Melbourne launching new festival, RISING, to showcase Victorian artists and celebrate city

The majestic ballroom above Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station has been closed to the public for 35 years.

But from late May, as part of a new arts festival being launched in Melbourne, the space will be transformed into a multi-sensory experience, along with 15 other adjacent and secret rooms on the station’s top floor.

“It’s just a journey — it’s many, many different spaces,” artist Patricia Piccinini said of her exhibition A Miracle Constantly Repeated.

RISING will include 133 events and projects, featuring more than 750 Victorian artists, over 12 nights from May 26 to June 6.

The festival claims to be one of the largest showcases of local art in the state’s history.

Among the highlights of the festival are a “naked disco for one”…