Source: Instagram @kara1981
As the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere, Fluffy Crunch had become a regular fixture at this event since 2017. This world class event was set to transform the Harbour City into a colourful canvas full of spectacular large scale light installations and projections; contemporary and cutting-edge music performances and collaborations; public talks by renowned thought leaders, industry seminars, conferences and creativity workshops.
According to the Destination NSW, (the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency), Vivid Sydney attracted 2.25 million attendees in 2018 while in 2017 attracted a record 2.33 million attendees and injected over $143 million into NSW's visitor economy.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put an end to this opportunity and devastated multiple small businesses who rely on major events for their lively hood. As we all try to come to grips with this "new-normal" post isolation, we can't help but wonder if events like Vivid Sydney will ever come back to their former glory.
The current messaging by government is that the hospitality sector must continue to focus on social distancing and ensure it maintains the one person per 4 square metres for indoor and outdoor spaces. While they're limiting 10,000 people to stadiums with a capacity of 40,000, the policy makers are not considering how other major events will be rolled out.
Will the 4 square metre rule become the "new-normal" while they wait to see if the "second wave" comes? I understand we need to be cautious but with all the controversy around the extent of this "deadly and highly contagious virus" I can't help but wonder did humanity get it wrong? Did we take things too far and what's the real reason and the truth behind this global action? With the lack of control we all feel and the uncertainty that comes with this new future it's easy to turn toward all the conspiracy theories circulating the internet.
As much as we would love to unpack this further, we have found that it only highlights the lack of control we have and leads to some negative thought processes. So, moving forward, we choose to remember the fun we had and the joy we helped create during the largest festival in the Southern Hemisphere.
The 23 day festival was scheduled to run from 22 May - 13 June 2020. This event was the biggest festival in our calendar year and would have been our fourth year showcasing the Fluffy Crunch brand to hundreds of thousands of people.
Vivid Sydney was perhaps the turning point for Fluffy Crunch, as it was our first major event that compelled us to expand and gave us the opportunity to reinvest into our business to allow us to deliver our services in multiple sites. Partnering with the team from Food Trucks United and the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, we became a destination point for Sydney Siders over the coming years.
We were even featured in the Vivid Sydney 2018 | Food and DrinkGuide by Qantas and Sydney Destination NSW