The DMTeasers arrive at Sleepless Festival 2025 for a surprise sneak peak of their upcoming EP 'Theatre Sports'.
Supported by Ctrl + Me, Dan Sullivan from Garage Sale & other surprise guest artists at Footscray's hidden gem arts space 'The Rest of Us', don't miss out on this intimate twilight event of indie pop and singer/songwriter magic!
Entry via donation!
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Sleepless Footscray Charity which supports the local Footscray community through art activation projects in unused spaces for public safety and social inclusion.
THINK LOVE, THINK LIMINAL, THINK UNLIMITED
Have you ever partied in a retro shopping centre? Find your ticket to the offical Celebrates Africa Afterparty in MetroWest Shopping Center which is to becoming the late night spot on 17th Of May.
Join in for 3 stages of live goodness and music from all across the globe and rooted to experimentation and love.
Expect performance and live visuals brightening up the Atrium in the heart of Footscray for a very special night. Interactive collaborative spaces where we can meet and create together.
Full line up coming soon.
Get hands on with 3D scanning and creating your own virtual environments in this entry-level artist workshop.
Learn how to use your smartphone to create 3D copies of real world objects, and browser based XR software to create new worlds to be experienced in VR and AR.
Get a behind behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Door In Question, and the design challenges of working in large-scale XR.
The workshop is designed for traditional media artists, designers, and enthusiasts, interested in experimenting with 3D Environments, Augmented (like Pokemon Go) and Virtual Reality. You will learn how to make virtual 3D copies of physical objects, and reassemble them digitally to create new spaces. The workshop is designed to be entry-level, with no presumed knowledge, and no-stakes (we love the messy, broken, and accidental).
The workshop is hosted by new media artist and lecturer Lucian Rodriguez Lovell (RMIT), who helped develop the Mixed Reality component of The Door In Question.
Melbourne Nocturnal Film Festival (MNFF) is an annual festival celebrating weird and wonderfully offbeat short films, created by Australian filmmakers.
In collaboration with Sleepless Footscray, MNFF 2025 presents 2 days of film screenings and events right in the heart of Footscray!
As part of the 2025 Sleepless Festival Footscray, “Footscray Celebrates Africa” will transform Nicholson Street Mall into a vibrant cultural street party on Saturday May 17th — a free, all-ages event.
This high-energy celebration features a stellar lineup of artists, including the electrifying Jarabi Band, the powerful Mandé Spirit ensemble, the dance-inducing Seben Brothers, and the explosive Wala - Is Life. Legendary PBS broadcaster Stani Goma will host the festivities, with vinyl spun by an interstitial DJ keeping the rhythm alive throughout the day.
Visitors will be immersed in African culture through live music, dance performances and educational performances describing the evolution of Afro-Funk — all set in the heart of Footscray’s bustling city centre.
More than just a festival, this free public event is a joyful expression of cultural pride, unity, and education through celebration. It creates space for connection and conversation, shining a light on the diversity of the African continent — its languages, traditions, and histories — and the vibrant role it plays in shaping Footscray’s cultural identity.
Delivered through integral support and partnership with West Gate Tunnel Project and Maribyrnong City Council, this special event marks a cornerstone of the 2025 Sleepless Festival Footscray, with a mission to celebrate, uplift, and connect the community through the arts.
Brace yourselves for a night of sonic expansion served to you by some of Melbourne’s most unique electronic hardware synthesists and drummers.
A 100% live offering, Dream Particle will be diving deep into lush ambient soundscapes, glitchy modular textures, dance beats and tripped-out synthesis with primitive drums that will transport you to your wildest dreams.
About the Artists:
KALAMAYA is a genre fluid hardware/synthesis and percussive two-piece outfit from Melbourne. With influences from electronica, drone, techno, noise and experimental music, KALAMAYA is inspired by all shades of the human spirit; the pain, the beauty, the chaos and synchronicities showing us the magic that is spawned from the unknown.
Justin Ashworth is a composer, sound artist, and modular synth nerd working in diverse genres and mediums, from noise to ambient, improv and generative music, dance, film scores, and more.
The Artificial Limb (band) a three-piece act featuring live hardware synthesis, drums and base with explosive dance beats and electronica.
Miles Lee will transport you to another world with his curious textures of soundscape and live ambient electronica.
Join us for a sonically immersive night of creativity from an exceptional line up of some of Melbourne’s best underground artists.
