Vivid Sydney 2024: Drone show is slammed as 'boring' before terrified visitors were almost crushed - while Tekno Train is panned as 'paying $30 to ride on a train'

The highlight of Sydney's Vivid festival - a drone show running over three nights - has been savaged as 'boring' on social media by spectators who flocked to watch the show at the weekend in massive numbers. 

The annual festival is one of the biggest events on the Sydney calendar, drawing millions of visitors every year. It is a major boon to the tourism sector during the quiet winter months. 

But one of the highlights of Vivid Sydney, a show featuring 700 drones creating light formations above Circular Quay, has been panned online by disappointed spectators. 

The theme of this year’s drone show was Love Is In The Air, designed to ‘have your heart beating fast, as over 700 drones form universal symbols of love in spectacular colours and formations across the night sky'.

But social media was buzzing with negative comments, with many users admitting they felt very differently about the show. They claimed the show was boring, not as good as last year’s show and had been co-opted by sponsorship and advertising. 

One post on X (formerly Twitter) slammed the use of the drones to promote a Netflix show.

‘The Sydney Vivid Drone show complete with Netflix Logo and Bridgerton Promo - can our city get any tackier?’ 

A reply to the post agreed, ‘Vivid used to be exciting - now it’s just another corporate wh***fest’.

Many agreed, posting similar comments. 

‘The drone show was basically 3 mins of content and the rest was their sponsors. They literally did the netflix, amex and some hotels logo in the bloody drones. 

‘Just an excuse for a Netflix ad. Very disappointing.’ 

 Other social media users were also very unimpressed with the drone show. 

‘Is Sydney so boring that's all people have to do on a Saturday night?’ one commenter asked.

‘Really people rush to watch that crap makes no sense,' another user wrote.

‘Gender equality in the sky a waste of time,' one aggrieved attendee wrote.

Other people commented on Saturday night’s terrifying incident when spectators were caught in a massive crowd crush near the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay after the drone show.

'People were pushing, being aggressive, screaming, I even felt unsafe,' one person posted.

'Shut this s*** down it’s not worth the mass crowds and inevitable crushing death event that feels closer every year.’ 

Another of this year's Vivid attractions, the Tekno Train, also came in for criticism.

The Vivid website promotes the Tekno Train as ‘an immersive sound experience, as an everyday commuter train morphs into an extraordinary ride'.

There are two Tekno Train experiences, 'The Scenic route' and the 'Tech Express'. 

A lot of social media users didn’t find the experience that extraordinary.

‘In any other major city in the world, events like the “techno train” would be dancing with a bar. Here you have to stay seated and pay $30 to ride on a train,’ one attendee posted.

‘You don't even need to wait for Vivid to get the techno train. Eshays with their boomboxes on the night commute give the experience for free sometimes whether you consent to that or not.

'No drink or dancing???? Sydney party style hahahahah.'

Vivid Sydney is described on the Destination NSW website as ‘the largest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the country’s largest celebration of creative industries’.

The website states that the last edition of Vivid Sydney drew a record 3.48million attendees and 'delivered $206.1 million in visitor expenditure to the NSW visitor economy'. 

One social media user returned from Vivid Sydney with more than good memories.

‘Two years in a row and i have come back from Vivid with COVID...’

Vivid Sydney continues until Saturday night, with the final drone show starting at 9.10pm.