Mick Molloy unleashes at Vivid Sydney’s viral hefty fee for sausage sizzle

Sydney has sparkled on the first night of the annual Vivid festival.

Organisers are expecting more than 3 million people to enjoy the light installations and musical performances around the Harbour City.

The festival – centred on the theme of humanity – will light up the skyline until June 15.

The hefty price tag of the iconic Australia staple at Vivid Sydney on Tuesday divided Australians caught in a fierce online debate over how much the favourite snack should cost.

The debate erupted on social media platform Reddit when a festival-goer posted a photo of a sign displayed at the event stating a sausage sizzle with onions would cost $8.50.

The photo of the large black billboard with the absurd price tag clearly printed in bright pink capital letters was accompanied with a fiery caption: “I don’t care what the reason is, but …  $8.50 is disgusting.”

Now, Molloy has stepped up the fight as he became the latest figure to launch a blistering spray on the debated fee in Thursday’s edition of Triple M’s Mick & MG in the Morning.

“That is bloody unAustralian – eight bucks fifty for a sausage sizzle?!” he told listeners.

“That’s twice a democracy sausage,” he said.

The 57-year-old radio icon expressed outrage the price of a mere sausage in bread set food fiends back $5 at the festival compared to if they purchased the snag at Bunnings.  

“The Bunnings one is only $3.50,” he said.

 “What is going on? I know there’s cost of living pressures, but $8.50 for a sausage in one piece of bread … come on Vivid, get your act together.”

It comes as furious Reddit users did not hesitate to also lambast the argued price point which ruffled quite a few feathers.

“I’d maybe fork out $5 if I was hungry enough but I would never be that hungry at $8.50 for a sausage on a roll,” one person said.

“It is sad to say it, but I hope they make a loss, and no one buys any but there will probably be enough stupid people that they make a considerable profit.”  

A third pointed out the total price of nearly $10 for a simple sausage in bread would be enough to purchase the ingredients required to make several of them.

“For that price you can buy Sausages, Bread and Sauce yourself and have multiple Sausage Sandwiches!” they said.

Another questioned why Vivid Sydney, which was a “government run event”, was “charging such exorbitant costs to food trucks for this event”.

“Thus, forcing them into this pricing which we end up having to choose to pay.”  

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Other people, however, defended the festival and the price of the snag by noting sky high costs for food were consistent across all stalls at similar events.

“It’s not just Vivid, it’s all food carts and stalls, the prices have gone stupid at every event,” one person said.

Meanwhile another person, who did not seem fussed over the fee, said: “I don’t know what you expected.”

“Also, the vendors get charged crazy fees by the event runners,” they said.

The iconic Australian sausage sizzle shot to fame more than 25 years ago when Bunnings started provided grassroots community groups a simple way to raise funds.

Yet, while its sausage sizzle is cheaper than Vivid Sydney’s take on the snack, Bunnings on its website noted it increased the price of canned drinks and bottled water from $1.50 to $2.00 at sizzles across Australia from February.

The change responded to calls from local community groups, not-for-profits and charities which saw decline in funds raised, due to the increased cost of the goods required to run the BBQ.