Rising (festival)

Last updated
RISING
Rising Festival 2024 Banner.jpg
2024 festival banner
Genre Major arts, theatre, music and cultural festival
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s) Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
Years active5
Inaugurated2021
Attendance753,0000 (2023) [1]
Patron(s) Creative Victoria
Website rising.melbourne

Rising (stylised RISING) is a city-wide arts festival held in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. The festival was announced in 2020 as Naarm/Melbourne's premier arts and culture festival, replacing the Melbourne International Arts Festival and White Night Festival, and is supported by the Victoria State Government. Following two attempts to launch the festival in 2020 and 2021 disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Rising has been held annually each June in Naarm/Melbourne from 2022. The festival has received praise for the depth and variety of its events and First Nations programming, whilst also receiving critiques about its ability to capture the purpose and identity of its predecessors. The next Rising festival takes place 4-15 June 2025.

Contents

History

Origins and initial attempts

Rising was conceived by co-artistic directors Gideon Obarzanek and Hannah Fox, both artists with previous directorial experience in the creative industries and arts festivals including Dark Mofo, the Melbourne Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival. [2] [3] The festival was first proposed in 2020 as a replacement for the Melbourne International Arts Festival and White Night Festival, and received support from state Government agencies to provide $2 million in funding, seeking a expressions of interest for grants to local artists to contribute "ambitious", "unusual", and "radical" concepts specific to Naarm/Melbourne that would contribute to the "night-time culture" concept of the festival. Rising's inaugural festival, scheduled to take place in August 2020, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and postponed to 2021. [4] [5] [6]

In March 2021, a rescheduled program was announced for Rising, expected to occur over 26 May to 6 June. The program engaged 800 artists in over 130 events, [7] intended to focus on "site-specific performance and large-scale public art, new collaborations in theatre and dance and novel line-ups in live music". [8] The program included several installations and events in site-specific areas in the Birrarung, Chinatown, Arts District, Midtown and Satellite precincts, with the stated intent of developing "multiple connected experiences" across the city. [9] A headline event for the festival was the installation A Miracle Constantly Repeated by artist Patricia Piccinini, an exhibition that utilised the Flinders Street Station Ballroom and was the first time the space was accessible to the public in 35 years. [10] [11] On 27 May 2021, the Victorian Government announced a public health directive and seven-day statewide lockdown to manage the effects of an abrupt outbreak in the coronavirus pandemic. The organisers immediately cancelled events and issued refunds during the lockdown, although several site installations remained in place for the duration of the festival. [12] [13] Plans to relaunch the festival in its second week in June were abandoned after the lockdown period was extended, leading to a cancellation of the remainder of the program. [14] [15]

Inaugural and later festivals

The first complete Rising festival was held from 1-12 June 2022 after announcement in March of that year. The program involved over 80 projects and 225 events involving 685 Australian artists. [16] [17] Around 40 per cent of the events announced for the 2021 festival were incorporated into the program for 2022, [18] with the remainder of the previous year's events deferred due to venue and artist availability. [19]

Events

Rising festivals include a mixture of music, performing arts, dance, and art in their programming. The festival has been noted for including a focus on site-specific installations and performances that transform the precincts of inner-city Naarm/Melbourne and experimental works that are "immersive or ephemeral" in nature. [19]

YearDatesProgramNotes
202126-27 MayInstallations included A Miracle Constantly Repeated by Patricia Piccinini, Ancestral Memory by Maree Clarke and Mitch Mahoney, The Rivers Sing by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Byron J Scullin and Thomas Supple, and Wandering Stars by The Lantern Company.Prematurely cancelled on May 27.
20221-12 JuneMusicians included Ana Roxanne, Arab Strap, Andy Shauf, Baxter Dury, Boris, Buffalo Daughter, CHAI, Ed Kuepper, Harvey Sutherland, Jim White, Kelly Lee Owens, Lawrence English, Lucy Dacus, Midori Takada, Marisa Anderson, Masego, Moses Sumney, Sampa the Great, Shabazz Palaces, Teeks, The Goon Sax, Tkay Maidza, Vanessa Tomlinson, Xylouris White and Yussef Dayes. [20]
20237-18 JuneMusicians included Birdz, Cornelius,Debby Friday, Ethel Cain, Iceage, Ichiko Aoba, Loraine James, Madlib, Mim Suleiman, Obongjayar, Paul Kelly, Real Lies, Robyn Archer, Ruth Radelet, RVG, Shintaro Sakamoto, The Damned, Thundercat, Weyes Blood and Witch. [21]
20241-16 JuneMusicians announced include Arthur Verocai, Asha Puthli, Blonde Redhead, Christeene, Dirty Three, Dorian Wood, Evian Christ, Fever Ray, Good Morning, Jlin, Onefour, Sammy Butcher, Sky Ferreira, Snoh Aalegra, Tinariwen, Tirzah, Yasiin Bey and Yves Tumor. [22]

