Now Or Never Festival 2026: Program

Program

Time Remaining
World Premiere
Chunky Move
Kinetic lasers and light scan bodies in an atmospheric dance, mesmerising and menacing.
Melbourne Town Hall
Wed 19 Aug - Thu 20 Aug

A totalising encounter of lasers and sound.
Melbourne Town Hall
Fri 21 Aug - Thu 27 Aug

Chuleo Club: A.Chal / Slim Soledad / LIZZ / Dinamarca / Zalina
Selling Fast
Rooted in Latinx club sounds, community and underground energy: loud, intimate, unrelenting.
Melbourne Town Hall
Fri 28 Aug | 7:30pm - 2am

MY DISCO / Robin Fox / Jeho Yun + Kyoungjin So
Exclusive
Where industrial force and rhythmic intensity collide.
Melbourne Town Hall
Sun 30 Aug | 5:30pm - 10pm

Finding Figaro: Octave One / Sleep D x Hybrid Man / JNETT / Baby G
Selling Fast
An all-night journey through electronic music's past, present and future, led by the artists shaping it.
Melbourne Town Hall
Sat 29 Aug | 7:30pm - 2am

SOMNIA: William Basinski / Bendik Giske
Sleepover | Australian Premiere | Sold Out
An overnight, durational sleep concert under the Dome featuring landmark works of ambient and experimental music.
Royal Exhibition Building
Sat 22 Aug - Sun 23 Aug | 10pm - 8:30am

Derrick Gee's Radio Hour
Selling Fast
With guests: Julia Jacklin, Michael Kucyk and more
Part music talk show, part communal listening experience - Derrick Gee's Radio Hour transforms Melbourne Recital Centre into a living room full of friends.
Melbourne Recital Centre - Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Wed 26 Aug | 7pm - 8:30pm

A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET
Mindy Seu
A communal ritual with the internet's sexual historian.
State Library Victoria - La Trobe Reading Room
Tue 25 Aug | 7:30pm - 9pm

From the Dhungala to the Birrarung: Water is Life
Free
ENOKi
The city's best-known landmarks become living waterways in two dynamic projections lighting up the city.
Melbourne Town Hall Facade & Flinders Street Station Facade
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 30 Aug | 6pm - 10pm

Revivification
Exclusive
Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson, Stuart Hodgetts and Matt Gingold in collaboration with Alvin Lucier
What happens to creativity when it is no longer bound to a living body?
Melbourne Town Hall - Swanston Hall
Fri 21 Aug - Sat 29 Aug

Revivification: Artist Talk
Free
Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson, Stuart Hodgetts and Matt Gingold
From organoids to AI: Can creativity exist outside the body?
Melbourne Town Hall - Yarra Room
Sat 22 Aug | 2pm - 3:15pm

The Falls Before Us
Free | World Premiere
Emily Parsons-Lord
Evan Walker Bridge vanishes in a mist.
Evan Walker Bridge
Thu 20 Aug - Sun 30 Aug | 6pm - 10pm

Philip Glass: Piano Etudes + In the Upper Room
Exclusive | Sold Out
Performed by Maki Namekawa + Orchestra Victoria
A unique concert experience celebrating the legacy of visionary composer Philip Glass.
Royal Exhibition Building
Fri 21 Aug | 7:30pm - 9:45pm

The Breath Haus x Now or Never
Exclusive | Sold Out
With performance by Daniel and David Wilfred
Take a deep breath. Reboot your system.
Royal Exhibition Building
Sat 22 Aug | 4:30pm - 7pm

XYZZY REDUX
Free | Exclusive
Jess Johnson, Simon Ward
Enter the wormhole.
Hamer Hall Facade
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 30 Aug

Cory Doctorow: Enshittification
Sold Out
This is not a glitch. This is the creeping decay of the platforms we rely on, and what it might take to reclaim our digital future.
The Capitol
Tue 25 Aug | 7pm - 8:15pm

First Nations Futures
Axel Garay, April Phillips, Allara Briggs Pattison and Hayden Ryan
What happens when story, technology, and imagination converge into tools of cultural agency?
The Capitol
Mon 24 Aug | 6:30pm - 7:45pm

Gut Health, Essendon Airport, Wrong Way Up, crank
Dance-punk, Afro-disco and DIY art-pop find common ground on the dancefloor.
The Curtin
Fri 21 Aug | 7pm - 11:30pm

skip-a-beat transmedia takeover
Exclusive
Spryk x Dave Court (Live A/V), Chor Bazaar, Mowgli, Primary Thug, CNTRL V, Neural Natak & More
Mumbai meets Melbourne in a celebration of the creative currents connecting the two cities.
Max Watt's
Fri 21 Aug | 8pm - 2am

Nai Palm's Inner Orbit
Exclusive
Nai Palm (DJ Set), Cazeaux OSLO, Lori, Chino, Silentjay, Poli-Pearl & Kuzich
The Grammy-nominated songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist hosts an all-night party with some talented friends.
Angel Music Bar
Thu 20 Aug | 9pm - 4am

