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Huge crowds are expected to flock to inner Sydney on Friday and Saturday nights to catch the last two days of the Vivid Sydney festival, raising concerns about crowd control around the key installations.
Even though Vivid's lights were dimmed or turned off during several days of torrential rain, festival organisers Destination NSW said that visitor numbers before were expected to exceed last year's figure of 1.7 million by the time the lights were switched off at 11pm on Saturday. About 300,000 people attended the festival's opening weekend, a 7 per cent increase on attendance at last year's opening weekend.
Complaints about the record numbers have flowed in to the Vivid Sydney Facebook page, with one woman giving a scathing assessment on the "lack of crowd control".
"My daughter and 3 grandsons went last Sunday and were completely traumatised by the experience - thousands of people at Circular Quay as they got off the ferry; pushed uncontrollably into the melee of people; couldn't go back or forwards," Vicky Payne wrote.
"It just needed one person to panic and lose control ... push people over ... sounds like a disaster waiting to happen."
At 7pm last Sunday, Patricia Anderson had just left the Dendy Cinema near the Opera House when she encountered the "river" of people streaming from Circular Quay to see the light show. She took several photos, which show some police officers dotted among the tightly packed crowd, which appears to be heading in two directions.
Destination NSW acknowledged there had been some "access issues" around east Circular Quay, but said there would be "additional on-ground staff including marshals" to assist the crowds on the final two nights.
The festival has become so popular that extra public transport services have been arranged to cope with the influx of people, who are expected to cluster around Circular Quay, The Rocks and Walsh Bay.
Over the Queen's Birthday long weekend, the crowds became so packed in parts of the city that some visitors were frightened of what could happen in an emergency.
A photo posted by Peter Hallett (@peterahallett) on Jun 12, 2016 at 2:10am PDT
"We recommend visitors to Vivid use public transport and begin their night by exploring the precincts at Darling Harbour, Central Park, Martin Place and Walsh Bay where crowds are expected to be lighter than at Circular Quay and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney," a Destination NSW spokesman said.
"Organisers have public safety as the highest priority and liaise in 'real time' with NSW Police, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), Sydney Opera House, City of Sydney, Transport for NSW and other Government agencies every evening."
I'm no crowd estimator but there is literally 100s of 1000s of people on the streets in Sydney for #vivid #crazyparentswithprams— Herbert Hodgson (@herberthodgson) June 12, 2016
On Thursday night, some areas were closed to traffic because of the crowds. The new attraction in the Royal Botanic Gardens also reached capacity, and festivalgoers were advised to start their visits elsewhere.
The Transport Management Centre said major road closures would be in place in the Sydney CBD, Circular Quay and The Rocks from 6pm to midnight on Friday and 5pm to midnight on Saturday.
"Additional buses will leave the CBD between 8.30pm and 11.30pm tonight and Saturday, while extra services into the city start running from 3.30pm on Saturday," a spokeswoman said.
"As well, extra trains will be running on the T1 North Shore, Northern & Western Line, T2 Airport, Inner West & South Line and T3 Bankstown Line, which means there will be extra services on the City Circle."
