Vivid Sydney - 2025 Unearthing hidden history in one of our country’s most prolific venues.
Scroll ↓
In June 2025, Haus of Horror invited thousands of people inside Sydney Town Hall to experience Old Sydney Burial Ground, a one-night transformation of one of the city’s most iconic buildings.
Haus of Horror was approached by Destination NSW and Vivid Sydney to showcase as part of the 2025 festival. Our idea was bold: reimagine Sydney Town Hall by uncovering its original past, the site of Sydney’s first burial ground and bring that history to life through immersive cinema.
For one night only, the Town Hall was transformed back to its origins.
We developed a site-specific creative concept that turned the interior of the building into a graveyard, blending history, horror, and cinema. Working closely with fabricators, custom gravestones were commissioned, where guests had to entre though an irree haze filled grave yard, waiting for them was the dead who had risen and were ready to tell their stories.. Working closely designers, directors, and performers, we created bespoke costumes, lighting, and production design that allowed audiences to step into a world rarely imagined inside such a landmark venue.
The experience extended beyond the screening itself. Two immersive photo environments were designed, allowing guests to step directly into scenes inspired by the films, creating moments of discovery before and after the cinema experience.
As Executive Producer for Haus of Horror at Vivid Sydney, I led the end-to-end delivery of a large-scale immersive experience within Sydney Town Hall, one of the city’s most complex and historically significant venues.
I directed a multidisciplinary team comprising 12 performers, 4 makeup artists, a creative director, 4 set designers, a wardrobe coordinator and photographers, while working closely with archaeologists, the client, and venue stakeholders to ensure the activation respected both the building’s heritage and its operational constraints.
My role spanned creative leadership and operational control, developing and managing detailed production timelines, overseeing a multifaceted major budget, and coordinating all departments from concept through to live delivery. This included managing rehearsals and briefing, installation and bump-out schedules, safety and compliance requirements, and ensuring seamless integration with Vivid Sydney’s broader programming and technical infrastructure.
The result was an immersive, site-specific experience that balanced spectacle with sensitivity, transforming Sydney Town Hall into a cinematic world while meeting the demands of a high-profile, public-facing festival with zero-fail expectations.
