Last-minute program additions for Melbourne’s winter festival, RISING, which opens 27 May, include a large-scale projection and sound work at Fed Square exploring Indigenous futurisms and the regeneration of the natural world, plus an expanded series of artist talks and post-show conversations, and a free artists’ bar open to audiences and industry members alike.
‘When the temperature drops, it signals that RISING is about to kick off and the final layer of the program is unveiled,’ said RISING Artistic Director and CEO Hannah Fox.
‘Free art after dark, fresh live music, late-night dining and artist-led conversations, clubs and lounges create even more doorways into the festival’s expansive program of new art, stories, music and dance.’
The main RISING program was launched in early March, with additions revealed in April – including God Save the Queens, a large-scale Pasifika block party led by global street dance icons The Royal Family Dance Crew, which takes place at Fed Square on 6 June.
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Midéegaadi: Native American projection art AT tising
Midéegaadi, a large-scale projection and sound work by Native American artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, is a significant new addition to the RISING program.
Presented in partnership with Fed Square, and first presented in Times Square, New York City in 2025, Midéegaadi envisions the regeneration and return of the North American bison through a speculative fiction lens.
In their artist statement, Luger said: ‘This work expands upon a continued conversation in my practice, which acknowledges the violence enacted onto the Buffalo Nation for colonial agendas while also celebrating the bison’s resilience and in turn our own as Indigenous people.
‘I hope this series may empower Indigenous people and practices as central to global futures and to reflect a future space where we once again live in reverence and respect for our more than human kinships.’
A new iteration of Midéegaadi is being presented for RISING, which brings the work into dialogue with Naarm and Wurundjeri Country by exploring the ways First Peoples globally interconnect through dance and new media.
As well as taking over Fed Square from 28 to 30 May, the festival’s opening weekend, Midéegaadi will also be projected on the Hamer Hall façade as part of Calling Country: The Land Speaks Back, when it will be paired with large-scale projections by Djirri Djirri Women’s Dance Group, bringing Wurundjeri ceremony to the fore.
RISING artists’ bar, expanded talks program, and more
Also announced today (Tuesday 12 May) is the addition of the RISING Artist Bar at Wax Music Lounge as a free meeting point for artists, audiences and industry.
Open Wednesday to Sunday throughout the festival, the Artist Bar features a rotating program of music and performance anchored by the RISING Blue Lobster Band (comprising a rotating line-up of Melbourne’s best jazz-leaning musicians) in the early evenings, followed by live sets and DJs spanning rock’n’roll, punk, pop, techno and beyond.
Artist Bar highlights include performances from Betty Grumble, Dimmy Charms, Synergy Trilogy, Tripping Ballz and Maxine Funke, alongside DJ sets from Sofay, Hip Hop Hoe, Mikey Young, YL Hooi, Faux Rabbit and Bridget Small.
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RISING has also expanded its talks and ideas programs, adding artist talks and post-show conversations around such productions as The Shepherds, The Supposed To Be and Nowhere.
Artist-led panels extend these discussions, including Sovereignty and Sonic Resistance at RMIT on 4 June, bringing together Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon, artist Hayden Ryan and RISING Senior Curator of Exhibitions Kimberley Moulton to explore listening, sovereignty and sound on Country, and the role of sonic practice in shaping contemporary cultural discourse.
Similarly, City Square will host a day of free talks on 30 May focused on First Peoples artists from across the program, anchored around Kent Morris’ newly commissioned public artwork Flower Power. Alongside Morris, speakers include curator and Djirri Djirri dancer Stacie Piper, Art Trams artist Jenna Mayilema Lee and Art Trams curator Kate ten Buuren.
