Melbourne’s Rising festival a feast for the senses

After two false starts, Melbourne’s winter festival has officially launched, and has reimagined the city in surprising and adventurous ways.

Gideon Obarzanek, artist Paul Yore and Hanna Fox. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The opening of Melbourne’s Rising festival last Wednesday night coincided with a new moon and with the first day of winter. It certainly felt like it. Visitors arrived at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl for the official welcome wearing scarves and winter coats, their cheeks glowing from the brisk wind and rain outside.

The festival’s epicentre is a winter garden called The Wilds that has taken shape in and around the Music Bowl. On the stage (and under cover) is an ice-skating rink where people can book tickets for skating sessions. Overhead are brightly coloured inflatable sculptures, like amoebas and tentacles with eyes, while large LED screens show animations of lolly-coloured molecules drifting through space. A community choir starts singing 80s hits by Whitney Houston and Toto, and despite the drizzle and cold, the mood is inexplicably joyous.

Outside, people are buying food and drinks at pop-up stands by some of Melbourne’s on-trend food stops such as 1800 Lasagne, and eat their meals while sitting around open fires. Walking around the site, you might encounter a parade of silent costumed figures dressed head to toe in tulle and satin, and elaborate, brilliantly lit bamboo sculptures by Leeroy New.

In a specially constructed restaurant called the Lighthouse, visitors can sip spiced, warm cocktails and then enjoy a four-course dinner of local produce – including winter vegetables, fried mussels, grilled beef flank and smoked celeriac with truffle – by chef David Moyle with Matt Stone. The wines are matched by boutique wine shop Blackhearts and Sparrows.

Rising has finally and definitely risen after two false starts because of Covid. The first edition in 2020 was cancelled in the early months of the pandemic. Last year’s was open for barely a day when Melbourne went into yet another lockdown. It’s been a trial of endurance for artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek, who nevertheless have put together a program to challenge and delight the senses.

The Wilds represents the festival in microcosm, in which a beloved Melbourne landmark is transformed with activities, site-specific sculpture and creative interventions. It fits in with Rising’s ethos of being a festival that encourages participation, not passivity.

“We looked at things that are intrinsically Melbourne, and tried to use the Bowl in a way that it hasn’t been used before,” Obarzanek says. “It’s an experiential space, where people are part of the event rather than just onlookers.”

Fox adds: “We really thought about Rising as a festival to be explored and interwoven into the public space. It creates a sense of critical mass and visibility for audiences, but it also offers a layer of deeper dives for the more adventurous.”

The pattern can be seen elsewhere in the city. In Chinatown, the Golden Square car park has been turned a contemporary art gallery, with installations by, among others, photographer Atong Atem, video artist Tabita Rezaire, and performance artist Scotty So (seen in hologram).

On the upper level is a rooftop bar and a large installation by Paul Yore, Seeing is Believing but Feeling is the Truth. It takes the form of a garishly illuminated shrine under a dome-like structure, with neon slogans, found objects and flashing lights. Like some of Yore’s other installations, it achieves its effect through excess, being a critique of consumerism and reductive, populist politics.

The Princes Bridge is an ideal spot to watch a laser installation by light and sound artist Robin Fox, called Monochord. Two powerful lasers at opposite reaches of the Yarra converge at the bridge, forming a 1km beam of light. And Patricia Piccinini’s otherworldly creatures have again occupied the ballroom above Flinders Street Station in the exhibition called A Miracle Constantly Repeated.

Like winter-dark festivals in other cities, Rising exists to entice people out of their homes, away from their doonas and binge-TV, and to discover their city in a new way. Vivid Sydney, which started last month, is billed as a festival of light, music, and ideas, and has spectacular illuminations around Circular Quay. Hobart’s Dark Mofo, a spin-off of David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art, taps into a kind of pagan celebration of fire, feasting and darkness. Adelaide last year launched its Illuminate festival, again combining outdoor spectacles and a performing arts program.

Rising is shorter than the others – 12 nights compared with Vivid’s 23, for example – but there are plans to expand to three weeks next year. The festival is a reincarnation of the former Melbourne International Arts Festival, with major funders being Creative Victoria and Visit Victoria. Long-term, the intention is that Rising as a designated major event will attract visitors from across the Asia-Pacific region. The program is expected to grow in scale and ambition, too, and there are partnerships in place with leading international festivals including Manchester International Festival, Holland Festival and the Ruhrtriennale in Germany.

Given the competition among winter festivals in Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide, what sets Rising apart? Fox and Obarzanek say their festival builds upon their city’s long-established credentials for night life, the arts, and food. They have planned the event around well-known Melbourne venues – such as the Music Bowl, the Town Hall, State Library and the Forum Theatre – and have also activated hidden-away and unfamiliar places, such as the ballroom at Flinders Street Station which has been off-limits to the public for decades.

The cultural program has more than 200 events, involving some 800 local and international artists. Performances this week include Sydney Theatre Company’s celebrated production of The Picture of Dorian Gray featuring Eryn Jean Norvill, choreographer Stephanie Lake’s new dance work, Manifesto, and Anna Breckon and Nat Randall’s play with video, Set Piece.

Fox and Obarzanek are especially proud of their commissioning program. At the start of the pandemic two years ago, when the first iteration of Rising was cancelled, they put out a call to Victorian artists to propose new projects. It has produced 26 commissions, including works such as Manifesto, Back to Back Theatre’s Single Channel Video, and a human sculpture called Still Lives, which involved AFL players suspended in bondage rope.

That is to say, Rising has something for everyone. As Obarzanek has observed, he and Fox have now had several attempts at getting the program right. It’s to their credit that they have produced an event with a distinctive character and a template that can be expanded on in future years.

“What’s important is the experience, and the way people access and engage with the festival, as well as the individual shows,” Fox says. “It’s a completely different offering that’s distinctive to Melbourne – a festival you can really participate in.”

Rising continues until June 12, and The Wilds until June 19. Matthew Westwood travelled to Melbourne courtesy of Rising and Visit Victoria.