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Melbourne Festival

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Rising co-artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek at the 2023 festival.

Melbourne’s biggest arts festival closes this weekend. Its future is in doubt

Rising is the biggest cultural event in Victoria and receives millions in government funding, with ambitions to rival the Australian Open and Grand Prix.

  • Meg Watson

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Rachael Fleming nose dives during the Birdman Rally at Moomba 2023.  

Birdman Rally contestants taunt gravity and come off second best

Even Rachael Fleming, an actual pilot-in-training and whose family operates a flight school, plummeted nose-first into the river.

  • Jackson Graham
Rhonda Burchmore and Robert Mills.

Millsy and Rhonda, king and queen of Melbourne’s wholesome Moomba

Melbourne hipsters and Sydney smarties have long enjoyed lampooning Moomba as a slightly daggy leftover from another age, yet it remains the most popular of free community festivals.

  • Tony Wright
Sue Nattrass.

Arts pioneer Sue Nattrass remembered as a trailblazer

A pioneer in the male-dominated arts industry, she is remembered as tenacious, generous and a moral compass for many.

  • Kerrie O'Brien
Our reviewer’s biggest regret: not catching Sampa the Great.

So that was our first Rising arts festival. Did it live up to the hype?

Dance lovers had plenty of reasons to kick up their heels, the music program was expansive – but theatre was patchy and the White Night side was a damp squib.

  • Cameron Woodhead
The winners of the Decorated Canoe competition.

From the Archives, 1921: Melbourne’s Henley-on-Yarra River Festival

Melbourne’s Henley-on-Yarra regatta was established in 1904, modelled on England’s famous Henley-on-Thames rowing event. More a picnic and promenade day than a rowing event, Melbourne’s annual regatta regularly drew crowds of up to 300,000. It remained one of the main events on the city’s social calendar into the 1950s.

  • Staff writers
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The Age, Arts.Chunky Move dancers, CM director Antony Hamilton plus RISING directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek.

Melbourne’s titanic new arts festival to transform the city

Sidney Myer Music Bowl will transform into a bamboo forest maze, and a secret venue will create the energy of an old-school rave: two of the 133 RISING events in May and June.

  • Nick Miller
Crowd from White Night Melbourne 2014

Epic new winter arts festival put on ice till 2021

Melbourne Festival, which will replace the old International Arts Festival and White Night, had planned big public events and installations.

  • Nick Miller
Special guest ... comedian Celeste Barber will walk the runway at VAMFF.

Fun meets fashion's hot topics in this year's Melbourne festival

Having met the challenges of sustainability, diversity, inclusion and transparency, Melbourne's fashion festival is adding fun to the mix.

  • Rachelle Unreich
Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at the premiere of Good Omens in London last year.

Ten things you never knew about Neil Gaiman: Secrets shared in Perth show

Given the sell-out crowd of 1700, Neil Gaiman’s conversation with us at Perth Concert Hall on Sunday night felt strangely intimate.

  • Emma Young

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/melbourne-festival-5ze