RISING, Victoria’s “new” premier arts festival has continued to shoot for the stars, but has it ever reached orbit? After a rocky start, including two failed take-offs due to the pandemic, the festival would like us to think so. Following the wrap-up of RISING 2024’s festival program on 16 June, a media release spruiking the festival’s growth and success was distributed to news outlets.
Over 680,000 people attended the festival between 1 and 16 June 2024. However, RISING’s 2023 annual report reveals that this was a decline on last year’s attendance figures of 757,793. While attendance numbers during last year’s “core festival” sat at 630,000, a six-week extension to the highly popular Shadow Spirit exhibition and a three-week extension of The Rink brought about a further 127,000 attendees.
