RISING 2026 Returns With ‘Lil Kim, Late-Night Exhibitions And A Flinders Ballroom Dance Academy

As winter settles over Melbourne, the cultural calendar is doing anything but cooling down, with RISING getting all fired up to take over for 12 nights from 27 May to 8 June. 

So, what’s the vibe? RISING is the city’s premier festival of music, art and performance. It serves up the kind of cool, bespoke events that’ll have you saying “only in Melbourne”. Leaning heavily into contemporary music and dance, this year’s diverse program boasts everything from a headline concert by hip-hop gamechanger Lil’ Kim to energetic ballroom spectacles, intimate listening parties, free takeovers at Fed Square, and immersive performance art experiences. 

At the heart of the 2026 festival is the launch of the inaugural Australian Dance Biennale—a major new platform showcasing the strength and diversity of Australian and international dance. Presented every two years, the Biennale extends beyond the theatre, unfolding across stages, club nights, dance classes and public spaces.

This year, RISING presents over 100 events, featuring 376 artists and including 7 world and 11 Aussie premieres. That’s a lot to take in, but we’ve scoured the program so you don’t have to. From music and movement to outrageous after-dark experiences, here are the hottest events to get around at RISING 2026.

All The Best Things To See, Do And Experience At RISING 2026

Listen Up: RISING’s Best Music Events 

• Lil’ Kim, May 30, Festival Hall: You better lift your lighters up, because the Queen of Rap is about to arrive, no matter what they say. RISING is rolling out the red carpet for Lil’ Kim as she brings her landmark tour to Melbourne, celebrating Hard Core and The Notorious K.I.M.—two albums that didn't just succeed in hip hop, they changed the conversation around it.

• Day Tripper, June 6, Melbourne Town Hall and Max Watt’s: RISING’s festival-within-the-festival returns, and it’s your annual day trip of music, performance and primal release with a lineup that heralds artists at the top of their game—featuring Kae Tempest, Chanel Beads, Saul Williams, The Congos, Sorry, Discovery Zone, Elias B Rønnenfelt and more.
  
  One ticket gains you access to eight hours of entertainment across two venues and multiple stages. Expect psychic guerrilla poetry, a four-headed beast from Japan, a jazz icon from Chicago, the hottest band in Manhattan, and local legends of hardcore taking over balconies and back rooms.

• Gil Scott-Heron by Brian Johnson and Yasiin Bey, 28 May, Forum Melbourne: After performing at RISING two times before, hip-hop legend Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) is basically an honorary Melburnian. This year, he’s performing a never-before-seen tribute to legendary musician and activist Gil Scott-Heron, with Scott-Heron’s original collaborator, Brian Johnson. This world premiere celebrates the soulful, seminal music that brought black politics to the party.

• Reverb and The Listening Room, 22 May to 31 August, ACMI: Presented with ACMI, Reverb is a major immersive exhibition by London’s Vinyl Factory that celebrates the power of electronic music as a cultural force. Towards the end of the experience, you’ll get a chance to still your mind and open your ears in “The Listening Room”, an intimate space with a capacity of 50 people.
  
  After hours, the room hosts one-off sessions, talks, and listening parties from RISING artists who you wouldn’t usually get to see up close—like legendary US jazz-poet Saul Williams and UK dub heavyweight Adrian Sherwood. These will be curated by Yasmine Sharaf, a presenter for Triple R’s Cease + Desist and a specialist in underground sounds. 

• Voiceless Mass, 30 May, St Paul’s Cathedral: A sonic reckoning with history, power and silenced voices, Raven Chacon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ensemble piece will take over one of the city’s most beautiful buildings with a special architecturally responsive performance. The first-ever Native American composer to win a Pulitzer, Chacon’s Voiceless Mass reflects on the history and access to gathering spaces and the lands on which they sit; it’s a space to consider the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space isn’t an option for those in power.
  
  There’ll also be a conversation between Raven Chacon and experimental music expert Dr Joel Stern before the performance. It’s a chance to hear about the context of the work and Chacon’s practice, which spans from Albuquerque's DIY punk and noise scenes to the world stage.

• Saul Williams Meets Carlos Niño & Friends, 5 June, Melbourne Recital Centre: Along with guest appearances at Day Tripper and the Listening Room, Saul will also be taking his poetry centre stage at the Recital Centre, joined by percussionist-producer Carlos Niño. Together, they'll perform a jazz-poetry set originally crafted in the hills of Coldwater Canyon National Park. Expect sharp, eloquently spoken lyrics with layers of electro-accoustic improvisation. 

