Melbourne’s Rising festival returns from 27 May to 8 June, with a sprawling program of over 100 events, 376 artists and a mix of world and Australian premieres, bringing music, dance and performance to theatres, galleries, town halls and public spaces across the city
by Paul Cashmere
Melbourne will once again become a playground of music, art and movement when Rising 2026 kicks off at the start of winter. Spanning from 27 May to 8 June, the festival transforms the heart of Naarm/Melbourne and its surrounding precincts into a living stage, offering audiences the chance to encounter dance, music and performance in extraordinary and unexpected spaces. From historic ballrooms to cathedrals, civic squares to warehouses, Rising 2026 presents a city-wide celebration that embraces both bold international works and groundbreaking Australian premieres.
Highlights include Florentina Holzinger’s explosive new epic A Year Without Summer at Arts Centre Melbourne, a riotous musical-comedy exploring science, mortality and progress through her signature audacious lens. From the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1816 to contemporary bioengineering, Holzinger’s work fuses historical and futuristic anxieties into a dazzling theatrical experience.
Melbourne will witness the street-dance powerhouse The Royal Family Dance Crew take over Hamer Hall in Defend the Throne, performing their signature Polyswagg style made famous on global stages for artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Rihanna. Complementing this arena spectacle, the crew will lead a free, participatory dance event at Fed Square, inviting the city to move together in celebration of Pasifika music and dance culture.
Dance aficionados can reconnect with history as the Flinders Street Ballroom reopens for Land of 1000 Dances, a participatory dance academy bringing Bollywood, ballet, jazz, vogueing and Polyswagg classes back to the iconic 1910 venue. Meanwhile, Lucy Guerin Inc premieres The Forest at University of Melbourne’s Union Theatre, a hallucinatory work exploring the human connection to trees and the fragility of ecosystems.
Other notable dance works include Narcissister’s warehouse-sized, Rube Goldberg-inspired Voyage Into Infinity at The Substation, the darkly comic The Shepherds by Carly Sheppard and Alisdair Macindoe, and Chunky Move’s landmark Glow, returning twenty years after its initial pioneering fusion of technology and movement. Antony Hamilton’s Forever & Ever and Melanie Lane’s Love Lock pair techno, high fashion and deconstructed love songs at Arts Centre Melbourne, while Lane’s Into the Woods delves into the historical horrors of witch hunts. Dancenorth’s RED returns for a full festival season at Lawler Theatre, exploring biodiversity and human fragility inside a translucent orb, and Sissy Ball at Melbourne Town Hall closes the festival with a ballroom spectacular, celebrating vogue culture and queer communities.
The inaugural Australian Dance Biennale forms the heart of Rising 2026, showcasing works from leading international and Australian choreographers alongside mass participation moments, late-night club nights and public dance experiences. From Belfast’s charged Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer to the elegant intensity of Forever & Ever, the Biennale positions Melbourne as a hub for innovation in movement.
Music pulses at Rising with Day Tripper, a multi-room marathon across Max Watt’s and Melbourne Town Hall, headlined by Kae Tempest and Saul Williams. Other acts include jazz pioneer Kahlil El’Zabar, The Congos, The Bats, Elias B Rønnenfelt, Chanel Beads, Discovery Zone, SAICOBAB and Jazmine Mary, spanning genres from avant-jazz and post-punk to Afrobeat, folk and experimental pop. Rising also presents Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Jackson & Yasiin Bey, celebrating the legacy of the politically charged jazz-poet, alongside hip hop legend Lil’ Kim, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Cate Le Bon, Saint Levant, TR/ST, anaiis, Saul Williams with Carlos Niño, and Daniel Avery.
Rising’s visual and city-wide interventions include Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass at St Paul’s Cathedral, Kent Morris’s immersive Flower Power in City Square, Calling Country projections on Hamer Hall, and the return of First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams. At Melbourne Science Gallery, EMERGENCE(Y) explores human and non-human adaptation to a changing world, featuring AI, soundscapes, fungi and regenerative ecosystems.
With over 376 artists, seven world premieres, eleven Australian premieres and a program that spans music, dance, theatre and public engagement, Rising 2026 is an invitation for Melbourne to move, witness, reflect and celebrate culture in all its forms.
Full details for Rising are here
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