SYDNEY, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest light, music and ideas festival, Vivid Sydney, attracted a bumper crowd in its opening weekend.

Close to 300,000 people attended the festival last weekend, the New South Wales (NSW) state government said on Friday.

NSW state tourism minister Stuart Ayres said the festival had already recorded a 7 percent increase on last year's opening weekend attendance.

"Visitors and locals alike embrace Vivid Sydney each year and 2016 is no exception with more than 296,000 people celebrating the festival's shining story of creativity in the first weekend alone, " Ayres said.

"Vivid Sydney is a huge hit with visitors who are sharing their experiences on social media."

He noted that over opening weekend, the Vivid Sydney hashtag had over 18,600 mentions and trended at number one on both Facebook and Twitter.

"With an extra five days to see this year's festival, Vivid Sydney will light up the city through to 18 June and I encourage everyone to come and be inspired by this magnificent celebration of innovation and creativity in Sydney," Ayres noted.

The festival kicked off on May 27 and runs for 23 nights.

Vivid Sydney attracted 1.7 million people in 2015.