RISING 2023 focuses on the experiential and immersive

The latest edition of Melbourne’s winter festival is a rallying call to the people of Melbourne to embrace cultural experiences in unusual and iconic spaces.

A 10,000-strong kazoo orchestra, a performance featuring 30 locally recruited orphaned adults, and an outdoor concert inspired by the oldest known piece of notated music and featuring up to 1000 community members, are among the array of experiential and participatory works featured in the 2023 program for the winter festival, RISING.

Billed as ‘a festival that you do’ rather than one you passively observe, RISING 2023 is described by its Co-Artistic Directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek as ‘a mass celebration of Melbourne’s unique culture in the heart of the city’.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts