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Subscribe Your No-Rules Guide to RISING Melbourne 2025
Melbourne’s night awakens with RISING 2025. Here's how to rise with it.
Melbourne after dark is a whole different animal — and RISING 2025 is the moment it bares its teeth. Neon gods flicker to life above Swanston Street. Choirs echo in cathedrals. A giant moon might just rise from the river. This is art that doesn’t whisper politely — it howls, glows, and sometimes dances on rooftops.
Chase underground performances in a car park or sip something strange at a late-night sound bath. This is your deep dive into Melbourne’s annual fever dream, running from 4th to 15th June. One part culture trip, one part cosmic rave — this guide will help you find the weird, the beautiful, and the unforgettable.
RISING 2025: Music
Suki Waterhouse
British it-girl turned indie dreamer Suki Waterhouse brings her shimmering new album Memoirs of a Sparklemuffin to Melbourne’s RISING Festival. On Saturday, 7th June at PICA, expect a hypnotic blend of 70s soft rock, Mazzy Star-inspired dream pop, and wistful folk jams — all drenched in reverb and sharp wit. Supported by Adelaide’s ethereal Swapmeet, this show is a sultry escape into smoky, enchanted soundscapes — perfect for anyone ready to rock the lily pad and leave the tabloids behind. Don’t miss this intimate, spellbinding night.
Book tickets here
Saturday 7th June, 6:30pm
PICA, 1 Thackray Road, Port Melbourne
Japanese Breakfast
Indie-pop darling Japanese Breakfast returns to Melbourne/Naarm for the first time in eight years, bringing her cinematic new album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) to the RISING Festival. On Thursday, 5th June at PICA, Michelle Zauner channels shimmering heartbreak, synth-soaked joy, and gothic grandeur into a lush, widescreen live experience. With support from rising local star ENOLA, expect bittersweet anthems, dreamy textures, and emotional resonance — all wrapped in Zauner’s signature magic. A long-overdue comeback. Book your escape into the sublime.
Book tickets here
Thursday 5th June, 6:30pm
PICA, 1 Thackray Road, Port Melbourne
Black Star (Yasiin Bey & Talib Kweli)
For the first time ever in Naarm, indie-rap icons Black Star — Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli — reunite on stage in a moment fans have been waiting decades for. Born from the poetic fire of Washington Square Park and sharpened on their seminal 1998 debut, their music cuts through ignorance with wit, soul, and revolutionary clarity. Joined by Aussie hip hop trailblazers 1200 Techniques, this isn’t just a gig — it’s a seismic cultural moment. Expect mind expansion, liquid-time beats, and verses that hit like truth spoken into a storm.
Book tickets here
Wednesday 11th June, 6:30pm
PICA, 1 Thackray Road, Port Melbourne
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Marlon Williams
Golden-voiced crooner Marlon Williams brings his breathtaking new album Te Whare Tīwekaweka to Melbourne/Naarm for its first-ever Australian performance. Across two intimate nights at the Melbourne Town Hall (Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th June), Williams shares this soul-stirring, Te Reo Māori-language record alongside his band The Yarra Benders, a kapa haka group, and backing from He Waka Kōtuia. A transcendent blend of country, bluegrass, and Māori rhythms, this is a rare, powerful celebration of identity, language, and sonic beauty.
Go on the waitlist here
Wednesday 4th & Thursday 5th June, 7:30pm
Main Hall, Melbourne Town Hall
Day Tripper
Twenty-seven acts. One ticket. Eight hours of genre-hopping, heart-thumping, beautifully unhinged energy.
Day Tripper is back, and it’s louder, stranger, and more joyously chaotic than ever. DIIV bring their shoegaze storm to the hallowed hall. BKTHERULA rides the razor edge of rap psychedelia. Ripple Effect Band channel Yolŋu fire and rock swagger. Mount Kimbie DJ, Tikiman + Akingbehin dub it deep, and Chapter Music curates a fever dream of sound. Part rave, part church, part block party — this is a Swanston Street soul shake.
