LOOKIng for rising 2024 family friendly events? - head here.
The RISING Festival is coming back to Melbourne this June 2023.
Here’s our top 10 Family Friendly Events at this year’s RISING which will be on from June 7th to June 18th 2023.
1. The Rink at Rising: A magic new skate spot on the banks of Birrarung Marr. Slice up the ice under a deep constellation of lights. Follow the scent of buttery popcorn, hot chocolate and mulled wine towards the glow of the open-walled big top.
Lace up and glide like a galactic gazelle under a wild tangle of lights that smoulders like star dust. Entry to the precinct is free and unticketed. See session details for skating tickets.
2. Electric: Mookies Around The Waterhole. Hamer Hall’s iconic façade plays host to Ancestor spirits and celestial worlds in a large-scale projection work from Aunty Zeta Thomson (Wurundjeri/Yorta Yorta).
For those in its radius during lockdown, Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta/BoonWurrung) and Mitch Mahoney’s (BoonWurrung/Barkinji) Spirit Eel projection Ancestral Memory was a symbol of solidarity and connection to a deeper timeline. Now, with Electric, another First Peoples story—Mookies Around the Waterhole—lights up Hamer Hall.
3. Spark: Studio Roosegaarde. Thousands of luminous, biodegradable lights catch the wind and dance in the night sky.
Inspired by fireflies, birds and the galaxy of stars, Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde designed a flock of sparks made from biodegradable materials. Once released, the sparks form ever-shifting clouds of light that behave like atmospheric bioluminescence, caught in a cool night breeze.
For four evenings during RISING, the light show will be released above Fed Square, free to be enjoyed by anyone who takes the time to look up.
4. Melbourne Art Trams Curated by Jarra Karalinar Steel. Find your stop and step up into a rolling exhibition of Blak Futurism, identity and culture. Or step back and watch the fleet of travelling canvasses wind their way across Country and up through urban passageways.
The Melbourne Art Trams roll on with six trams once again featuring new designs by First Peoples artists. Artist Jarra Karalinar Steel (Boonwurrung/ Wemba Wemba) returns as curator too. She’s inviting six artists to respond to the new theme of Blak Futurism—a call to envision better futures and representation for Australia’s First Peoples.
5. Wallabies: Matthew Clarke. Twenty big wallabies, bursting with impressionistic colour and personality, peek out from banks of the Birrarung (Yarra River). See if you can find them all!
The Archibald Prize finalist, whose work questions the assumptions of what’s possible in art, has created twenty surreal, saw-edged Wallabies for RISING. His dad, Andrew, helped build the large-scale works in their Warrnambool studio. Now the sculptures will be romping along the Birrarung (Yarra River) in full technicolor regalia. After that, they’ll be donated to state schools around Melbourne.
6. Multitudes: Tin & Ed. The reimagined deep-sea creatures have taken up residence in Fed Square. See the new lair in the atrium.
Tin & Ed create playful installations and experiences that illuminate the borderless dimension between art and science, the physical and digital, the human and the more than human. Their work is driven by a deep curiosity for the natural world and the intricate ways we’re connected to it. Look up!
7. Hide The Dog: Nathan Maynard (pakana) and Jamie McCaskill (Māori). A swashbuckling First Nations comedy for all ages that sails the high seas to hide a Thylacine and strengthen the bonds between trans-Tasman spirit stories.
8. Anthem: Wu Tsang. Billowing visuals and lush acoustics transmit an ethereal ode to New Age pioneer Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and his search for the wavelengths that bind us.
Loudness and uniformity is abandoned as Glenn’s otherworldly voice reverberates within St Paul's Cathedral's landmark gothic architecture. He leads us through ambiguous vocal timbres, playful call-and-response, and evolving tints of ambient sound, as visual textures evolve against 25-metre-high silk screen.
9. Euphoria: By Julian Rosefeldt. A surround-sound world hooked to the pulse of jazz, the conscience of a children’s choir and big ideas that test capitalism’s mantra of endless, euphoric consumption.
10. Buŋgul: Gurrumul's Mother’s Buŋgul, Gurrumul's Grandmother’s Buŋgul, Gurrumul's Manikay.
The Inspiration behind Dr Gurrumul Yunupiŋu’s seminal album Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow), brought to the stage in a hypnotic live performance by Yolgnu dancers and songmen with the MSO.
Buŋgul is a celebration of that record’s legacy. Created on Country in Northeast Arnhem Land, with the Yunupiŋu family. In a hypnotic performance, live Yolŋu dancers and songmen present the songs, dances and paintings that inspired Djarimirri; accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; and directed by Senior Yolŋu man Don Wininba Ganambarr and Nigel Jamieson.
RISING is for everyone. From visual art, installations, performance and live music to unique food events and all kinds of experiences for you to enjoy whatever you’re into.
Search for Family Friendly events to find kid friendly events to attend.