GG
World Premiere
Conjah + PSEUDO
A world premiere street dance x gaming performance that reworks contracts of embodiment and agency through world-building logics of gaming. GG.
Arts House
Wed 26 Aug - Sun 30 Aug

Networked Flesh
World Premiere
Megan Beckwith
Dancers and digital entities slip between what is and isn't human.
Studio 221, Building 864, Victorian College of the Arts
Wed 26 Aug - Fri 28 Aug

Wrapped or Warped? The State of Music Criticism
Sosefina Fuamoli, Sarah Smith, Al Newstead, Simon Winkler
Unpack how criticism, taste and cultural authority are shifting in an era shaped by algorithms, platforms and endless opinion.
The Wheeler Centre
Wed 19 Aug | 6:30pm - 7:45pm

Long March: Restart
Free
Feng Mengbo
Play your way through an immersive reimagination of Chinese history.
ACMI
19 Aug 2026 - 31 Jan 2027 | 10am - 5pm daily

Play On
Free
Craig Duturbure, Brie Healy and Ratmouse Games
Retro arcade nostalgia gets a reboot.
ACMI
Mon 24 Aug 2026 - Sun 31 Jan 2027 | 10am - 5pm daily

Library Up Late x Now or Never
Mindy Meng Wang + Tim Shiel / Yoyo Munk / Misklectic / Harry J. Dee / Luca Bade / Haus of Ralph + House Muma / Vei Tan / Patrick Macasaet / Book Doof
Experience the Library after dark as memory, music and speculative futures collide.
State Library Victoria
Fri 21 Aug | 7:30pm - 10:30pm

Technology at the Threshold: Artist Talk
Free
Jeho Yun, Kyoungjin So + Robin Fox with Dr Emily Siddons
A conversation on ritual, technology and the moment of crossing over.
Melbourne Town Hall - Yarra Room
Sat 29 Aug | 3pm - 4pm

Ghosts in the Machine: Artist Talk
Free
Haejung Jung + HKASON with Dr Emily Siddons
Where does the self end and the machine begin?
Melbourne Town Hall - Yarra Room
Thu 20 Aug | 6:15pm - 7:15pm

Knot Protocol / 매듭 프로토콜
Free | World Premiere
HKASON 하카손
A kinetic sculpture possessed by an algorithm mutates its own form, over and over.
Melbourne Town Hall Forecourt
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 30 Aug | 7am - 11pm

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Free | World Premiere
Haejung Jung / 정혜정
What it feels like to be a face in a crowd - and to find yourself looking back.
Melbourne Town Hall Forecourt
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 30 Aug | 7am - 11pm

MUTATIONS feat. Mark N, RamonPang (US), DJ Scorpion, Niph x Insula (Live A/V), Mai
The internet's favourite dance music historian takes over Melbourne's hottest club.
Miscellania
Sat 22 Aug | 8pm - 3am

Yedabila Habitat Pod Workshop & Planting
Free | Sold Out
Kai Lane
Care for Country, woven by hand.
Westgate Park
Sun 30 Aug | 10am - 12:30pm

Friday Night Social: Wild Circuits
Free
A night of improvised sonic chaos at this free exhibition and late night party.
Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne
Fri 28 Aug | 6pm - 9pm

EMERGENCE[Y]
Free
How do we adapt to a world in flux?
Science Gallery at the University of Melbourne
Sat 6 Jun - Sat 5 Dec

The Secret Life of Soil
Hannah Moloney, Simon Hinkley, hosted by Hilary Harper
Discover a hidden ecosystem beneath our feet holding environmental futures in delicate balance.
Melbourne Museum Foyer
Thu 20 Aug | 7pm - 9pm

Shine Caught Blue
Free
Robbie Avenaim
A new collaborative work of human and robotic percussion with the iconic Federation Bells.
Federation Bells
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 30 Aug

Transmissions at SIGNAL
Free
Liwen Lian with Anh Tran
An immersive sonic dialogue between the city and the river.
SIGNAL
Thu 20 Aug - Sun 23 Aug
Thu 27 Aug - Sun 30 Aug

Melbourne Conversations: The God We Made
Free | Sold Out
Anna Goldsworthy
The threat and promise of artificial intelligence.
Fed Square - The Edge
Thu 27 Aug | 6pm - 7:30pm

Queer PowerPoint
Free | Sold Out
Stayci Taylor, Julia Croft, Jean Hinchliffe and Jacob Coppedge
The hottest nerd night of the year.
Fed Square - The Edge
Fri 28 Aug | 7pm - 9pm

The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up
Sold Out
Singing Chen
Venture to the cutting edge of XR in this haunting, reality-bending pilgrimage between digital worlds and a living forest.
ACMI
Wed 19 Aug - Sun 23 Aug | 10am - 9:15pm