Emerge Festival Melbourne

The Emerge Festival Melbourne is a massive celebration, street party and multi-cultural event.

It showcases the contributions of refugees and emerging artists from the most recently arrived communities - Africa, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and beyond - to our culture and city life.

You can hang out, dance, eat and enjoy the vibrant music and verve that these cultures bring to us:

Ethiopian jazz and roots music, Sudanese song and dance, Congolese gospel, Burundian drums, Somali dance, Senegalese beats, traditional Maori music, hip hop by indigenous artists and Sudanese, Zimbabwean and Rwandan crews, African drumming, Colombian ballads, body percussion, Ethiopian dance, hula, poi and other workshops…

It is a vibrant feast and celebration of the resilience and life of the people of this earth.

It is held in Fitzroy on three stages with non-stop world music, cultural workshops, Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, story telling, henna tattoos, kids’ activities, foods from around the globe and a vibrant market place.

The Emerge festival in actual fact goes over six weeks with a series of amazing performances, events and unique cultural experiences encompassing music, dance, visual arts, film, exotic foods, ancient crafts and ceremonies happening all over Melbourne.

It unearths the incredible talents refugees have brought to Australia and provides an opportunity for us to share and celebrate these rich and undiscovered cultures from Africa to the Far East, from the traditional to the contemporary.

There are art exhibitions and a Refugee Fine Art Prize, with paintings, drawings and other visual art by refugee artists. Emerge Festival