Melbourne International Arts Festival

The Festival asked some of the world’s finest singers to reflect on our theme of spirituality and mortality with the question: ‘Which seven songs would you leave behind?’ The result is this unforgettable night of music.

The world seen through the eyes of Charles Darwin forms the basis for the performance Tomorrow, in a year, a revolutionary electronic feast for the senses from Danish contemporary opera auteurs Hotel Pro Forma.

This Festival all eyes will be on the sky for outdoor Argentine-Spanish theatre troupe Grupo Puja!’s for K@osmos, a breathtaking aerial extravaganza for the whole family to enjoy.

Tokyo-based choreographer, dancer, sound artist and lighting designer Hiroaki Umeda brings to the Festival two of his recent installations for body, sound and light, both created and performed by him.

With An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar Taryn Simontakes the viewer behind closed doors to uncover some extraordinary things inside places usually hidden from the public’s view.

An Anthology of Optimism is an engaging and entertaining lecture-performance exploring the idea of critical optimism in our contemporary.

Get a glimpse of the photographers behind the camera with two documentaries about two of the artists featured in Heide Museum of Modern Art’s Up Close exhibition

Bill Viola In Conversation offers a rare opportunity to hear one of the world's most renowned contemporary artists discuss his remarkable work.

The Beck's Festival Bar program opens with Japan's iconoclastic experimental music unit Bordeoms, supported by the ever-changing all-instrumental art-rock outfit Kes Band and freakoids Bum Creek.

The Calder Quartet is renowned for performing traditional quartet repertoire as well as partnering with modern composers, emerging musicians and performers across genres.

From Finucane & Smith, the world's pre-eminent purveyors of provocactive variety and intimate spectacle, including the award-winning The Burlesque Hour, comes a world of mysterious entertainment. 

Michael Clark Company’s playful and provocative smash hit come, been and gone is set to be this year’s must-see Melbourne Festival event.

Get ready to rock as US heavy psychedelic rock group Dead Meadow are joined by Sri Lankan extreme metal ensemble Stigmata, making their Australian debut, and experimental psych lords Blarke Bayer/Black Widow.

Enjoy a Festival surfing safari with Dengue Fever's psychedlic take on the Cambodian pop sounds of the '60s. Joining them are new surf rock outfit The Break and cosmic surf riders Johnnie and the Johnnie Johnnies.

Dying in Spite of the Miraculous reveals the shadowy outlines that bleed between worlds, where artists become inseparable from their haunting of a site or a story.

Inspired by nature, en masse is part concert, part film, part installation and a unique Festival experience.

epi-thet uses data from public domain genetic databases to create sound and image in an extraordinary composition contemplating the exquisite beauty in science.

Wherever you look this Festival you'll discover exquisite lighting installations designed to bring some more spark to your 2010 Festival experience.

Scottish artist and Turner prize nominee, Nathan Coley erects his famous message sculpture Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens on the ACCA Forecourt.

As part of the Beck’s Festival Bar series, tin&ed will apply their unique brand of careful yet chaotic installation and sculpture to the many nooks, crannies, archways and windows of the Forum Theatre.

The latest creation from the multi-award winning Melbourne-based ensemble Ranters Theatre is a thought-provoking exploration of what the most humble of interactions can reveal to us.

Aboriginal elder and one of Australia’s most highly regarded performers Jack Charles brings his entertaining and uplifting story to the stage in Jack Charles V The Crown.

Multi-award winning writer Daniel Keene’s latest work is an eccentric fable about taking up residence and trying to move on. Keene creates a genteel purgatory out of a small rundown hotel with warmth, sympathy and a great deal of humour.

Join stalwarts of the US indie music scene, Low, in a special one-off Australian performance. Supporting Low are dynamic four-piece Pikelet and the tropical synth-pop project Ponzu Island,

After appearances around the world with The Black Arm Band Ursula Yovich brings her soulful one-woman cabaret show to the Festival.

Finish your Festival with this upbeat celebratory gig, as LA-based punk band The Bronx bring their alter ego Mariachi El Bronx to Melbourne. Joining the fun are refined and chaotic eight-piece group Eagle & The Worm and the crooning, swooning Ukeladies.

The daytime Melbourne Festival Artists In Conversation series allows you behind the scenes access into the ideas and inspiration of the artists involved in this year’s Festival.

From the cradle to the grave! ACCA’s major exhibition Mortality, curated by Juliana Engberg, takes us on life’s journey from the moment of lift off to the final send off, and all the bits in between.

Join John Cale for an intimate evening of music, multimedia and a good old fashioned chat about this influential artist's incredible career.

Northern Trax is a series of performance installations delivered by the crew from Anti Racism Action Band based on their own lives in Melbourne’s Zone 2.

For the 2010 Melbourne Festival, emerging Indigenous artist Bindi Cole has curated an ambitious exhibition exploring contemporary Aboriginal spirituality in an urban world.

Bring the family to discover more about Aboriginal culture at the Nyah-bunyar Discovery at ArtPlay.

Toneelgroep Amsterdam brings new meaning to the term ‘in-your-face’ with its techno-centric theatrical treatment of the 1977 John Cassavetes film classic Opening Night.

Register yourself or your group to be a participant in the Pop-Up Project and help create an exciting and surprising Festival event!

The latest performance work from artist David Chesworth is an evocative exploration of the limits of representation and direct action.

Rap and hip hop fans are in for a real treat as the reigning agent provocateur of hip hop, Sage Francis, heads to the Beck's Festival Bar with special guest B. Dolan. Support comes from four-time Australian DMC champ Dexter and Sydney duo Horrorshow.

The Australian Art Orchestra brings to the Festival two new multimedia works, including the world premiere of Soak, in a concert to excite contemporary music lovers.

Irish theatre company Gare St Lazare Players Ireland have adapted Beckett’s seminal fictional trilogy into a three-hour tour de force performance that vividly captures the subtlety, humour and despair of this literary masterpiece and masterfully brings the original works to life on the stage.

Take a magical journey to modern China for a heart-wrenching love story told with legendary Robert Lepage’s striking theatrical vision.

Local heros The Drones bring their unique sound to Beck's Festival Bar for a gig supported by P.K.14, one of the most influential bands on the Chinese indie scene, and loveable Melbourne scallywags The Twerps.

AES+F’s The Feast of Trimalchio features a set of three expansive photographic tableaux portraying opulence and excess overshadowed by a dark uneasiness.

Experience video artist Bill Viola’s interpretation of The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault as part of the Festival’s celebration of this renowned artist’s work.

For The Solo Projects, Melbourne-based artists Jensen Tjhung and Sean Loughrey each construct a room within a room to create intense and immersive viewing experiences.

The Festival’s Adès celebration begins with his landmark collaboration with the innovative US string group, the Calder Quartet.

One of Britain’s greatest living composers, Thomas Adès conducts the internationally renowned Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring some of Adès’ most acclaimed work.

Thomas Adès directs musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music in a program of his own music and of music close to his heart.

Sharing an interest in sub-cultural groups and individuals on the margins of society, each artist reveals a remarkable capacity to provide an empathetic glimpse into semi-private worlds through intimate depictions of people and their surroundings.

The exhilarating world premiere production from internationally acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan promises a visually inspiring and spiritually profound experience.

Over six evenings the Wheeler Centre comes to the Festival with big conversations about big questions. Discussion of ideas never felt so much like a matter of life and death.

Legendary member of The Velvet Underground and acclaimed composer John Cale performs his seminal solo album, Paris 1919 and dips into his extensive songbook in a spectacular live performance accompanied by members of his band and Orchestra Victoria.