RISING returns with city-wide winter program

Melbourne’s signature winter arts festival will return in late May with an expansive 2026 program set to transform the city into a stage for music, dance, performance and public art.

Running from May 27 to June 8, RISING will present more than 100 events featuring 376 artists, including seven world premieres and 11 Australian premieres, across theatres, town halls, galleries, churches, civic spaces and underground venues throughout the CBD and beyond.

The festival, now firmly established as one of Melbourne’s major cultural drawcards, is promising another ambitious city-wide takeover, with a particular focus this year on music and movement.

At the heart of the program is the launch of the inaugural Australian Dance Biennale, a new platform that will be presented by RISING every two years and unfold across theatres, public spaces, club nights and dance classes.

Among its centrepieces is Land of 1000 Dances, which will reopen the historic Flinders Street Station Ballroom as a participatory dance academy. Once a legendary social dance hall, the ballroom will host classes spanning everything from Bollywood to ballet, jazz, jive, vogueing and Polyswagg, reconnecting the public with one of Melbourne’s most storied civic spaces.

The Biennale will also bring major international and Australian dance works to the city, including Oona Doherty’s Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer, Lucy Guerin Inc’s new work The Forest, a revival of Chunky Move’s landmark Glow, and a closing night Sissy Ball at Melbourne Town Hall.

A major drawcard will be Defend the Throne, a Hamer Hall showcase by world-renowned New Zealand street dance powerhouse The Royal Family Dance Crew, who will also headline a free public event at Fed Square.

Music remains central to the festival’s identity, with RISING again leaning into Melbourne’s reputation as a live music capital. Day Tripper, the festival’s multi-room music marathon, will return across Max Watt’s and Melbourne Town Hall, with a line-up that includes Kae Tempest, Saul Williams, Kahlil El’Zabar, The Congos, The Bats and Chanel Beads.

Other headline music acts include Brooklyn rap icon Lil’ Kim, Afrobeat artist Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon, TR/ST, Saint Levant, Daniel Avery, Wednesday and Dry Cleaning.

One of the program’s most significant presentations will be Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Jackson & Yasiin Bey, a world premiere performance honouring the legacy of the influential poet and musician.

Beyond music and dance, RISING will again animate unusual and iconic city spaces.

St Paul’s Cathedral will host Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass, a free but ticketed performance that turns the landmark church into a site of reflection and sonic reckoning. ACMI will present the Australian premiere of The Vinyl Factory: Reverb, a large-scale multi-sensory exhibition exploring sound, music culture and vinyl through immersive installations and listening experiences.

At The Substation, Brooklyn artist Narcissister will present Voyage Into Infinity, a warehouse-sized performance installation described as a giant Rube Goldberg-like machine on the verge of collapse.

The performance program also includes Florentina Holzinger’s A Year Without Summer at Arts Centre Melbourne, Khalid Abdalla’s Nowhere at Malthouse Theatre and Brian Lipson’s A Large Attendance in the Antechamber.

RISING’s public art program will once again be a major feature of the festival’s city presence. Barkindji artist Kent Morris will present Flower Power in City Square, centred on the murnong or yam daisy as a symbol of cultural survival and reclamation. The annual Calling Country projection will illuminate Hamer Hall’s façade each night, while the First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams will return to the network for another year.

RISING artistic director and chief executive Hannah Fox said Melbourne was a city “shaped by music and movement”.

“Music and dance are universal ancient languages and remain the most loved way we gather as a community,” she said.

With free events, large-scale installations, club nights and major international works all packed into less than a fortnight, RISING is again preparing to turn the city inside out just as winter begins.