Reception

Rising has received praise for its breadth of programming and involvement of First Nations artists, and also critique towards the festival's overall identity and stated purpose. Kristen Hé of NME commended the 2023 festival for its "extensive [and] diverse roster", describing the festival as having an appeal that elevated it from its counterparts due to the "abundance of ways in which it makes the city come to life", [23] and Karen Gwee similarly highlighted the 2022 festival for its "thoughtful and varied approach to programming" and being "more sprawling and free-floating" than a typical festival, although noting its broad roster and timeframe made the festival occasionally feel "atomised" and incohesive. [24] Jane Howard of ABC noted that the 2022 festival was a "smaller" and "gentler" festival compared to its predecessors, noting that its "unexpected discoveries" and "small interventions" had positively "changed the shape of the city", but described the fesetival as having "missteps" and "teething issues" due to the "underwhelming" nature of some of the installations. [18] Writing for The Conversation , Sarah Austin highlighted the 2023 festival's "significant and thrilling work" by First Nations artists, but believed the festival had "yet to establish what kind of intervention it is making in our cultural conversation". [25]

Some critics were less positive in their assessment of the festival's impact. Describing the festival as facing an "identity crisis", Cameron Woodhead of The Age praised the 2023 festival's "extensive live music program" and leading role of First Nations artists, but critiqued the festival, stating "it lacks an articulated purpose", "clashes with established interstate festivals", such as Dark Mofo and Vivid Sydney, and was yet to reconcile the "conflicting missions" of predecessors White Night and the Melbourne Festival. [26] First expecting that the festival may be a "refreshing change" to the "bare" arts calendar caused by the pandemic and end of previous festivals, [27] Karen van Ulzen of Dance Australia later considered the 2022 festival to be a "disappointment" and "need a rethink" due to its contrast with the events and tone of White Night and Melbourne Festival, unclear name and branding as an arts festival, and poor weather in part due to the winter timing. [28]

The 2024 festival received more positive coverage, including from past detractors, acknowledging the event had landed a tight and cohesive program. The Age praised the 2024 program, saying Naarm/Melbourne's biggest arts festival had "finally, five years in, achieved lift-off". [29] The Australian called the festival a "winner", with critic Tim Douglas writing: “With Mofo having gone quiet across Bass Strait, Melbourne has taken the midwinter mantel and run with it. With Orbazanek and Fox in their element... RISING is – as its name suggests – a festival inthe ascendant.” [30]

Awards and nominations

Music Victoria Awards

The Music Victoria Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2006.

YearNominee / workAwardResultRef.
2022 RisingBest Metro FestivalNominated [31]
2023 RisingBest Metro FestivalWon [32] [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WOMADelaide</span>

WOMADelaide is an annual four-day festival of Music, Arts and Dance, which was first held in 1992 in Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia. One of many WOMAD festivals held around the world, it is a four-day event that presents a diverse selection of music from artists around the world, as well as side events like talks and discussions.

Constantine Koukias is a Tasmanian composer and opera director of Greek ancestry based in Amsterdam, where he is known by his Greek name of Konstantin Koukias. He is the co-founder and artistic director of IHOS Music Theatre and Opera, which was established in 1990 in Tasmania's capital city, Hobart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Piccinini</span> Australian artist (born 1965)

Patricia Piccinini is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, video, sound, installation, digital prints, and sculpture. Her works focus on "unexpected consequences", conveying concerns surrounding bio-ethics and help visualize future dystopias. In 2003, Piccinini represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale with a hyperrealist sculpture of her distinctive anthropomorphic animals. In 2016 The Art Newspaper named Piccinini with her "grotesque-cum-cute, hyper-real genetics fantasies in silicone" the most popular contemporary artist in the world after a show in Rio de Janeiro attracted over 444,000 visitors. Natasha Bieniek's portrait of Piccinini was a finalist for the 2022 Archibald Prize.

