Vivid LIVE Announces First Artist for 2017

Scott Wallace
1st Mar 2017

Each year, Vivid LIVE is a reason for Sydney's music fans to rejoice. The annual celebration brings an enormous amount of Australian and international talent to stages around Sydney, with a focus on only the most unique and groundbreaking artists without regard for quotas of popularity. This year, the first announced act, who will be playing four exclusive shows at the Sydney Opera House, is one of the 21st Century's defining indie rock bands. 

Half a decade since we last heard from them, Fleet Foxes have returned. With only a whisper of new music via frontman Robin Pecknold's prolific social media presence, fans around the world have been whipped into a flurry of excitement. These four shows are sure to feature a generous helping of brand new music from the quintet, whose last full-length release was the rich and enigmatic Helplessness Blues in 2011. 

Marked by Pecknold's supple voice, and an update on the Laurel Canyon folk of the 1960's and 1970's, Fleet Foxes plunder the past without sounding dated or inauthentic. Their catalogue of beautiful and sometimes sorrowful tracks like "White Winter Hymnal," "Quiet Houses," "Helplessness Blues" and "Grown Ocean" have embedded themselves in the collective consciousness of music fans, even in the band's relatively lengthy absence from the spotlight.

Pecknold said, “We are unbelievably excited to perform songs from our new album, and to revisit songs from across our catalogue, at the Sydney Opera House in May. In this time, when all action towards unity is vital, our means of engendering union is through music, collective communal performance, on any stage that will have us, and there is no better stage in the world than the Opera House. We really hope to see you there.”

With the new album expected very soon, Robin Pecknold has created a playlist of artists and songs that inspired Fleet Foxes whilst writing the forthcoming new album.

Fleet Foxes will take over the Sydney Opera House from May 26th to 29th, and as in previous years when Morrissey, Kraftwerk, and ANOHNI were Vivid LIVE's first-announced acts, there will be a ballot for tickets to contend with overwhelming demand. Tickets start at $89, and you can enter the ballot here.