PROGRAM GUIDE : Melbourne Unlocked
Fresh coats painted, and cobwebs swept. The hidden corners of the city—unlocked, alive and ready.
Published : Mon, Mar 17, 2025
Last updated : Tue, Mar 18, 2025
Art, music and performance that uses Melbourne/Naarm as a stage—tethering to the history and taking us somewhere new. Come explore.
Welcome to the Atheneum
RISING welcomes a new venue to the fold. Founded in 1886, The Athenaeum is the city’s oldest cultural institution. We’re hosting some intimate shows and big energies in its plush and cosy neoclassical confines. Check out a local twist on the off-Broadway hit Hedwig and the Angry Inch. New Rampant Optimism Roadshow—a rollocking revue style gig with Ned Collette, Leah Senior, Micheal Beach and friends. Also, beloved It-Girl Suki Waterhouse plays here before her PICA extravaganza. We don’t expect she’ll play avenue this size here again after this visit.
The Athenuem
Explore the void beneath Fed Square
Heard of Slot 9? We hadn’t either. Take the service lift underground, beneath Fed Square’s oblique geometries for Diagrammatica. It’s a genre-defying artwork where you can become part of a living diagram. Book an intimate, subterranean experience in Slot 9. Or stay out in the open, above ground to watch the happenings for free in the Atrium.
The Forum, restored
There’s nothing quite like a show under The Forum’s night-blue ceiling. The building has been meticulously restored, ready two big RISING shows. Soccer Mommy bringing her sublime, lovelorn indie. And beat pioneers, Mount Kimbie, with a full band for their latest sound—a driving shoegaze-electronica.
Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land
The 2025 program dives into our culture, with First Peoples work to the front as always. Hamer Hall's enormous facade becomes a canvas Moorina Bonini’s Matha, where she shares South-Eastern Aboriginal cultural practice and storytelling with the city and river below.
Follow the Birrarung from Hamer Hall to the Yarra Valley for Bonini’s companion work at TarraWarra Biennial, We Are Eagles, curated by RISING’s Kimberley Moulton.
First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams return. A rolling exhibition that criss-crosses Naarm, bringing First Peoples art from across the state to the city.
Swimming and swinging through art
You won’t have had this experience at the baths before, and who knows when you can again. Have a nighttime swim through sound art in the Melbourne City Baths. Experience the tactility of underwater listening at Saturate, created by Sara Retallick. Also, there’s a holey new world up in the cracked opulence of Flinders Street Station’s top levels. Swingers is a playable art exhibition where nine of the most adventurous female artists create a mini golf hole each. Featuring Miranda July, Kaylene Whiskey, Pat Brassington, BKTHERULA, Nabilah Nordin, Saeborg, Soda Jerk, Natasha Tontey, and Delanie Le Bas.
Swingers. PHOTO: Eugene Hyland
Saturate
Aus music history thrashes to life
Be there for your favourite new band’s first and only gig Little Bands was a scene that ran parallel to punk in the late '70s and early '80s. New bands formed by local trailblazers, free forming for 15 minutes at a time. It started when synth-punk mavericks Primitive Calculators were living in North Fitzroy, next door to fellow local renegades Whirlywirld. They put on nights where side-projects would form to play once or twice for no more than fifteen minutes at a time. Audience and performer dissolved into a surge of experimentation and creativity. It was an energy that inspired the 1896 cult hit, Dogs in Space. And, we’re reigniting the spark for RISING 2025 across three iconic local venues.
Chrissy Amphlett from Divinyls was a seismic force in a school uniform. She had the raw talent, stage-conquering energy and the rock’n’roll rasp. Her audacious blend of sexuality and vulnerability defined a generation. Now, beloved performer and writer Sheridan Harbridge (Prima Facie) fronts the band for RISING in an electrifying new cabaret that captures Chrissy's fierce spirit through her words and songs. Don't miss Amplified, the exquisite rock of Chrissy Amphlett at UMAC.
The Oroton Bags performing at Little Bands
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett
The Land of the Five Rivers comes to Fed Square
Horn please! Punjabi superstars make their way to Australia for the first time. Blockbuster is a free, family-friendly celebration of Punjabi art, food and music takes over Fed Square. Head to the main stage for live Pakistani R&B, Punjabi rap acrobatics, Sufi music, 808 bass, direct from Lahore and more. Explore kaleidoscopic art trucks. Fill your plate with street food. Settle in for the curated film program. A big theme for the day is Baithak, which is traditionally a space for getting together, sharing stories and lending a hand. So, expect plenty of talks and interactive workshops too.
