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As Melbourne’s youngest major arts festival, Rising has faced a few challenges in its fledgling years. There was lockdown, a slump in live audience numbers, and overall cuts to arts funding. But each year, the festival has risen like a phoenix from the flames, even in the face of mutterings that it had an identity crisis – which is what, exactly?
Perhaps that uncertainty is a feature, not a bug: Rising is the festival that transforms itself each year into whatever its hometown needs.
In 2026, it brings a huge focus on music and contemporary dance. Melbourne has always been Australia’s live music capital, and this year locals and internationals will rub shoulders on some of the city’s finest stages. We’ve also historically punched above our weight on the dance scene too, and that’s reflected in the launch of Rising’s inaugural Australian Dance Biennale.
So, where to start?
Baby’s first festival
If you still haven’t dipped your toes into Rising but are festival-curious, your first stop should be Land of 1000 Dances. Rising has been taking over the magnificent Flinders Street Station Ballroom for a few years now, and every event has been a winner. This time the gorgeous space will be reinvented as a dance academy where top performers skill you up in almost any form of movement you can imagine. From rave rhythms to line dancing, ballroom to ballet, even those with two left feet will be welcome to lose their inhibitions and try out something new.
Flinders Street Station Ballroom, May 27-June 7
Teen scene
If you’re not new to festivals but someone in your life is, teenagers are the intended audience – the only audience, in fact – for Monsteen, a theatre work in which teens embody characters in a supernatural high school. It’s a live action game that promises some Buffy/Twilight vibes but lets its young players decide just how the story plays out.
Signal, June 4-14
The young and old will probably be tickled by Furby Chorus and Friends, a choir of fuzzy robots performing en masse. The automata in question are the slightly creepy toys that were the must-haves of the late ’90s. Here the droopy-eyed Furbies have been hacked and reprogrammed to take to the spotlight, leading an ensemble of equally uncanny droids for your listening pleasure.
Emporium Melbourne, May 27-June 21
Go dark
Musical bots not edgy enough? Go ahead and test your boundaries at A Year Without Summer. Austrian maverick Florentina Holzinger didn’t earn her cred as “Europe’s hottest director” by playing it safe: One recent work featuring rollerskating lesbian nuns left more than a dozen showgoers treated for severe nausea. Gird your loins, then, for this new extravaganza set in the year Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein and filled with similarly confronting moments of body horror. It’s not all shock, though, as reviews have noted an unexpected tenderness creeping into Holzinger’s most recent outing.
Arts Centre Melbourne, May 28-31
Witchy business
A thread of folk-horror winds its way through this year’s Rising, starting with the latest work from iconic Melbourne dance company Lucy Guerin Inc. The Forest lures audience members into the dark woods as if they were fairy tale children, conjuring the timeless eeriness these spaces evoke. Guerin’s choreography is always redefining where Melbourne’s dance scene is at, and here she provides a reflection of our increasingly troubled relationship to the natural world.
Union Theatre, June 4-7
More woodland magic will be summoned for Into the Woods. Choreographer Melanie Lane has a strong track record for delving into the darkness through dance, and here she’s been inspired by real accounts of women accused of trafficking with the devil. Expect something sensual, supernatural and unexpectedly liberating.
Guild Theatre, June 4-7
Dance, dance, dance
While we’re talking dance, there’s a bold array of movement enlivening this year’s program from out of town. Northern Ireland’s Hard to be Soft: a Belfast Prayer sets the tone in its title. Choreographer Oona Doherty has created a work that crackles with the barely contained tensions of working-class Northern Ireland. Divided into sections such as Meat Kaleidoscope and The Sugar Army, it’s a tornado of swagger and shade straight from the streets.
Malthouse Theatre, May 27-30
Hailing from Northern Queensland, Dancenorth has lately been making work that avoids the cool abstractions of contemporary dance and instead connects to burning problems facing our world today. In Red, two red-headed dancers come to symbolise the last of a species battling the collapse of their environment, as what begins as joyful freedom grows more and more restrictive. It’s considered one of the best works by a company whose back catalogue is already more than impressive.
Southbank Theatre, June 3-7
Laugh track
Chenturan Aran is one of the hot new names in Australian theatre – 2024’s Cut Chilli earned a five-star review from The Sydney Morning Herald along with three nominations at the NSW Literary Awards. His latest, The Supposed to Be, is a comedy about cloning, identity, fantasy and the different people we’re expected to become. It was a finalist for the 2025 Griffin Award and will enjoy its premiere in Rising this year.
Footscray Community Arts, May 27-June 6
Hair toss, check your nails
If you’re looking to let loose and dance, you’re not short on options this year. The most iconic would be Lil’ Kim, the hip-hop queen who injected a weapons-grade level of sexuality into ’90s culture. She was just 20 when she collaborated with the Notorious B.I.G. and everyone from Missy Elliot to Nas was soon lining up to work with her. This year, she’s bringing to Rising a celebration of two of her most epic albums, Hard Core and The Notorious K.I.M. Get ready for the Big Momma Thang.
Festival Hall, 30 May
More big beats will be thrown down by The Royal Family Dance Crew, bringing their reigning Polyswagg dance style to a handful of events across Rising. God Save the Queens teams up the New Zealand/Aotearoa squad with local Pasifika royalty like Lady Shaka and Kween Kong, while Defend the Throne will put the internationally renowned dancers front and centre at both Hamer Hall and a show at Narre Warren’s Bunjil Place.
Various dates and venues
Step back in time
More than 50 years after it was unleashed, Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised has lost none of its power. The game-changing jazz poet’s output did not stop there, however, and Scott-Heron’s extraordinary career and politics will be celebrated via a collaboration between his long-time musical partner Brian Jackson and hip-hop trailblazer Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. This will be a world premiere featuring a pair of musicians whose contributions to today’s music scene are great enough, squaring up to pay tribute to a figure that left an indelible mark on their lives.
Forum, May 28
As the father of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti was another pioneer who transformed the way the world listened. His son Seun was just a teen when he took up the baton and began to lead Fela’s band Egypt 80, and in the decades since he’s proven himself worthy of the role, leading the expansive group through high-energy, infectious sets that leave audiences on a high.
Hamer Hall, June 5
Quiet, please
At any festival there are moments you want to dial down the volume, and Kent Morris’s FLOWER POWER promises a gentle, contemplative chance to recharge your battery. The Barkindji artist has created an immersive field of murnong (yam daisy), once a major component of local First Nations diets but almost lost to colonial agricultural practices. Morris’ work always has a subtly enriching quality connected to a sense of Country, even in the shiny new surrounds of Melbourne’s City Square.
City Square, May 27-June 8
Just down the road you’ll find another chance to for some me-time in The Listening Room. The intricately designed space is outfitted with top shelf audio hardware to deliver an unparalleled experience to a small group, cutting the noise of the outside world to enable a deeper form of listening. It’s part of Reverb, the major new exhibition by London’s The Vinyl Factory, exploring the deep impact of electronic music on contemporary culture.
ACMI, May 22-August 31
Surprise me
If all of this is leading to analysis paralysis, just put your faith in the pros and sign up for Day Tripper, an eight-hour, fully curated journey through some of the tightest stuff that Rising has to offer. The one-day event has become an annual affair, leading audiences through backrooms and byways to encounter unexpected art from across the spectrum. This year will feature 20 acts across the day, including plenty that won’t appear elsewhere.
Melbourne Town Hall and Max Watt’s, June 6
