RISING release expanded program with city-wide parties, after dark clubs, and a bunch more artists.

“This next wave of programming pushes further into the pulse of the city. Into clubs, onto trams, streets and shared spaces,” says RISING Artistic Director Hannah Fox.

Melbourne is poised to come alive this winter as RISING, the city’s premier festival of music, art, and performance, unveils a bold expansion of its 2026 program. Running from 27 May to 8 June, the festival invites locals and visitors alike to immerse themselves in a city-wide celebration of music, dance, and art.

This year’s additions emphasise participation, nightlife, and public engagement, transforming streets, clubs, trams, and public spaces into immersive cultural hubs.

Keep connected to your live music scene here.

 

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City-Wide Parties and After-Dark Clubs

At the centre of RISING’s new programming is God Save the Queens, a major free Pasifika block party on Saturday 7 June at Fed Square. Led by the globally acclaimed The Royal Family Dance Crew, the event fuses performance with mass participation, inviting audiences to join the floor as the crew presents their signature Polyswagg choreography. The evening unfolds into a celebration of Pasifika music and community, featuring high-energy hip hop by JessB, the genre-bending Afro-Pasifika sounds of DJ and producer Lady Shaka, and HALFQUEEN’s eclectic global club sets. Auckland MC Rubi Du and internationally recognised Samoan-Tongan performance artist Kween Kong bring contemporary dance, drag, and Pacific cultural practice into bold, theatrical spectacle. The night culminates with Neo Sun performing alongside the Pasefika Victoria Choir, reimagining traditional Pacific sounds through electronic experimentation and newly composed choral works.

For late-night revelers, the festival’s Bass Lounge beneath Chinatown’s Paramount Food Court offers an intimate neon-lit underworld from 10pm to 4am on Friday nights. On 29 May, Rotterdam-based selector Karim aka Rotational spins a genre-defying mix of Algerian synth-pop, deep-cut wave, and global rhythms, joined by Brussels producer Naomie Klaus with live performances traversing electronica, post-punk dub, and languid pop. The night continues with Kidskin, Front Page Leslie, Zalina, and interstitial sounds from Skylab Radio’s Elsie and High Note’s Xavier.

The following week, on 5 June, the lounge sinks deeper into experimental territory. Netherlands-based Nicolini delivers hyper-rhythmic live sets reminiscent of a pirate radio broadcast, while electro-femme pioneer Artificial (Nicole Skeltys) draws on three decades of sonic exploration. Local DJs Ed Kent, Bridget Small with Sofay, and Emelyne with Kassie carry the energy into the early hours, making Bass Lounge a sanctuary for post-show drift, immersive sound, and nocturnal discovery.

Dance Classes and Mass Participation

RISING continues its focus on community engagement with Land of 1000 Dances, returning to the historic Flinders Street Station Ballroom and Gymnasium. This living dance academy opens its doors to dance schools, crews, and choreographers from across Melbourne—from Narre Warren to Northcote, Frankston to Footscray—to offer classes spanning ballet, jazz, voguing, Polyswagg, and K-pop.

Award-winning performer Joshinder Chaggar leads high-energy Bollywood sessions, while Country Struts revives crowd-favourite bush dances with a live band. Melbourne Shuffle pioneers trace the city’s globally recognised rave-born style, and Chantal Bala (aka Tejan Diesel Revlon) brings voguing sessions rooted in expression, confidence, and community. International dance icons The Royal Family Dance Crew return for a rare Polyswagg workshop, offering audiences an intimate window into the global street dance phenomenon.

The program also caters to younger dancers, opening doors to ballet, contemporary dance, and K-pop classes, ensuring RISING nurtures the next generation of performers while embracing participants of all ages and experience levels.

Music Supports and New Collaborations

 

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RISING 2026 elevates its music offerings through a suite of collaborations pairing international headliners with local talent. At Hamer Hall, Tokyo-via-Manhattan rapper Nina Utashiro joins TR/ST, delivering sharp, villain-coded flows that interrogate Japanese society through trap, pop, and metal-infused soundscapes. Festival Hall hosts rap icon Lil’ Kim alongside Dutty Worldwide, a collective championing queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and POC dancefloor cultures. Soju Gang, a proud Gunai/Kurnai, Yorta Yorta, and Wiradjuri artist and a fixture of Naarm nightlife, brings shapeshifting DJ sets spanning old-school hip hop, R&B, baile flips, and Jersey club.

Max Watt’s showcases alt-rockers Wednesday, supported across two nights by distinctive local voices. Alien Nosejob brings fuzz-driven punk-adjacent textures, while Season 2—featuring members of Parsnip, The Stroppies, and Phil and the Tiles—delivers melody-driven sets shaped by drones and rhythmic interplay. At Melbourne Recital Centre, soul artist Bumpy joins anaiis, blending folk, funk, and jazz influences in a shimmering contemporary sound.

Afrobeat luminary Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 headline a percussive, high-energy evening at Hamer Hall, supported by Naarm’s Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, blending pan-African traditions with local and hip-hop elements, in collaboration with PBS FM’s Stani Goma. Cate Le Bon shares a stage with Naarm-born songwriter Georgia Knight, whose autoharp-led compositions navigate folk, trip-hop, noise, and synth textures to create dark, cinematic pop.

First Peoples-Led Art, Legacy Trams, and Public Programs

First Peoples-led work remains central to RISING’s vision. The Melbourne Art Trams return, curated by Taungurung woman Kate ten Buuren, transforming six trams into moving canvases across the city, while Wadawurrung Elder Marlene Gilson OAM is introduced as the Legacy Tram artist. Her multi-figure paintings reclaim histories of Country, embedding storytelling and cultural knowledge into the public realm.

A series of public programs, Blak Art on the Move, invites audiences to engage with artist talks, workshops, and hop-on hop-off tram tours, offering insight into the ideas and histories behind the artworks. Large-scale projections at Hamer Hall, Calling Country: The Land Speaks Back, centre Indigenous perspectives on land, language, and more-than-human connection.

Djirri Djirri Women’s Dance Group brings Wurundjeri ceremony to the fore, presenting the Wominjeka (Welcome to Country) dance filmed beneath Victoria’s Mountain Ash forests, alongside works celebrating Bulin Bulin, the lyrebird and keeper of language. International First Peoples artist Cannupa Hanska Luger presents a new iteration of his large-scale, place-responsive work, continuing his exploration of bison regeneration and urgent stories of contemporary Indigeneity.

 

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A City in Communion

RISING 2026 positions Melbourne as a city in dialogue with creativity, community, and culture. From large-scale free gatherings to intimate dance floors, from immersive workshops to pulsating nightclubs, the festival embodies a shared experience of art and life, inviting all to witness, move, and participate.

Explore the full program at rising.melbourne.