Now or Never Returns to Melbourne with 285+ Artists & 30 New Commissions To Premiere

Now or Never, Melbourne’s newest major festival, returns from 21–31 August for its third year with a program spanning art, ideas, sound and technology. Over 11 days, more than 285 local and international artists will transform the city through over 140 free and ticketed events, including 30 new commissions making their Melbourne premiere.

Highlights include a large-scale music program at Melbourne Town Hall and a dramatic reimagining of the Royal Exhibition Building’s interior. Events will take place across iconic venues and public spaces, showcasing boundary-pushing work from artists, changemakers and innovators from around the world.

Program highlights

• A takeover of Melbourne Town Hall with large-scale live music across four nights. The stellar lineup includes: Québécois artist and techno-pop icon Marie Davidson, the Australian premiere of ultratronics by Japanese visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda, New York-based musician DJ Python, Sydney-born and Berlin-based DJ Logic1000, Amsterdam’s Young Marco, and proud Murri woman and rising star Yarra.
• Barcelona-based Studio Penique will present MATRIA, a monumental installation inside the Royal Exhibition Building (REB), in partnership with Museums Victoria. Crafted especially for REB, this major new free interactive installation will transform the grand interior of the building with a towering, monochromatic recycled pink inflatable – creating an entrancing environment that will reverberate with an accompanying soundscape. MATRIA will also host a series of events, including morning breathwork sessions by The Breath Haus and a night-time performance program.
• Dutch artist and composer Boris Acket, renowned for his evocative installations, will unveil Einder – a 20-metre-long kinetic light and sound installation, featuring flowing textiles and immersive soundscapes in atmospheric dialogue with the historic grandeur of Melbourne Town Hall.
• Bidjara/Chinese-Australian contemporary artist Dr Christian Thompson AO will reimagine the Evan Walker Bridge with his largest outdoor installation to date. Burdi Burdi (Fire Fire) is a major sonic installation that will transform the pedestrian crossing into a space for quiet reflection.
• Barcelona-based creative studio Hamill Industries will present DELIRI in partnership with State Library Victoria; a captivating free large-scale façade projection. DELIRI is a fluid, immersive environment where sound, movement and texture converge. Incorporating artificial intelligence, image distortion and flowing reflections captured in-camera, the video mapping will delve into the unknown – deconstructing our understanding of reality.
• A one-night-only art-meets-dining event, Ostro x Einder, with menu design by beloved Melbourne cook and author Julia Busuttil Nishimura. The event will take form as an opulent long-table feast beneath the Einder installation where food, atmosphere, art and nature converge.
• Award-winning scientist and former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery will join ABC Radio National’s Hilary Harper in I Have Seen the Future; a conversation exploring how to hold onto hope in the face of climate catastrophe and the transformations humanity must make to move toward a regenerative future.
• Australia’s first astronaut under the national flag, Katherine Bennell-Pegg, will join astronomer Dr Tania Hill in The Future of Space; a powerful conversation that invites audiences to look skyward. This rare event will feature a screening of a new short film commissioned by the Australian Space Agency, tracing Australia’s past, present and future in space.
• In Charting the Future: First Nations Knowledges and Artificial Intelligence, co-authors of The AI (R)evolution, Associate Professor and sovereign Wiradyuri Wambuul woman Jessica Russ-Smith, and award-winning educator Michelle D. Lazarus will call for an approach to machine learning that is representative, grounded and just. In conversation with Australian science journalist Natasha Mitchell, they will consider the long arc of innovation in Australia – from First Nations knowledge systems and sustainable technologies to the rise of AI.
• ACMI presents Assembly, a documentary by internationally acclaimed artist Rashaad Newsome. Assembly fuses the energy of the Queer underground with sharp political commentary, capturing the behind-the-scenes process of Newsome’s groundbreaking installation, originally presented at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. Told through music, dance, video projections, holograms, sculpture and African fractal patterns, the film will explore an Afrofuturist reality where power, pleasure and resistance collide. Screenings will include a performance from local artists and a live video Q&A with Newsome and filmmaker Johnny Symons.
• Exclusive performances will take place at Melbourne Recital Centre: legendary German electronic music producer Moritz von Oswald will perform his acclaimed album Silencio, featuring a 16-person choir; while celebrated composer and producer Laurel Halo will bring her enigmatic sound to the stage with new grand piano works, alongside Brooklyn-based cellist Leila Bordreuil.
• In a night of expanded cinema and real-time virtual performance, Eora’s new media curators SOFT CENTRE will present PARA.CINE, with two world premiere works. Hearsay by narrm-based artists Eek, Kirby Casilli, and Tina Stefanou is a surreal, immersive reimagining of cinema as a zoological amphitheatre, while New York City’s masters of real-time virtual theatre Team Rolfes will present Team Rolfes & The Mustang Speedrun; a fast-paced audiovisual performance that follows avatar jockeys racing through a surreal world as their exoskeleton malfunctions.

The festival is proud to return in 2025 as a certified carbon-neutral event under the Australian Government’s Climate Activate Program.

Now or Never will run from Thursday 21 to Sunday 31 August. Subscriber pre-sale begins at 12pm Thursday 19 June, with general tickets on sale from 12pm Monday 23 June.

Now or Never thanks its valued partners, including Event Partners: Resident Advisor, ACMI, Arts House, Centre for Projection Art, Chamber Made, Fed Square, Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne International Film Festival, Museums Victoria, State Library Victoria, RMIT, Science Gallery, Soft Centre and the Wheeler Centre; and Media Partners: Beat, Broadsheet and PBS 106.7FM.

More information: nowornever.melbourne.vic.gov.au