“Perhaps we can scare away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination, gentleman!”

Every May the entire city of Sydney gets out the step ladder, goes up into the loft and opens up an old cardboard box marked ‘lights’ and then drapes itself in them.

I am of course referring to the annual Vivid Festival – a two week extravaganza of Art,Live Projections and of course Light!

(For a synopsis of the festival as a whole please check out the video here: https://vimeo.com/130402077)

We had gotten a little taste of what was to come a few weeks before when Laura was visiting, with the Light Show at the MCA, so we jumped online and managed to get two tickets for a Tall Ship experience on the first weekend of the festival.

Before that we had a surprise visitor all the way from Cork… Uncle Buck himself (Conor), who thought that we had put on the Light Show just for him.

Over on business in Brisbane, Conor managed to make a sneaky trip down to Sydney for the night and was on hand for the opening night of Vivid. We had a great catch-up at the Opera Bar and then went for dinner at Kinn Thai Restaurant in Blues Point.

Saturday rolled up and was a nice day so we made the most of our Autumn day before heading Campbell’s Cove at the Rocks in the evening where our boat awaited us – the Southern Swan. Carved from Danish oak, this three-masted barquentine built in Denmark in 1922 spent many years shipping grain before becoming a staple of Sydney Harbour in 2007 and operating as a tour ship ever since.

We were treated to dinner, tasty deserts, an open bar and live entertainment as we sailed around Sydney Harbour taking in the city and shore illuminations including a projection show on the Sydney Opera House.

Afterwards we met up with our pals Chris and Joni and had a few drinks at the Lord Nelson Brewery in Millers Point and raised our glasses in cheers when the news started to filter through that Ireland had become the first ever country to vote for Same-Sex Marriage and provided the brightest light of the whole festival.