A bonanza eight-hour event taking place across four venues, RISING's party-within-a-party is returning to inner-city Melbourne for another year – and is set to raise the bar in 2025.
Day Tripper is bringing punters eclectic bands and genre-bending performance art across an entire Saturday on 7 June, allowing Melburnians to discover an entire world of music and art – 25 acts across some of the city’s coolest spaces – under a single ticket.
Hosted in four separate venues along Swanston Street, in the heart of the CBD – and all rather helpfully within walking distance of one another – Day Tripper is the afternoon party that brings peak entertainment in a suite of 25 unique live acts and a mind-bending laser show.
From Brooklyn’s dream-pop sensations DIIV to UK electronic heavyweights Mount Kimbie and Atlanta rapper sensation BKTHERULA, here are the venues you need to know about and the shows that simply can’t be missed.
Day Tripper
- Saturday 7 June. Doors 12pm, ends 8pm
- DIIV, Mount Kimbie DJs, BKTHERULA, Ripple Effect Band, Annie and the Caldwells, Nyege Nyege, Chapter Music + more
- Melbourne Town Hall, Night Trade, The Capitol – RMIT, Max Watt’s
- Buy your tickets here
Melbourne Town Hall
- Annie and the Caldwells
- Antenna
- BKTHERULA
- DIIV
- Ela Stiles
- Keanu Nelson
- Mount Kimbie DJ set
- Ripple Effect Band
- Spike F*ck
- The Butterfly Who Flew into the Rave
- The Vovos
- Tikiman & Richard Akingbehin
DIIV
Brooklyn’s dreamy shoegaze darlings DIIV are bringing their hypnotic soundscapes to Melbourne Town Hall for Day Tripper. Fresh off their acclaimed fourth album Frog in Boiling Water, Zachary Cole Smith and co. have evolved from dreamy post-punk beginnings to a heavier, more introspective sound, which has seen them become arena-filling supports for the likes of Depeche Mode. Expect an atmospheric wall of sound, an intoxicating blend of reverb-drenched guitars and haunting vocals. Don’t miss this rare Australian appearance.
Mount Kimbie
Bold British music makers Mount Kimbie are staging a return down under following more than a decade overseas, and they’ll be bringing a DJ set for Day Tripper that’s sure to make up for lost time. Currently on tour in Australia in the afterglow of their celebrated new album, The Sunset Violent, the four-member collective will be landing at RISING.
Following their breakout dubstep release in 2010, Crooks & Lovers, the original DJ duo have expanded to a multi-disciplinary quartet that melds every kind of sound from avant-garde post-rock and pioneering electronica textures.
The Butterfly Who Flew into the Rave
Conceived by choreographer Oli Mathieson and collaborators Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer, this bold new show The Butterfly Who Flew into the Rave strives to condense the ecstasy and exhaustion of a full-force, three-day rave into a single 90-minute performance.
Backed by techno beats from Suburban Knights, this Kiwi dance troupe designed a staggering endurance-based live performance that places no divisions between the stage boundaries and the audience. Punters are invited to engage in the cathartic effect of high-energy rave choreography by shifting a few moves of their own from within their seats, offering a brief, ecstatic escape from the mundanities of the day-to-day rat race.
BKTHERULA
SoundCloud rapper turned global star BKTHERULA brings her genre-bending sounds to Day Tripper, fresh off joining Ice Spice’s Y2K! World Tour and designing one of the holes at SWINGERS: The Art of Mini Golf. The 22-year-old Brooklyn Rodriguez has been smashing boundaries since dropping viral hit Tweakin’ Together in 2020 – expect a distinctive blend of hip-hop, trap and plugg.
Max Watt’s (125 Swanston Street)
- Andras & Oscar
- Gregor
- Tenniscoats
- Ryan Davis
- Sidney Phillips
- Little Ugly Girls
- Guy Blackman Band
- Npcede
Chapter Music: End of an Era — 33rd Birthday and Farewell Party
Just a quick jaunt across the road from Melbourne Town Hall, Max Watt’s is hosting the farewell party – and 33rd birthday – of Chapter Music, one of the country’s longest-running and most eclectic independent record labels.
With a legacy of bright new talent in Australian sounds dating back to 1992, the label naturally comes armed with an impeccable lineup of performers for their final birthday bash. All the stops are being pulled for this one, including the special guest appearances of Chapter Music legacy artists Andras & Oscar, Louisville musician Ryan Davis as well Brisbane-based Pluggnb artist Sidney Phillips flying from a little closer to home.
Night Trade (CBD laneways)
- Kampire
- MC Yallah
- DJ Travella
- Lady Hash
Taking the party outside, Night Trade sees in the sunset and promises to keep you warm against the cool evening air with an array of global cuisine offerings and lively street festival activity. Taking place in the Capitol Arcade just off Collins Street, the wide range of offerings in taste, sound and smell give you the chance to sample Day Tripper’s antics completely free of charge.
A flurry of pop-up microbars will keep your tastebuds happy, as will the many eateries scattered throughout the area – and if you’re feeling really inspired by all the incredible artists on offer, you could drop into Mummy’s Plastic to belt out some karaoke of your own.
The jewel in the crown, meanwhile, is a showcase of pieces from Nyege Nyege Collective: hailing from Uganda, they’re sure to light up your evening with their unstoppable African electronica, this year celebrating an incredible decade of music-making.
If you want to escape inside to beat the chills, you can wander to The Capitol Theatre for Shohei Fujimoto’s intangible #form, where the iconic ceiling of this Melbourne landmark is converted into a towering ocean of mind-bending laser lights.
RISING’s Day Tripper event is running from 12pm on Saturday 7 June 2025, in a variety of locations. Buy your tickets here.
Beat is an official media partner of RISING.
