The festival got underway last night and is scheduled to conclude on Sunday June 6.
RISING festival has been put on pause due to the recent COVID outbreak which has seen Victoria enter lockdown for seven days, commencing from midnight tonight.
As a result of this, any RISING events from 5pm today (Thursday May 27) until Friday June 4 have been cancelled. A decision will be made over the coming week as to whether events from June 4 and June 6 (after the lockdown is scheduled to end) can go ahead.
The festival got underway yesterday with gigs from Augie March, Ed Kuepper and Jim White, while also lifting the veil on its supernatural forest The Wilds, along with other mesmeric installations such as Patricia Piccinini’s A Miracle Constantly Repeated at the Flinders Street Station Ballroom, Chinatown’s Golden Square and the Birrarung’s Wandering Stars.
Keep up with all the fresh festival news, reviews and interviews here.
Other notable events that were set to take place over the coming week or so included SEASONS in Blak Box, the adventure theatre of THIS. and performances from Julia Jacklin, The Necks, Barkaa, Connan Mockasin, The Goon Sax and more.
The decision wasn’t made lightly but was taken out of RISING’s hands, with the state’s lockdown coming in response to a worrying COVID outbreak that saw 11 new cases recorded overnight bringing this particular outbreak to 26 cases alone.
“While today’s developments are devastating, we are buoyed by the sheer resilience of the staff and artists involved with RISING. Together they created something that spoke to Melbourne; something beautiful and beguiling; something extraordinary, for extraordinary times. We could not be prouder,” RISING co-artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek said of the decision.
Refunds will be issued to all ticketholders for events from 5pm today (Thursday May 27) until Friday June 4.
Find out more here.
