"That's, of course, made worse by the current mess [with construction] in the city."

Like many Sydneysiders, Ms Sharpe described herself as a fan of Vivid.

"It's an incredible event for Sydney," she said. "But public safety issues are being raised more often ... If people are feeling unsafe, that's the last thing you want at such an important festival."

The solution to overcrowding could be "spreading the event further up and down the Harbour and looking at other options around western Sydney".

The Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Adam Marshall, said there had been concerns about the crowd flow at a festival that attracted hundreds of thousands of overnight visitors.

“We understand there have been some issues so far this year and Destination NSW is working closely with the NSW Police, crowd management experts and security to address this," he said.

“Safety is of the utmost importance and measures to manage crowd flow on the busiest nights of Vivid Sydney are being implemented ... to ensure visitors have the best experience.”

While police report no major incidents so far, one officer said extra personnel were working to cope with "everything on steroids" the city. "It's not as bad though as New Year's Eve," she said.

While no one from Vivid would be interviewed about the crowds, the festival released a statement saying only 2 per cent of "thousands of positive social [media] posts have raised concerns" about too many people attending.

"Sydneysiders aren't whingers," the statement said, adding that crowd management plans had been adjusted from what was learnt on opening weekend.

Visitor numbers tend to peak on weekends, especially the Queen's Birthday long weekend, at 7.30pm and then again at 9.30pm. There might be 80,000 to 100,000 people at all Vivid sites on a Saturday night compared to a peak of 38,000 on Tuesday nights.

For those wanting to avoid the crush, the quietest nights are generally Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, when numbers usually peak from 7pm to 7.30pm. The Friday night peak is often around 8.30pm.

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The statement said the festival had gone from 18 to 23 days two years ago to spread out the crowds, and locations had expanded to include the Royal Botanic Garden, Taronga Zoo, Chatswood and Barangaroo. This year, Luna Park had been added and the Botanic Garden site had been expanded.

To help manage the crowds, the festival introduced a one-way walking route around the Light Walk at Circular Quay for Friday to Sunday nights (plus Monday on the long weekend) this year.

At least 100 volunteers helped there every night, plus about 240 security "wayfinding" and event personnel.

The festival's advice for avoiding the crowds is "go early in the night, early in the week and early in the festival", avoid seeing all the Light Walk in one night, plan a visit using the maps and transport information on the Vivid website and app, and use public transport.

But if you have to visit on the weekend, avoid the crush at the Light Walk by visiting the festival sites at Luna Park, Taronga Zoo, Chatswood, Kings Cross or Barangaroo.