Now or Never's immersive art festival will transform Melbourne with boundary-pushing installations and performances.
Melbourne’s mind-bending Now or Never festival is about to crack open reality with its third edition focused on visions of the future.
Now or Never returns to Melbourne/Narrm with a provocative theme that asks us to collectively imagine what lies ahead. The festival, now in its third year, promises to transform the city with immersive installations, experimental music, and reality-warping media art that will challenge our perception of the possible.
This year’s theme, I Have Seen The Future, brings together visionary artists and creatives who aren’t afraid to push boundaries. Festival-goers can expect to have their minds expanded through both artistic experiences and thought-provoking discussions.
Now or Never 2025
- When: 21-31 August
- Where: Various locations across Melbourne/Narrm
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The City of Melbourne-backed cultural takeover has established itself as a crucial platform for artists working at the intersection of technology, sound, and immersive experiences. Last year’s event drew crowds eager to experience art beyond traditional gallery constraints, and this year’s edition promises to build on that momentum.
Now or Never has carefully cultivated its reputation for showcasing boundary-pushing work that might otherwise struggle to find suitable presentation spaces in conventional arts venues. By creating temporary environments specifically designed for experimental art forms, the festival offers both artists and audiences rare opportunities to engage with truly forward-thinking creative expression.
The 10-day program will feature installations that transform familiar city spaces, performances that blend multiple artistic disciplines, and forums where artists and audiences can collectively imagine possible futures. While the full lineup is yet to be announced, past editions have featured works ranging from large-scale projections to intimate sound experiences.
For those who’ve experienced previous iterations of Now or Never, this year’s futuristic focus represents a natural evolution of the festival’s mission to reframe our relationship with urban space and artistic possibility. For newcomers, it offers a chance to experience Melbourne’s cultural landscape at its most adventurous and thought-provoking.
Now or Never has positioned itself as more than just an arts festival – it’s an invitation to temporarily inhabit alternative realities and consider paths forward that might otherwise remain unexplored.
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