RISING Melbourne’s electrifying winter festival of new art, music and performance has unveiled its 2025 program, featuring 65 events, 327 artists, 15 new commissions, 9 world premieres, and 5 Australian and 10 Victorian premieres.

Returning to showcase the city in all its moonlit glory, the festival will take place over two epic weekends from Wednesday 4th to Sunday 15th June!

Across 12 nights, RISING will transform the CBD into a pulsating playground of music, theatre, dance and public performances - including free events for the whole family to enjoy. 

Family-friendly events: 

• BLOCKBUSTER – A Celebration of South Asian Culture at Fed Square: Fed Square will ignite with colour, sound and energy for this free, all-ages day-to-night spectacle. Blockbuster brings together Pakistani R&B, Punjabi rap acrobatics, Sufi music and 808 bass from Lahore, alongside kaleidoscopic art trucks, street food, film screenings and hands-on workshops. A big theme for the day is Baithak— a space for storytelling, community and cultural exchange—offering everything from Paranda braiding to dhol drumming lessons.

BLOCKBUSTER - Image supplied

• Shohei Fujimoto – intangible #form: Celebrated Japanese artist Shohei Fujimoto makes his Melbourne debut with intangible #form, RISING’s largest free installation, open every night at Capitol Theatre. 

Shohei Fujimoto - Image supplied

• Space Out Competition: South Korea’s viral sensation by Woopsyang makes its Naarm debut at QV Square, challenging participants to maintain absolute calm for 90 minutes—no sleeping, no laughing, no distractions..

Space Out - Image Supplied

• Matha: Matha, Moorina Bonini’s new public artwork to be splashed across the facade of Hamer Hall, is a powerful expression of cultural regeneration, drawing from the deep, ancestral connection to Yorta Yorta lands and the Dhungala (Murray) River. This work shares how knowledge is held within Country and embodied through cultural practices often passed down, renewed and regenerated over time.  Visions of trees, waterways and the creation of cultural belongings are intertwined with song by Moorina’s family, focusing on new ways of making ceremony and helping language thrive in the present.

Matha - Image Supplied

• Shouse: Communitas: After an awe-inspiring debut in last year's festival, participatory music event Communitas by Melbourne’s electronic duo Shouse returns to RISING, now with expanded space to conjure and dance at Melbourne Town Hall.

Shouse: Communitas - Image Supplied

Event Details:

• Dates:
  Wed 4 Jun 11am - 9.30pm

  Thu 5 Jun 11am - 9.30pm

  Fri 6 Jun 11am - 11pm

  Sat 7 Jun 11am - 1am

  Sun 8 Jun 11am - 11pm

  Mon 9 Jun 11am - 9.30pm

  Tue 10 Jun 11am - 9.30pm

  Wed 11 Jun 11am - 10pm

  Thu 12 Jun 11am - 10.30pm

  Fri 13 Jun 11am - 11pm

  Sat 14 Jun 11am - 11pm

  Sun 15 Jun 11am - 11pm

• Location: Across Melbourne

• Cost: From free to $169

More info & tickets here.