Visitor numbers for Sydney's flagship winter festival Vivid have dropped, prompting calls for fewer ticketed events at the annual fixture as families battle high living costs.
Some 2.42 million people attended the annual festival of light and entertainment in 2024, down more than 35 per cent from the record 3.28 million who attended the previous year.
The result was the weakest since 2019, when 2.4 million people attended the festival, figures released to parliament show.
Organisers conceded in the lead-up to the event that it would be hard to beat 2023's record turnout.
But the NSW government on Monday defended the latest numbers, saying they were the third best in the festival's history and included the largest opening night crowd.
"That was crucial given the cost-of-living pressures people are under," Tourism Minister John Graham said in a statement.
Liberal MP Susan Carter, who quizzed Mr Graham in parliament about Vivid numbers, said making the festival cheaper to attend would boost crowds.
"In a cost-of-living crisis you can't be asking everybody to put their hands in their pockets all the time," she said.
Ms Carter also urged the government to look at spreading the benefit of Vivid beyond Sydney by giving more work to creative suppliers from the regions.
In 2024, more than 60 per cent of the program was free, according to the government, which says it does not control what private operators like food outlets charge during the festival.
Each year, Vivid transforms the harbour city with public light installations, music, food stalls and drone shows.
The latest event, which ran for 23 nights from May 24, was marred by bad weather and security flaws that caused a dangerous crowd bottleneck at a drone show.
