid 2026. Destination NSW The Prism will offer a meditative, tranquil space during the light walk. Louie Douvis Mapping the tricky angles and grooves was one of the biggest challenges as the projection-mapped area doubled and required the use of 12 projectors. Unlike usual laser shows, the lasers at the Argyle Cut don’t just emanate from a stage or structure and shoot out in time with music, they are integral to the rapid content. Streaks of laser light defines rock strata, evoke peace signs and lightning forks. More than 80 per cent of the program will be free to attend, says Tourism Minister Steve Kamper. TIME:WARPED was a “standout addition to this year’s program, inviting visitors to step into a world of light, sound and illusion that captures the creativity and innovation Vivid Sydney is renowned for”. NeonDynamo has created the content for Glastonbury Festival’s iconic Pyramid and Other Stage for the last three years running, creating 250 plus motion graphic packages running between the main acts over three days.