Rising Sun Festival (Ballan, Australia) 2027

Rising Sun returns to Phoenix Park at Ballan from 15 to 18 January 2027, four days in the bush an hour west of Melbourne. The organisers describe it as a weekend of music, art, performance, wellness, learning and play, which is a broader brief than most Australian festivals take on.

That breadth is the identity. Rising Sun programmes workshops and a learning strand alongside the music, with performance and art running through the site, and the audience treats the four days as a retreat rather than a party. Phoenix Park is on the Geelong-Ballan Road, which puts it between Melbourne and Geelong rather than deep in the country.

Tickets are sold through Humanitix. Ballan is around an hour from Melbourne by road and on the V/Line Ballarat train line, which makes it one of the easier Victorian festival sites to reach without a car. Mid January in Victoria is the hottest part of the summer with real fire risk, so site rules matter. For an Australian music festival that programmes beyond the dancefloor, Rising Sun is the one.