Melbourne Festival
With 26 acts in six spaces, it’s impossible to see it all – but I gave it a red-hot go
Rising’s full-day music festival had something for everyone, even if they didn’t know it beforehand.
- Karl Quinn
Latest
The giants set to watch over Melbourne for this year’s Firelight Festival
Victoria Harbour will come alive with fire-pits, flame jets and fire arches, as well as dozens of performers in the free festival from July 4 to 6.
- Nell Geraets
Competitive spacing out: Can you out-nothing your fellow Melburnians?
In a major international performance piece as part of this year’s Rising festival, Melburnians will be invited to do nothing. The person who does the most nothing wins.
- Karl Quinn
- Exclusive
- Rising Festival
Melbourne’s biggest arts festival closes this weekend. Its future is in doubt
Rising is the biggest cultural event in Victoria and receives millions in government funding, with ambitions to rival the Australian Open and Grand Prix.
- Meg Watson
Birdman Rally contestants taunt gravity and come off second best
Even Rachael Fleming, an actual pilot-in-training and whose family operates a flight school, plummeted nose-first into the river.
- Jackson Graham
- Sketch
- Moomba Festival
Millsy and Rhonda, king and queen of Melbourne’s wholesome Moomba
Melbourne hipsters and Sydney smarties have long enjoyed lampooning Moomba as a slightly daggy leftover from another age, yet it remains the most popular of free community festivals.
- Tony Wright
Arts pioneer Sue Nattrass remembered as a trailblazer
A pioneer in the male-dominated arts industry, she is remembered as tenacious, generous and a moral compass for many.
- Kerrie O'Brien
So that was our first Rising arts festival. Did it live up to the hype?
Dance lovers had plenty of reasons to kick up their heels, the music program was expansive – but theatre was patchy and the White Night side was a damp squib.
- Cameron Woodhead
Melbourne’s titanic new arts festival to transform the city
Sidney Myer Music Bowl will transform into a bamboo forest maze, and a secret venue will create the energy of an old-school rave: two of the 133 RISING events in May and June.
- Nick Miller
Epic new winter arts festival put on ice till 2021
Melbourne Festival, which will replace the old International Arts Festival and White Night, had planned big public events and installations.
- Nick Miller