Wintertime Melbourne hasn’t felt this alive in years. And that’s thanks to Rising.

After two winters spent more or less confined to our homes – and trackies – the opening of the momentous new arts festival on Wednesday night, after a false start last year, was triumphant. Icy temperatures and on-and-off downpours were no real deterrent.

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl’s centrestage ice-skating rink was a sea of puffer jackets, with the first visitors cutting up laps beneath giant, outlandish inflatable creatures. All the while a 90-strong choir, the Night Chorus, belted out certified bangers from the ’80s and ’90s.

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In Chinatown, local artist Paul Yore’s neon funhouse, Seeing Is Believing, but Feeling Is the Truth – full of garish, kitschy, collage-like works – engulfed those at Golden Square. Rising’s complete transformation of a usually unremarkable CBD car park is unmissable.

Meanwhile, high-octane Zambian rapper – and former Melburnian – Sampa The Great made a hotly anticipated return home to set The Forum alight, opening the festival’s bumper music program with her genre-bending project An Afro Future.

And that’s just the start. Consult our comprehensive guide to find out how to make the most of what’s still to come in the next two weeks.

Rising Festival runs until June 12 across Melbourne.

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