Richard Bell is an Aboriginal Australian artist and political activist. He is one of the founders of proppaNOW, a Brisbane-based Aboriginal art collective.

The St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, commonly referred to as Laneway, began in Caledonian Lane, Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday, February 27, 2005. Beginning as predominantly an indie music event, the festival grew in popularity and expanded to five Australian cities—Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle—as well as Auckland, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Deborah Joy Cheetham Fraillon is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, composer, and playwright. She leads Short Black Opera, based in Melbourne, which provides training and opportunities for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musical artists.

Mona Foma, stylised as MONA FOMA was an annual music and arts festival held in Tasmania, Australia, curated by Violent Femmes member Brian Ritchie. Recognised as Tasmania's largest contemporary music festival, it featured a broad range of artistic genres, including sound, noise, dance, theatre, visual art, performance, and new media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Old and New Art</span> Art museum in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection. Noted for its central themes of sex and death, the museum has been described by Walsh as a "subversive adult Disneyland".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark Mofo</span> Winter festival in Hobart, Tasmania

Dark Mofo is an annual mid-winter arts and culture festival held by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Launched in 2013 as the winter counterpart of the summer MONA FOMA festival, Dark Mofo events take place at night and celebrate the darkness of the southern winter solstice, featuring many musical acts, large scale light installations and a winter feast.

Genevieve Lacey is an Australian musician and recorder virtuoso, working as a performer, creator, curator and cultural leader. The practice of listening is central to her works, which are created collaboratively with artists from around the world. Lacey plays handmade recorders made by Joanne Saunders and Fred Morgan. In her collection, she also has instruments by David Coomber, Monika Musch, Michael Grinter, Paul Whinray and Herbert Paetzold.

Sydney Chamber Opera is an opera company based in Sydney, Australia. It is a resident company at Carriageworks. The company was founded in 2010 by Louis Garrick and Jack Symonds. Its first production was in February 2011 and it has since produced between two and four 20th- and 21st-century chamber operas each year. Its repertoire typically consists of world premieres of Australian operas and recent international works receiving their Australian premieres, including stagings of song cycles or non-traditional stage works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Brous</span> Australian singer

Sophia Brous is an artist, performance-maker, musician and curator based in New York and Melbourne, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker Boy</span> Indigenous Australian rapper, dancer, artist, and actor (born 1996)

Danzal James Baker, known professionally as Baker Boy, is a Yolngu rapper, dancer, artist, and actor. Baker Boy is known for performing original hip-hop songs incorporating both English and Yolŋu Matha and is one of the most prominent Aboriginal Australian rappers.

Ecca Vandal is a South African-born Sri Lankan-Australian singer-songwriter and rapper, currently living in Melbourne. To date, Vandal has released one studio album: Ecca Vandal.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Byron J Scullin is an Australian composer and sound designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telenova</span> Australian pop music trio

Telenova are an Australian alt-indie trio formed in Melbourne, Victoria in 2020. The band consists of lead vocalist, writer and filmmaker Angeline Armstrong, and multi-instrumentalists and producers Edward Quinn and Joshua Moriarty.

Liquid Architecture is an Australian non-profit art organisation with a focus on experimental music, sonic art, contemporary performance, pedagogy and discourse based in Naarm/Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michaela Gleave</span> Australian artist

Michaela Gleave is a Sydney-based Australian conceptual artist best known for her use of light and her monumental site specific art works engaging with space, time and matter. She was a 2012-2013 artist-in-residence at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and won a churchie award in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood Stained Blonde Tour</span> 2023 concert tour by Ethel Cain

The Blood Stained Blonde Tour was the second concert tour by American singer-songwriter and producer Hayden Silas Anhedönia, under the stage name of Ethel Cain. Like the previous one, it served to promote the artist's debut studio album, Preacher's Daughter (2022), a critically acclaimed concept album. The 46-show tour began on April 1, 2023 in Mexico City and concluded on October 24, 2023 in San Francisco.

