After making the decision to pause the festival last week, in light of the lockdown extension, RISING will be cancelling its final days.
RISING festival has cancelled the remaining days of its inaugural 2021 event as Melbourne has its lockdown extended another seven days.
Last week, in light of Victoria’s worsening COVID situation, RISING had to pause the festival, cancelling any events that took place from 5pm on Thursday May 27 until Friday June 4.
What you need to know
- After initially pausing its 2021 instalment, RISING has cancelled the remainder of the festival due to the extending Melbourne lockdown
- While its inaugural event hasn’t carried out as planned, the festival will explore other ways audiences can experience 2021 RISING activity into the future
- Refunds will be issued to all RISING ticketholders
Keep up with all the festival news, reviews and interviews here.
While it had a weekend of events still to run from June 4 to June 6, unfortunately these events won’t be able to go ahead either.
“Created by literally hundreds of artists, most of the shows and events for the festival were made during previous lockdowns or heavy restrictions,” RISING co-artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek said in a statement.
“So while this current outcome is not unexpected, we are devastated by how this present COVID outbreak and lockdown has impacted the thousands of people working on our festival and the many hundreds of thousands of people unable to attend. Our commitment to artists and audiences however remains adamant and with continued resilience we look forward to a future when they can come together again.”
With it being Reconciliation Week, in the spirit of amplifying First Peoples, RISING’s sonic artwork The River Sing will continue, echoing through the Melbourne skies at sunset. The Birrarung will also continue to light up each night with the Wandering Stars and Ancestral Memory installations.
While its 2021 event hasn’t carried out as planned, the festival will explore other ways audiences can experience 2021 RISING activity into the future. Refunds will be issued to all RISING ticketholders.
If you’re in a position to support RISING, you can donate to the festival here.
