Rising (stylised RISING) is a city-wide arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia. The festival was announced in 2020 as Melbourne's premier arts and culture festival, replacing the Melbourne International Arts Festival and White Night Festival, and is supported by the Victoria State Government. Following two attempts to launch the festival in 2020 and 2021 disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Rising has been held annually each June in Melbourne from 2022. The festival has received praise for the depth and variety of its events and First Nations programming, whilst also receiving critiques about its ability to capture the purpose and identity of its predecessors.

Rising festivals include a mixture of music, performing arts, dance, and art in their programming. The festival has been noted for including a focus on site-specific installations and performances that transform the precincts of inner-city Melbourne and experimental works that are "immersive or ephemeral" in nature.^[19]

Rising has received praise for its breadth of programming and involvement of First Nations artists, and also critique towards the festival's overall identity and stated purpose. Kristen Hé of NME commended the 2023 festival for its "extensive [and] diverse roster", describing the festival as having an appeal that elevated it from its counterparts due to the "abundance of ways in which it makes the city come to life",^[23] and Karen Gwee similarly highlighted the 2022 festival for its "thoughtful and varied approach to programming" and being "more sprawling and free-floating" than a typical festival, although noting its broad roster and timeframe made the festival occasionally feel "atomised" and incohesive.^[24] Jane Howard of ABC noted that the 2022 festival was a "smaller" and "gentler" festival compared to its predecessors, noting that its "unexpected discoveries" and "small interventions" had positively "changed the shape of the city", but described the fesetival as having "missteps" and "teething issues" due to the "underwhelming" nature of some of the installations.^[18] Writing for The Conversation, Sarah Austin highlighted the 2023 festival's "significant and thrilling work" by First Nations artists, but believed the festival had "yet to establish what kind of intervention it is making in our cultural conversation".^[25]

Some critics were less positive in their assessment of the festival's impact. Describing the festival as facing an "identity crisis", Cameron Woodhead of The Age praised the 2023 festival's "extensive live music program"which was curated by rising’s Music director Hayley Percy and leading role of First Nations artists, but critiqued the festival, stating "it lacks an articulated purpose", "clashes with established interstate festivals", such as Dark Mofo and Vivid Sydney, and was yet to reconcile the "conflicting missions" of predecessors White Night and the Melbourne Festival.^[26] First expecting that the festival may be a "refreshing change" to the "bare" arts calendar caused by the pandemic and end of previous festivals,^[27] Karen van Ulzen of Dance Australia later considered the 2022 festival to be a "disappointment" and "need a rethink" due to its contrast with the events and tone of White Night and Melbourne Festival, unclear name and branding as an arts festival, and poor weather in part due to the winter timing.^[28]