The Door in Question is a live, immersive adventure where the world refuses to stay still. Spaces shift when you’re not looking. Corridors stretch into unfamiliar directions as reality shifts beneath your feet.
"Multi-sensory, interactive, and intentionally disorienting—this is immersive storytelling at its most unsettling."
–Time Out Melbourne
You take a step, but the space tightens. The path ahead contracts, shifts, breathes.
Muffled voices echo through the walls—then repeat, out of sync. Signals pulse beneath the floor. A shape flickers at the edge of your vision—too distant to see, too close to ignore.
Projections distort your surroundings. Virtual spaces collapse into reality. Your shadow lags behind you. Or moves ahead.
Identities shift, flickering between roles like a half-remembered dream.
"You’re never sure if you’re fully in control, witnessing reality, or watching the delusions of the other characters."
– Secret Melbourne
Where you can’t trust what you see—how do you know you ever left?
More than an escape room. More than immersive theatre. More than an art installation. More than a performance.
It doesn’t just surround you—it absorbs you.
Footscray is built on layers. Some were buried. Some were rewritten. None are gone. The deeper you go, the more it surfaces. The more it watches.
This is not an exhibition. It’s an experience that moves with you. What you see may not be what others see. What you hear may not be meant for you.
"Step inside and question everything."
– Broadsheet
Something moves. You do too.
How long have you been here...?
IMPORTANT NOTE: This experience is a highly immersive, one-at-a-time experience with staggered entry times. If you wish to book with friends, simply book one slot after another. You will not end up where you started but don't worry - You will find your friends again!
Nothinge is an artist which performs solo using electric guitar, synths, drum machines, taped backing tracks. These are the overlaying tendencies for making the mundane and boring, a distinct macabre spectacle putting forward a refreshing unique set of works through the lens of a protopunk/hypnogogic pop enthusiast. The artist performs wearing a panty stocking on their head so that when people are experiencing the work, it is a spectacle unbeknownst to all. It is the intention of the performer to create works with no measure of accusatory, stunted expression or malcontent. Instead it is that through listening we lose our position in time and the drama becomes the listener viewing a reflection of themselves in absurdity and in sad realism.
Nothinge will be performing with Blondel and Town Ace for Sleepless Footscray.
Blondel is an alternative pop artist crafting music that exists in the space between beauty and darkness. Drawing from eerie soundscapes, pulsing synths, and haunting melodies, her music carries an otherworldly quality—ethereal yet grounded, intimate yet vast. As a solo artist, she writes, records, and produces every element of her work, ensuring each track is a true extension of her creative vision.
Her live performances are immersive and atmospheric, combining her voice, keyboard, and layered backing tracks to create a rich, cinematic sound. With a balance of delicate melodies and intense energy, Blondel invites the audience into a world where emotion and atmosphere take centre stage.
For those drawn to music with a dark edge and a hypnotic pull, Blondel’s performance offers a mesmerising experience not to be missed.
Blondel will be performing with Town Ace and Nothinge for Sleepless Footscray.
Legendary Australian electronic music collective Clan Analogue celebrate their 33rd birthday at the 2025 Sleepless Footscray Festival on Saturday the 17th of May with a showcase of innovative and diverse electronic music artists from the local Footscray area at Coco Bananas record store.
The event will take place at the impressive Coco Bananas record store in Chambers St, Footscray, which recently celebrated its first birthday. During a short time Coco Bananas has established itself as an integral presence for music in Footscray, with its regular instore events and enthusiastic support for local music.
The afternoon will start at 4pm with a live set from Reductionist, using micro-instruments to create macro-sounds which distort the perception of time. Horse Macgyver performs the second set, combining digital distortions and deconstructed electronics for high impact sonic hysteria. Clan Analogue Goes Bananas concludes with a high-energy set from Vessa, displaying her trademark EBM sequencing, reggaeton rhythms and techno intensity.
Clan Analogue is a national electronic music collective that has had a pivotal role in the Australian electronic music scene since 1992. Clan Analogue Goes Bananas will showcase some of the best electronic artists in the Footscray musical community in a cross-generational and cross-genre sonic dialogue.
Through the choreography of noise, architecture and bodies, "Concrete Room" is a performance event led by artist-archivist-researcher Helen Grogan. Pushing out at the noisy borders of the built environment, we complicate how materials and energy are transmuted and warped by the body and sound.