• Adrian Sherwood, 5 June, Max Watts: UK dub royalty Adrian Sherwood is taking over the basement of Max Watts for a heaving underground set. Debuting his latest solo record, The Collapse of Everything, alongside collaborations and album remixes, Live Dub will see him onstage with a full mixing desk, alongside striking psychedelic visuals. 

• Kahil El'Zabar: An Afternoon Of Rhythm & Wine, 7 June, Giant Steps: American composer and multi-instrumentalist Kahil El-Zabar is heading to the hills, playing an intimate afternoon jazz set at Giant Steps winery in Healesville. Sip on a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir as El-Zabar weaves percussion, voice and memory into an arresting performance grounded in jazz, R&B, funk and gospel. 

Move and Groove: RISING’s Best Dance and After-Dark Events 

• Land of 1000 Dances, 27 May to 7 June: Built in 1910, the Flinders Street Station Ballroom was where Melbourne could dance until midnight, then catch the last train home. Now, RISING is reigniting its original purpose with its very own dance academy, and everyone’s invited. From salsa to boot-scooting, jazz to vogue, Bollywood to ballet, there’s something to tempt movers and shakers of all kinds. Tickets are on sale now here. 

• A Year Without Summer, 28 to 31 May, Arts Centre Melbourne: Europe’s hottest director/choreographer is back to pick at the scab with a new epic about medical science, mortality and monsters.
  
  A Dettol-dabbed frolic through the rot, Florentina Holzinger’s A Year Without Summer is a fusion of the razzle-dazzle of musical theatre, comedy, nudity and risque performance art delivered from a giant inflatable womb in “a spattered Renaissance painting of a production”. A tricky one to put into a box, this is exactly the kind of show that RISING has become known for.

• Voyage Into Infinity, 3 to 7 June, The Substation: Driving haunted carnival rides over tropes of titillation, Brooklyn-based artist Narcissister invites you to enter a warehouse-sized contraption on the verge of collapse, operated by a masked performer and her doll-like companions.
  
  Voyage Into Infinity is a giant performance installation that pays homage to the raw punk energy of Bad Brains and the controlled chaos of Rube Goldberg machines, which are designed to perform a simple task in a mischievously complex, chain-reaction-like manner.

• Hard to be Soft: A Belfast Prayer,  27 to 30 May, Malthouse Theatre: A cinematic, ritualistic and raw performance piece from one of the strongest players in contemporary dance, Oona Doherty’s Hard to be Soft is a white-hot manifestation of Belfast’s defiance and rage. Influenced by club culture and the European avant-garde, Doherty's dancers explode institutional discipline with intuitive swagger. Set to a driving score by DJ David Holmes (Killing Eve, Ocean’s Eleven, Hunger), Doherty takes us into the inner lives of Belfast’s hard men and strong women.

• Defend The Throne, 5 June, Bunjil Place: The Royal Family Dance Crew is bringing the heat, taking a break from choreographing for the world’s biggest pop stars to hit RISING with an explosive new all-ages showcase. Hailing from Aotearoa/New Zealand, this legendary crew is known for their unique Polyswagg style, which blends hip-hop and street dance with Polynesian culture.
  
  Founded by powerhouse choreographer Parris Goebel, the Royal Family is the spark behind both Rihanna and J-Lo’s Super Bowl Half-Time Shows, as well as Lady Gaga’s return to form with ‘Abracadabra’. Consider yourself cordially invited to the throne room.

• Sissy Ball 8: The Doll House, 7 June, Melbourne Town Hall: Are you ready for a kiki? The southern hemisphere’s biggest vogue ball is ready to make an entrance. Presented with Cypher Culture in association with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sissy Ball is an homage to the powerful Black and Latinx Trans women who came before. The trailblazing mother of the Naarm’s Ballroom Scene, Mother Kianna, summons international houses of the Southern Hemisphere to battle it out for trophies and grand prizes.

• Library Up Late: Rebel Heart, 29 May, State Library Victoria: Calling all bookworms, party animals, lovers and fighters: the stunning State Library transforms into an after-dark playground with Library Up Late. For RISING, the Library is letting its latest exhibition take the lead. Rebel Heart: Love Letters and Other Declarations is an exploration of romantic love and heartbreak drawn from an extraordinary archive of soul-baring letters, intimate diaries and rare manuscripts. Gain exclusive after-hours access to the exhibition and let loose as Melbourne’s best DJs take over the dance floor under the iconic Dome.

RISING 2026 takes over Melbourne from 27 May to 8 June. Check out the full program here.

Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by RISING and proudly endorsed by The Urban List. To find out more about who we work with and why read our editorial policy here. 

Images: supplied.