The future of Melbourne’s flagship arts festival, Rising, is unclear with organisers expressing concern over a failure to renew a crucial agreement with the Victorian government and mounting speculation its funding will be slashed. Rising, which opened on June 1 and runs through to Sunday, is one of the country’s largest contemporary arts festivals, programming a range of live shows, dance performances and music. Rising co-artistic directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek at the 2023 festival.
Credit: Wayne Taylor Organisers are hailing this year’s event as the most successful yet, with sales across the entire program of theatre, music and dance up from last year. After the festival’s opening weekend, Rising ticket sales had hit 85 per cent of their box office target. But as artists and organisers celebrate closing night on Sunday, they have no firm idea about the festival’s future.
A crucial five-year agreement with state government funding bodies Creative Victoria and Visit Victoria is yet to be secured, despite expectations that it would be finalised in December last year. That delay, as well the drastically different position of the state budget in 2019 (when the first agreement was signed) compared to now, has led to concerns within Rising, and the wider Melbourne’s arts community, that its overall funding is likely to be reduced. Loading “Needless to say, [a funding cut] would have a substantial impact on the audiences we could reach and the Australian ar.