Book tickets here
Saturday 7th June at Melbourne Town Hall, Night Trade, The Capitol RMIT, and Max Watt’s, 12pm to 8pm
Soccer Mommy
Nashville’s grunge-pop luminary Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) makes her RISING debut with Evergreen—an album that trades bedroom angst for acoustic intimacy and widescreen alt-rock drama. On Friday, 13th June at the Forum Melbourne, expect soaring choruses, sullen sucker-punches, and poetic confessions under a haze of distortion and Tennessee charm. From her early lo-fi roots to her latest lush melodies, Soccer Mommy invites you into her melancholic world and doesn’t let go. Joined by Brisbane’s emotive Asha Jefferies.
Book tickets here
Friday 13th June, 7:30pm
Forum Melbourne
RISING 2025: Dance, Theatre & Performance
BLKDOG
British choreographer Botis Seva brings his Olivier Award-winning hip hop dance production BLKDOG to Melbourne’s RISING Festival. From Wednesday 4th to Sunday 7th June at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, prepare for a raw and gripping journey through youth and survival, told with intense, precise movement and a pounding score by long-time collaborator Torben Lars. Seven dancers in hooded caps deliver a hallucinatory and fiercely theatrical story that pulses with street energy and emotional depth. Direct from the West End, this is a powerful, unapologetic show not to be missed.
Book tickets here
Wednesday 4th to Sunday 7th June, various times
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Kill Me
Argentine choreographer Marina Otero untames the stage in Kill Me, her latest visceral exploration of art and life. From Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th June at The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, prepare for a provocative performance featuring nudity, roller skates, and plastic pistols. Set to a soundtrack ranging from Bach to Miley Cyrus, this bold dance piece blends confessional honesty with moments of absurdity and yearning. The third chapter in her Remember to Live series, Kill Me shifts focus from Otero’s own body to four dancers living with mental illness, weaving a raw and intimate play about madness and love.
Book tickets here
Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th June, various times
The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 140 Southbank Boulevard, Melbourne
Last and First Men
Presented with Melbourne Recital Centre, Last and First Men is a haunting UK dance work inspired by the visionary sci-fi novel by Olaf Stapledon. On Saturday 7th June at Melbourne Recital Centre, experience a mesmerising fusion of movement, sound, and film as three dancers embody a future race on the brink of extinction. Set against the surreal, black-and-white 16mm visuals and original score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman, this post-humanist meditation unfolds like cosmic choreography, with narration by Tilda Swinton adding gravitas and mystery. Directed by Adrienne Hart, this performance invites you to sit among ruins and listen to the last echoes of humanity’s distant future.
Book tickets here
Saturday 7th June, approx. 65 minutes
Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt Street, Southbank
Heartbreak Hotel
Presented with Arts Centre Melbourne, Heartbreak Hotel is a cathartic comedy from Aotearoa New Zealand about heartbreak’s toll on body and mind. From 10th to 22nd June at The Showroom, Karin McCracken leads a witty, vulnerable journey through breakups, backed by iconic breakup songs. With virtuoso Simon Leary as her exes, this Edinburgh Fringe hit blends sketches, memoir, and philosophy. A hilarious, honest exploration of love lost and connection’s fragility — perfect for anyone nursing a broken heart.
Book tickets here
Tuesday 10th to Sunday 22nd June
The Showroom, Arts Centre Melbourne
The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave
Presented with Buxton Contemporary, The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave is an electrifying dive into the chaotic heart of rave culture. From Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th June at Buxton Contemporary, Oli Mathiesen, Lucy Lynch, and Sharvon Mortimer bring a high-energy endurance piece pulsing with relentless movement and rhythm.
Set to Suburban Knight’s booming techno beats, this performance captures the sweat, pain, and catharsis of a three-day rave condensed into one unforgettable hour. A raw celebration of passion and survival through dance.
Book tickets here
Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th June, approx. 70 minutes
Buxton Contemporary, 200 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
The Wrong Gods
A Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir St Theatre co-production presented in association with RISING, The Wrong Gods returns from Friday 6th June to Saturday 12th July at the Art Centre’s Fairfax Studio. Written by visionary playwright S. Shakthidharan and co-directed by Hannah Goodwin and Shakthidharan himself, this gripping family drama explores hope, betrayal, tradition, and self-discovery. Set against a remote Indian valley contested for 50,000 years, it follows mother Nirmala and her daughter Isha as they confront the costs of progress, freedom, and a mysterious stranger’s tempting offer.
Rich in poetry and powerful questions about globalisation, this intimate epic asks: who decides the price we pay?
