Melbourne's leading winter festival of contemporary music, art and performance, RISING 2024, has officially concluded its program for this year, marking its brightest year yet.
Over 16 nights, 680,000 festival-goers gathered in and around Melbourne's CBD to celebrate the festival, showcasing more than 670 artists, including 265 local Victorian talents and 370 from across Australia. The event was characterized by a diverse lineup of events.
Iconic venues, public spaces, theatres, squares, alleys, arcades, cathedrals, bridges and aqueducts served as vibrant settings for the festival's extensive program.
“We are truly amazed by the response to this year’s festival,” said RISING co-artistic directors Gideon Obarzanek and Hannah Fox.
“In many ways, RISING 2024 is good news for a festival that didn't exist this year. In addition to a huge number of freebies, we achieved record sales. A difficult time for events across Australia. In such an environment, RISING audiences voted with their feet and turned out in their hundreds of thousands, proving the huge demand for a differentiated arts event like this in Victoria.”
The festival's free offering was particularly popular, with over 455,000 participants enjoying the event at Federation Square and the banks of the Birlarn River.
Highlights include The Blak Infinite at Federation Square; There, audiences experienced an immersive show of Indigenous futures, cosmic connections, and political discourse, curated by Kimberly Moulton (Yorta Yorta) and Kate ten Buuren (Taungrun).
Night Trade, a lively festival hub surrounded by Capitol Arcade and surrounding trails, attracted more than 34,000 visitors over three weekends.
One of the festival's biggest highlights will see more than 1,000 performers from across Victoria gather at St Paul's Cathedral for the world premiere of 'Communitas', directed by global dance sensation SHOUSE. was held.
Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp said: “RISING has further cemented Melbourne's reputation as a creative powerhouse, attracting more interstate and international participants than ever before.” .
“RISING is another example of why Melbourne is Australia’s event capital, filling our city with creativity, people, curiosity and joy.”
