Winter festival RISING is back in Melbourne next month, and today, they’ve announced new additions to the program. Festival organisers have revealed an extended line-up for their one-day music event, Day Tripper, as well as details for the festival hub Night Trade. In total, the RISING program will feature 116 events and 651 artists across 16 nights. RISING will run from Saturday June 1 to Sunday June 16.
RISING festival
This winter festival will feature large scale installations, free public events, art exhibitions, theatre performances, music and more. It will take over the city, from iconic venues like Fed Square and Melbourne Town Hall, to historic arcades and back alleys.
“With only a few weeks to go till opening, we’re excited to reveal a whole new layer to to the 2024 program,” said RISING co-artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek. “The full Day Tripper line-up is super dynamic and brings in some of our local idols and more international gems. The festival’s social heart, Night Trade, now includes psychic readings karaoke, art and dance classes and a full club program ranging from classical to RnB and techno.”
Day Tripper
Party at Melbourne Town Hall, Capitol Theatre and Max Watt’s with one ticket at Day Tripper. Co-presented with Triple R, this exciting event features live music, performance, art and film within multiple rooms of these Melbourne venues. Look forward to post-punk, techno, hip hop, disco and dance. It runs for eight hours, and will take place on Saturday June 8.
New acts to the stacked line-up include Welsh jangle-pop group, The Tubs, who will be in town for the first time, tunes from the UK’s Pandora’s Jukebox, Sarah Mary Chadwick from New Zealand and much, much more. They will join previously announced acts like Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def), JLIN, Memorials and more.
Night Trade
RISING’s hub and social club, Night Trade, will return. It will take over a network of laneways underneath the Capitol Theatre and connect through to Howey Place. As you explore, discover installations, exhibitions, micro-bars, dumplings, interactive art, music and dance.
A new element of this space will be RISING Sip and Paint. Each night, an artist will help you sculpt, paint, create and drink.
There will also be an exhibition by UK artist Jeremy Deller, a space for psychic readings and a karaoke room.
If you’re hungry, you’ll find plenty of food around the precinct, including limited-edition jaffles from Union Kiosk, Nepalese dumplings from Momo Station, margaritas from Los Amantes and more.
For more music and dancing, head to Presgrave Place for late-night club, Night Trade Stage Door.
More RISING highlights:
1. The Blak Infinite
Head to Fed Square and dive into a forum of First Peoples’ art, politics and cosmic connections with The Blak Infinite. Presented in partnership with MAPCO, and curated by Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta) and Kate ten Buuren (Taungurung), The Blak Infinite is a free exhibition and public program.
See Richard Bell’s installation, EMBASSY, inspired by the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy that was pitched on the grounds of Parliament House in 1972. The installation will feature daily film screenings, as well as a program of talks each Saturday of the festival.
Each evening, Fed Square will light up with projections sharing stories of Sky Country and the cosmos. Explore Tony Albert’s large-scale artwork BEAM ME UP The Art of Abduction, which discusses themes of alienation, belonging and place. On the big screen, see speculative fiction from First Peoples writer Ellen Van Neerven. Then, check out a collage of souvenirs by Kait James.
2. The Rivers Sing
The Rivers Sing will return to RISING and span out along the Birrarung. Listen to the work of First Nations soprano and composer, Deborah Cheetham AO, and audio artists Byron Scullin and Thomas Supple. In this celebration of nature’s voice, hear a blend of field recordings and human voices that echo waterway singing traditions. Hear it at dusk on each night of the festival.
3. Secret Symphony
Since 2015, Secret Symphony has been showcasing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in unexpected places around town. Follow their Instagram a few weeks before the performance and see if you can guess their location and songs from clues. The search for them will begin on Thursday June 6.
4. Pay the Rent
Take a stroll past State Library Victoria and look up. You’ll find a digital sign with rapidly accumulating numbers. This piece, Pay the Rent by Richard Bell, first debuted in Melbourne in 2013, and has since travelled to New York, London, Venice and more. It represents the calculated debt owed to First Nations people by the Australian Government since Federation in 1901.
5. ACMI Nights: Beings
Head to ACMI after hours and explore their surreal exhibition, Beings. Among the artworks and installations, there will be local artists and performers to keep the good vibes going, as well as food and drink. This late-night session will take place on Thursday June 13 from 7pm to 11pm.
6. Yasiin Bey
You might remember him as Mos Def. Now known as Yasiin Bey, this iconic rapper is taking over PICA to perform his 2009 masterpiece, The Ecstatic. This album was a critical success, but Yasiin moved out of the spotlight shortly after, and today, you can’t even hear the album on streaming services. Listen to it live at Yasiin Bey: The Ecstatic Anniversary on Sunday June 9.
7. Acid Brass
UK artist Jeremy Deller is collaborating with Victorian Brass Bands to create Acid Brass. Listen to musicians perform acid house anthems in a series of free public concerts around the CBD.
8. ONE SONG HISTOIRE(S) DU THÉÂTRE IV
Feel utterly impressed as you watch musicians perform one song, over and over, as they run an obstacle course of balance beams, treadmills and trampolines. As they perform this rock concert, they’ll mix it up, speeding it up and breaking it down. See it from June 13 to 15 at Melbourne Town Hall.
9. Cadela Força Trilogy Chapter 1
Direct from Europe, Brazilian artist and director Carolina Bianchi presents the first chapter of the Cadela Força Trilogy: The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella. In this gripping performance-lecture, Bianchi is shaken by the death of Italian artist Pippa Bacca, who was sexually assaulted and murdered while doing a travelling show. She looks at the spectre of sexual violence that runs through the history of art, until she reaches an impasse and things go dark. See it make its Australian premier at Malthouse Theatre.
10. Melbourne Out Loud
See Melbourne Out Loud, a free exhibition in partnership with State Library Victoria. Check out the complete archive of late Australian photographer, Rennie Ellis, who captured celebrities, nightclubs and Australian life over a thirty year period.
For the full RISING program and more details, click here.