If you thought Rising’s 2025 program – featuring Suki Waterhouse, Japanese Breakfast, “festival-within-a-festival” Day Tripper, mini-golf in Flinders Street Station Ballroom and more – couldn’t get any bigger or more explosive, think again. With the festival returning in just a month, new additions have been added to the already stellar line-up.

The biggest new announcement is Blockbuster, an all-day Punjabi party featuring South Asian acts performing in Australia for the first time. They include Faris Shafi, the Pakistani rapper behind 2024 viral hit Blockbuster which gives the Fed Square takeover its name. He’s joined by Annural Khalid, fusing R&B and pop with a Desi twist; brother duo Zain Zohaib, who carry on the family tradition of qawwali (Sufi Islamic devotional singing); rock and Bollywood composer Xulfi; and Sherry Khattak, lead singer of Lahore alt rock act Karakoram. There’ll be food trucks on the day, all splashed with kaleidoscopic art by Pakistani painter Haider Ali, and you can customise your own clothes or tote with Pakistani block printing, or learn the basics of a bhangra beat on a dhol drum.

In their last hometown show before touring Europe, anarchic rockers Tropical Fuck Storm will fill The Forum with their soaring harmonies, funky style and stuttering guitar-play, performing from their new album Fairyland Codex. Also on the music front, producer Matthew Barnes brings his solo project Forest Swords back to Australia for the first time in a decade. He’ll be talking full advantage of the giant cinema screen at ACMI, performing live to an HD backdrop of post-industrial landscapes.

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Night Trade, Rising’s free nightly party at The Capitol and Howey Place, returns with plenty of drinking, dining and dancing from early evening till late. More acts have now been announced, including Rising Star Karaoke with party starters Mummy’s Plastic and performers Rose KB and Grace Connors. Watch out for appearances by Saedog, a giant inflatable costume of a cartoonish (and at times menacing) dog by Tokyo-based artist Saeborg.

Also new to the Night Trade line-up are Music in Exile, taking over the decks on opening night; Nyege Nyege Collective bringing five Afro-galactic artists to Melbourne on the King’s Birthday long weekend. On weekend two, enjoy funky Italo house tunes from Disco Mediterranea plus reggae, dancehall and dub from New York’s Blazer Sound System.

Unflappable local comedian Zoë Coombs Marr is hosting a live, late-night taping of Wrap It Up, an hour-long variety show featuring some of the best and most exciting acts on Rising’s roster (along with a cheeky puppet, maybe). You can watch it live at Max Watt’s or stream it on the Grouse House Youtube channel. Guests will be announced closer to the festival.

Those boots are made for dancin’, so slip them on along with your cowboy hats for the Country Struts Winter Hoedown, a huge linedancing class at Melbourne Town Hall. Abigail Varney and Alice Glenn (No Lights, No Lycra) have been hosting these joyous classes across town, so this isn’t their first rodeo.

We already know American filmmaker and author Miranda July is contributing to Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf, a playable art show with nine holes designed by female artists. Now she’ll also be the subject of a film retrospective at ACMI. The All Fours novelist’s screen works are being celebrated with a film season that includes features like Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future and Kajillionaire; factual and early works; Madeline’s Madeline, which July stars in; and Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, a documentary July narrated about two French volcanologists who are partners in both love and work.

Finally, it’s the return of Moon Bites. Top eateries around the festival area are putting on new dishes and set menus just for Rising. Get four courses (including steak and cheese bao, prawn toast and barbequed Padron peppers) at Aru; miso-braised lamb and a classic chocolate pudding with vanilla ice-cream at Dom’s Social Club; focaccia and miso butter with either white duck ragu pappardelle or baked pasta with Napoli sauce, scamorza and parmesan at Elio’s Place. Meanwhile, at Mesa Verde, grab a spread of guacamole, salmon tostadas, mushroom skewers and crispy school prawns at; have your choice of two or three courses (with salmon sashimi, barbequed chicken teriyaki and Wagyu brisket) at Kisume; or go for flatbread, onion pakora, hot roasted chicken and wood oven-roasted potatoes at Pirate Life.

Phew, what a mouthful. Tickets are on sale now.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Rising, which runs from June 4–15, 2025.