Melbourne's winter cultural wonderland of art, music, performance and food, RISING, is officially underway, with a packed program of 185 events featuring hundreds of local and international artists.
Minister for Creative Industries Steve Dimopoulos today welcomed the opening of the festival, which runs for 12 days and nights and features a range of free and ticketed events for the whole family, including ice skating, live music, theatre, art installations and more.
Flinders Street Station's historic top floor has been transformed by Shadow Spirit, the largest-ever exhibition of First Peoples art commissions in Victoria, while Melbourne Town Hall is hosting the immersive cinema experience, Euphoria.
Night Trade, at St Paul's Cathedral car park, is this year's RISING festival hub, with a food market and free performances including DJs and large-scale puppets.
A super-sized ice-skating rink at Birrarung Marr, The Rink at RISING, offers a fun ice-skating experience for all ages, with dining options and firepits to stay warm on wintry Melbourne nights. Professional lessons are available, along with a special school holiday program of activities.
The festival is set to attract thousands of people into the city, providing a major boost to Melbourne's restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels, and is another major cultural highlight on the city's already-enviable cultural calendar.
The Andrews Labor Government established RISING to create a new drawcard major event for Melbourne in the winter season, with close to 315,000 people attending the festival's first full year in 2022.
On top of supporting the artists and performers on RISING stages, the festival will provide jobs for more than 1,000 event workers behind the scenes across event management, security, hospitality and more.
For tickets and more information visit rising.melbourne.
As stated by Minister for Creative Industries Steve Dimopoulos
"RISING is back and it's bringing the heat to winter, creating jobs, delivering a new visitor drawcard, boosting local businesses and giving everyone another reason to get out and experience everything Melbourne has to offer."
As stated by RISING Artistic Co-Artistic Director Hannah Fox
"It's been amazing watching the festival being built across the city over the last couple of weeks - inside our train station, cathedral, theatres, river banks and hidden spaces - artists from all over the world have been busy making and rehearsing their work in anticipation of opening the doors this week."
