Rising 2026 Returns Bigger Than Ever, Featuring Over 100 Transformative Events Spanning Music, Dance and After-Dark Encounters
Nearly 400 artists will spill across Melbourne's venues, as Rising returns with an expansive celebration of music, dance, theatre and ephemeral works.
Returning for its fifth edition in 2026, Rising's enormous amalgamation of music, art, culture and architecture just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each instalment. Taking place from Wednesday, May 27–Monday, June 8, Melbourne's formal and unexpected venues will host nearly 400 artists, from headline-grabbing stars to underground legends, across a huge variety of immersive and ephemeral experiences.
Leading the latest lineup is Brooklyn rap royalty Lil' Kim, whose landmark appearance is set to celebrate her pair of millennium-defining records, Hard Core and The Notorious K.I.M. Bringing her sexually charged and braggadocious lyrics to Festival Hall, the Queen of Rap will show why she claims the crown. At Hamer Hall, Seun Kuti — son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti — will lead his father's legendary ensemble, Egypt 80, combining political fire with syncopated grooves.
Also on the music front, Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon transforms Melbourne Town Hall with her surrealist pop mastery, while Dry Cleaning's off-kilter London art-rock will light up The Forum. Here, frontwoman Florence Shaw will talk-sing through wry observations on the banalities of modern life, loneliness and the struggle to stay positive. Heading underground at Max Watts, influential dub producer Adrian Sherwood serves up low-end experimentation.
Austrian choreographer takes over Arts Centre Melbourne with her incendiary new epic A Year Without Summer. Following a recent head-turning runway show for Miu Miu and representing her country at the 61st Venice Biennale, this dark, dark musical comedy places climate change, medical science, mortality and the pursuit of progress under the knife. Meanwhile, Parris Goebel will direct Auckland's all-female Royal Family Dance Crew, showcasing Polyswagg routines at both Hamer Hall and a huge free public dance event at Fed Square.
In fact, the world of dance is a major focus of Rising 2026, with the Flinders Street Ballroom reopening as a participatory dance academy. Built in 1910, this space returns to its original purpose and invites everyone onto the floor. Think multi-room music marathons, and classes led by Victorian dance legends and world champions, where you're just as likely to step through Bollywood or ballet movements as jazz and jive.
There's also the Australian premiere of The Vinyl Factory: Reverb — a multi-sensory journey into sound at ACMI. Plus, Raven Chacon's Voiceless Mass resonates through St Paul's Cathedral, a Pulitzer Prize-winning ensemble piece that reflects on the history and access to gathering spaces and the role that sites of colonial power play in suppressing Indigenous voices. With over 100 events in all to see, Rising 2026 will once again alter the creative fabric of Melbourne.
Rising 2026 takes place at various locations across Melbourne from Wednesday, May 27–Monday, June 8. Head to the website for more information.
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