Book tickets here
Friday 6th June to Saturday 12th July, approx. 100 minutes
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Presented by GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents, Hedwig and the Angry Inch rocks the Athenaeum Theatre from Friday 13th to Sunday 29th June. This glitter-spiked, glam-punk musical follows Hedwig, an East Berlin escapee stranded in a Kansas trailer park, who unleashes raw fury, humour, and heartbreak on stage. Featuring Seann Miley Moore in a show-stopping role, backed by a blistering live band, this daring Australian production is a sardonic celebration of identity, escape, and rock ‘n’ roll dreams.
Book tickets here
Friday 13th to Sunday 29th June, approx. 85 minutes
Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne
RISING 2025: Art & Installation
Swingers — The Art of Mini Golf
Flinders Street Station transforms into a playground of rebellion with Swingers — The Art of Mini Golf. Running from 4th June to 31st August, this playable exhibition features nine mini golf holes crafted by trailblazing female artists like Miranda July, Kaylene Whiskey, and Saeborg.
Blending quirky sculptures, cultural storytelling, and subversive history, it invites you to challenge the rules and rethink the concept of play. Competitive spirit at the ready: this is your chance to swing wildly outside the lines and into pure creative mischief. Ready to putt with attitude?
Book here
4th June to 31st August
Flinders Street Station
Saturate by Sara Retallick
Dive into a new ritual of sensory exploration with Saturate, a communal underwater sound experience at night by Naarm-based artist Sara Retallick.
Slip on your swimmers and immerse yourself in an electroacoustic soundscape transmitted through specialised underwater speakers. Float weightlessly through waves of submarine bass and wobbling resonance. Your body becomes a conduit for raw, tactile sonic reception — an intimate connection to sound felt deep in your bones.
Each session lasts approximately 45 minutes, with time to dress and undress.
Book tickets here
Saturday 14th to Sunday 15th June, four sessions from 7:45pm on both nights
Melbourne City Baths
Library Up Late x Make Believe with C.FRIM, Mirasia, Adriana, PA777IENCE, Scotty So + more
Party late into the night at the Library with Library Up Late x Make Believe — a vibrant fusion of dance, art, and discussion.
Explore exclusive after-hours access to the new exhibition Make Believe: Encounters with Misinformation. Dance under the iconic Dome to performances by neo-soul powerhouse PA777IENCE, Scotty So, House of Silky, and DJs C.FRIM, Mirasia, and Adriana.
Kick off early with a talk show exposé hosted by comedian Sammy J, featuring guests unpacking the exhibition’s themes in Ian Potter Queen’s Hall.
Book tickets here
Thursday 12th June, 7:30 to 10:30pm
State Library Victoria
intangible #form by Shohei Fujimoto
Step into a shimmering field of light as Japanese artist Shohei Fujimoto brings his laser-driven installation intangible #form to Melbourne for the first time. From Wednesday 4th to Saturday 15th June, The Capitol’s iconic crystalline ceiling becomes an immersive, kinetic sculpture — beams of red light dancing through the dark like flickering geometry. For 15 spellbinding minutes, perception blurs and space reconfigures. Free to attend and deeply hypnotic, this is RISING at its most sensory.
Free event, approx 15 mins
4th to 15th June
The Capitol – RMIT
Night Trade
From Wednesday 4th to Saturday 15th June, Night Trade returns to Melbourne with a wild mix of music, art, food, and mind-bending lasers — all free and alley-bound between Howey Place, The Capitol – RMIT, and Max Watt’s.
Explore microbars, local eats, and quirky performances like Saeborg’s latex-encased show and Chongworld’s uncanny self-portraits. Dance to Afro-galactic beats from Nyege Nyege Collective, groove with Blazer Sound System, and lose yourself in Shohei Fujimoto’s laser installation intangible #form.
A neon-lit playground of festival mischief awaits — come for a night, stay for the journey.
Free
4th to 15th June
Howey Place, The Capitol RMIT & Max Watt’s
Get ready to RISE and shine! This season’s smorgasbord of wild, witty, and wonderfully weird performances will have you hooked, moved, and maybe even questioning reality. Melbourne’s creative fire is burning bright — don’t just watch it, dive right into RISING 2025. For more creative inspiration, check out these art classes around the city and these must-visit galleries.
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