Melbourne, brace yourself. This February, you'll experience a festival five years in the making and it may just blow your mind.
After a five-year hiatus, Asia TOPA (Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts) is gearing up for its eagerly awaited return, scheduled from February 20 to March 10, 2025. Today, we get a couple of sneak peeks into the 2025 program and some teasers for what’s to follow.
Once again, the festival will take over Melbourne with a city-wide showcase of cutting-edge performances from both international and local artists, large-scale installations, must-see events, and rich cultural exchanges.
Asia TOPA 2025
- Asia TOPA is the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts
- It’s Australia’s leading triennial festival of Asia-Pacific contemporary performance
- It’s a joint initiative of Arts Centre Melbourne and the Sidney Myer Fund
- It’s happening in Melbourne from February 20 – March 10, 2025
- You can follow the festival on Facebook and Instagram here
Asia TOPA’s three major programming streams
Asia TOPA 2025 will also introduce three new programming streams alongside its performances and premieres:
- Nightlife – a fusion of contemporary art and club culture after dark (this is going to be particularly epic)
- Knowledge – a series of public conversations and workshops
- Exchange – opportunities for local and international arts industry networking
Explore Melbourne’s latest arts and stage news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
What is Asia TOPA?
A space for celebration and cultural exchange, Asia TOPA centres the voices of Asia-Pacific artists. Through its triennial festival and year-round creative development projects, Asia TOPA fosters new connections between artists, audiences, and communities, showcasing the latest developments in Asia-Pacific arts and culture in Melbourne.
The upcoming 2025 edition marks the third instalment of this renowned festival, which began in 2017 as a joint initiative between Arts Centre Melbourne and the Sidney Myer Fund. The festival made its second appearance in 2020 but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the festival has continued to bring us boundary-pushing performances through the single-day Asia TOPA Radar events, featuring Elyssia Wilson-Heti, Liquid Architecture and Mindy Meng Wang.
Now, in 2025, Asia TOPA is set to continue presenting world-leading creativity and cultural innovation from the Asia-Pacific region.
Asia TOPA’s new artistic team
For the first time, the festival will be led and curated by an artistic team with Asia-Pacific roots. With over 33 performance projects, including 18 world premieres and 18 new commissions, the 2025 edition promises an array of global debuts, free concerts, captivating shows, and nightlife takeovers in Melbourne.
Asia TOPA’s new creative director, Jeff Khan, reflected on the festival’s distinct role: “Asia TOPA embraces the vastness, individuality, and diversity of Asia-Pacific arts and culture, celebrating Australia’s identity as an Asia-Pacific nation. The deep connections we’ve developed with our regional neighbours span millennia.”
He continued: “Our program explores a wide range of themes relevant to the Asia-Pacific experience, particularly focusing on how we honour our elders and cultural pioneers, how we bridge conversations between generations, how new media and technology can merge with traditional performance, and how the arts are a critical medium for overcoming social and cultural barriers.”
Karen Quinlan, CEO of Arts Centre Melbourne, highlighted the festival’s importance to the city: “This ground-breaking festival of contemporary international and local performances is only possible through our partnership with the Sidney Myer Fund, Creative Victoria, and many leading arts organisations across Melbourne. This fusion of artistic excellence and international collaboration is sure to captivate both locals and visitors alike.”
Two exciting program highlights have been unveiled ahead of the full program announcement on 12 November.
KAGAMI
- Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
- February 19 – March 16 2025
The first is the Southern Hemisphere premiere of KAGAMI, an innovative mixed-reality concert experience running from 19 February to 16 March 2025 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. This collaboration between mixed-reality pioneers Tin Drum and the late, legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto allows audiences to engage with a virtual avatar of Sakamoto as he performs ten original compositions. Attendees will wear cutting-edge VR headsets as they move through the performance space, immersing themselves in the emotional visuals of Sakamoto’s work.
For those unaware, Sakamoto was an iconic Japanese composer, pianist, and electronic music pioneer, renowned for his groundbreaking work in both contemporary and film music. As a founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto helped shape the future of electronic music in the late 1970s. His illustrious career included composing the score for The Last Emperor (1987), which earned him an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe.
Home Bound
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Arts Centre Melbourne’s forecourt
The second major highlight is Home Bound, an ambitious public art project led by renowned multidisciplinary artists Daniel Kok (Singapore/Berlin) and Luke George (Naarm/Melbourne). This large-scale woven installation will take shape on Arts Centre Melbourne’s forecourt, created from rope and fibre materials donated by the public. Melbourne locals are encouraged to donate materials and participate in public weaving workshops, making this a true community effort.
Kok and George are seasoned collaborators, working together since 2014 including the thought-provoking Hundreds + Thousands and the 2019 Venice Biennale performance Bunny. Whether they’re suspending AFL players from the NGV ceiling, working in bondage, cheerleading and pole dancing, or turning plants into performers, their work highlights the boundary-disintegrating art that makes Asia TOPA well worth the wait.
Asia TOPA returns in February 2025 across Melbourne. Stay updated by following Asia TOPA on Facebook and Instagram.
The full 2025 program will be announced on 12 November. For more details, visit asiatopa.com.au.
