More than two million people are expected to visit Sydney's Vivid Festival this year for its 10th anniversary after a huge opening night.
The annual light and music festival kicked off last night with the unveiling of lights on the Sydney Opera House just after sunset.
Vivid's opening night was tainted by frustrated punters overnight, however, with visitors to the event taking to social media to criticise the crowd control and security measures put in place.
Many people claimed it took them excessive amounts of time to travel between exhibitions in areas such as Circular Quay, and security railings restricted the paths people could walk on throughout the CBD - resulting in large crowds.
A spokeswoman for the event organisers behind the festival, Destination NSW, told 9News.com.au that crowd control measures will be slightly altered for Vivid's second night tonight, in light of the complaints.
"Destination NSW is working closely with the NSW Police, crowd management experts and security to enhance crowd flow measures on the ground to ensure crowd safety," the spokeswoman said in a statement.
"In 2018, Vivid Sydney is implementing additional, scalable measures to manage crowd flow at Circular Quay on the busiest nights to ensure all visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience.
"This includes a one-way walking route for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, as well as the Queen’s Birthday Monday holiday. The one-way route increases the time it takes for visitors to experience the Light Walk, but puts safety of festival goers first.
"Plans will be modified for this evening where additional visitors are anticipated.To ensure you have the best Vivid Sydney experience we encourage visitors to use Wynyard Station to get to and from Vivid Sydney.
"Visitors are encouraged to follow way-finding signs, crowd control marshals and security personnel and look out for the friendly Vivid Sydney volunteers in pink jackets who are on hand to help throughout the festival."
The event runs until June 16, with light installations, music and workshops across multiple venues across the CBD and surrounding suburbs.
NSW Tourism Minister Adam Marshall said he expects to break last year's record crowd of more than 2.3 million people, who spent an estimated $143 million over the 23-day event.
"This year, if the weather is kind, then we anticipate seeing even more than that," he said this week.
"It will be our biggest, our best, our brightest Vivid yet with lots of new inclusions this year, (and) we want to make it a huge birthday bash".
"(People) can come and enjoy the sites, spectacular music and creative ideas sessions".
Luna Park, Government House, and Customs House will be lit up each night, with light installations also at Taronga Zoo, Barangaroo, Chatswood, and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Visitors are urged to catch public transport, with an extra 6000 train, ferry, bus and light rail services being rolled out.
But authorities warn daily road closures from 3pm will impact some services.
"We really think you should leave your car at home and get public transport," Marg Prendergast from Transport NSW said.
The festival will also be overseen by an additional 2000 plain and uniformed police, water police, sniffer dogs, and mounted patrol.
"Our main priority is the safety of the community and there will be a significant amount of extra police here across all the Vivid sites," assistant commissioner Mark Walton said.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018
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