References

  1. ↑ "RISING 2024 To Kick Off With Epic Mass Music-Making Event". Creative Victoria. 7 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  2. ↑ "About". Rising. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  3. ↑ Lambert, Catherine (21 May 2020). "Arts festivals unite to create new celebration of Melbourne". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024.
  4. ↑ Miller, Nick (20 May 2020). "Melbourne's new festival RISING from the virus crisis". The Age. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Westwood, Matthew (21 May 2020). "Coronavirus: Melbourne's Rising reboots itself for 2021 with a dark sight of the moon". The Australian. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  6. ↑ Martin, Josh (21 May 2020). "Rising Festival announced for 2021, to replace Melbourne Arts and White Night festivals". NME. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  7. ↑ Dow, Steve (29 March 2021). "'Don't bring your best clothes': Melbourne's Rising festival promises you will get your hands dirty". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  8. ↑ "Julia Jacklin, Kee'ahn, Sweet Whirl announced for Melbourne festival RISING". NME. 28 March 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  9. ↑ Koha, Nui Te (29 March 2021). "Melbourne's edgy new winter festival Rising reveals line-up". Archived from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  10. ↑ Capp, Mem (2 June 2021). "Exhibition Review: A Miracle Constantly Repeated – Patricia Piccinini, RISING". Arts Hub. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  11. ↑ Dowse, Nicola (29 July 2021). "Patricia Piccinini: A Miracle Constantly Repeated". TimeOut. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  12. ↑ Convery, Stephanie (27 May 2021). "Rising festival 'hits pause' the day after opening as Melbourne enters lockdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  13. ↑ Long, Brian; Morrow, Guy (28 May 2021). "Rising on pause; Dark Mofo ticket sales delayed. The government must insure our arts events". The Conversation. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "RISING Festival has cancelled the final weekend of its program". Double J. 2 June 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  15. ↑ Young, David James (2 June 2021). "Melbourne lockdown extended by one week, RISING Festival officially cancelled". NME. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  16. ↑ "Three years in the making, Melbourne's Rising Festival unveils 2022 program with 225 events". Forte. 17 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  17. ↑ Dow, Steve. "Third time lucky? Melbourne's Rising festival announces 2022 lineup after two years of delays". Guardian. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  18. 1 2 Howard, Jane (18 June 2022). "Rising Festival review: New Melbourne festival had world-class arts, but it was the small moments that made the biggest impact". ABC. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  19. 1 2 Freeland, Anna (3 June 2022). "Rising: Melbourne's long-awaited arts festival is a smorgasbord of immersive sonic and visual experiences set to reawaken the city". ABC. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  20. ↑ "2022 Festival Program". Rising. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  21. ↑ "2023 Festival Program". Rising. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  22. ↑ "2024 Program". Rising. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  23. ↑ Hé, Kristen (12 June 2023). "Rising Melbourne 2023 review: Weyes Blood and Ethel Cain get the winter festival off to a breathtaking start". NME. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  24. ↑ Gwee (10 June 2022). "Rising in Melbourne review: artists of all stripes craft their own alluring worlds at the city's new winter festival". NME. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  25. ↑ Austin, Sarah (22 June 2023). "Rising has yet to establish its voice – but this year's festival gave us significant and thrilling work by First Nations artists". The Conversation. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  26. ↑ Woodhead, Cameron (17 June 2023). "It's supposed to be Melbourne's premier cultural festival. But does it work?". The Age. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  27. ↑ van Ulzen, Karen (25 May 2021). "Goodbye Melbourne Festival; hello Rising". Dance Australia. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  28. ↑ van Ulzen, Karen (20 June 2022). "RISING needs a rethink". Dance Australia. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  29. ↑ Woodhead, Cameron (2024-06-17). "Has Melbourne's biggest arts festival finally taken off?". The Age. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  30. ↑ Douglas, Tim (18 June 2024). "Cathedral parties and world-class art: Rising festival is a winner in Melbourne". The Australian. Retrieved 28 January 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ↑ "2022 Music Victoria Awards Reveal Public Voting Categories Nominees". The Music Network . 10 November 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  32. ↑ "Nominees, Hall of Fame Inductees Announced for 2023 Music Victoria Awards". Music Feeds . 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  33. ↑ "All the Winners of the 2023 Music Victoria Awards: Julia Jacklin, Immy Owusu, Cable Ties + More". Music Feeds . 31 October 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.