At the heart of Elysian Blues is the playful chemistry between the two artists. QiQi, a dynamic guzheng artist and composer, is known for pushing the boundaries of the instrument, blending its ethereal tones with contemporary influences. Darby Lee, a talented jazz pianist and composer, brings a rich, rhythmic energy to the collaboration, drawing on deep roots in jazz, blues, and improvisation. Together, they create a sound that is both unexpected and exhilarating.
QiQi’s guzheng shimmers with intricate melodies and percussive rhythms, while Darby’s jazz piano weaves in unexpected harmonies and driving beats. Each piece unfolds organically, blending improvisation, storytelling, and sheer musical joy. No two performances are ever the same, as the duo embraces the moment, responding to each other and the audience in real time.
The performance takes place in the intimate setting of Footscray Baptist Church, where the warmth of the space amplifies the depth and emotion of the music. The show is lively, expressive, and deeply engaging, inviting audiences into a world where ancient traditions and contemporary sounds collide in exciting and unpredictable ways.
Whether you're a jazz lover, world music enthusiast, or just looking for something fresh and exciting, Elysian Blues is a joyful celebration of music, rhythm, and connection. The show is designed to be accessible and welcoming, offering a unique chance to experience two skilled musicians at play.
We are the Footscray Hotel Choir, a vibrant and long standing community ensemble. For the past five years we have gathered every Tuesday at the Footscray Hotel, our spiritual home and rehearsal space. The choir’s local legacy dates back to 2016 when it was initially born as a spirited punk singalong at formerly occupied space known as ‘Hot Shots’ on Nicholson Street.
Through a rich evolution across different venues and musical styles—such as Dancing Dog and Pride of Our Footscray—the choir has found its current voice under the guidance of Lloyd O'Hanlon, a professional singer and esteemed teacher of folk traditions. Our repertoire predominantly features Georgian and Italian folk music, woven into intricate harmonies that evoke an array of emotions - from joyful love songs to poignant laments.
We would like to invite you to sit in a resonant space, adorned with pillows and candles as we sing for you. We will also teach a simple harmony, so you can experience the collective power of singing together as one.
In an innovative cross-disciplinary investigation in which texts and sounds and images are composed and contained within tiny painted worlds, theatre-maker Kate Hunter, creator of 2019’s critically acclaimed ‘Earshot’, presents a contemporary re- imagining of the paperboard ‘miniature theatres’ of the nineteenth century.
In 1960 in South Australia, aeronautical engineers fired ten intermediate range ballistic missiles into the ‘uninhabited’ Great Sandy Desert from Woomera Rocket Range. Part of the Blue Streak program aimed at developing Britain’s military resources into a credible nuclear
deterrent threat, the rockets were loaded with inert 3000 kilotonne warheads. Fast forward to 2023, and Australians are living in a place and time in which notions of global safety have never been more unstable.
Part poem, part sound experiment, part visual art work, ‘Near Sighted’ is a miniature installation which considers the ways in which the passage of time colours our perspectives of events, histories and identities. Centred around a series of small black boxes, lit from within and accompanied by headphone audio pieces, Near Sighted is an immersive audience experience, bringing to life myriad watercolour cutouts set in tiny dioramas.
With dramaturgy by celebrated playwright and poet Emilie Collyer, and system design by the Australian Art Orchestra’s Jem Savage, ‘Near Sighted’ is also a textured sound work which draws from archival footage, field recordings, and personal stories to unfold the failures of the rocket program and the misgivings of those who came after.
‘Near Sighted’ is grounded in Hunter’s trademark whimsy, and draws on the artist’s father’s experience as an aeronautical engineer in the early days of rocket design to examine our relationship to place, our collective imagination, and our post-war identity in the face of multiple existential threats.
DAILY - 12pm-8pm Mon-Sat / 12pm-7pm Sun
Merging the rich multicultural essence of her homeland with the vibrant, diverse spirit of her current neighborhood, Footscray, Olivia Brasil's performance blossoms within this environment that pulses with the energy of its cultural movements. This dynamic backdrop serves as the perfect stage for an evocative celebration, one that draws from the heart of the area and connects to the soul of her heritage.
Through her musical experience and research, Olivia has come to a realization: most performers of Brazilian popular music rarely, if ever, bring the songs of female composers into the spotlight. These artists, whose voices and contributions are often overlooked, remain less known, with their careers not as widely recognized in the big music scene.
As a response to this omission and to honor the incredible legacy of these women, Olivia Brasil takes a step forward. With the launch of her first project, she brings to life an intimate duo set, accompanied by a special guest, presenting for the first time an enchanting performance that celebrates and honors the voice, spirit, and presence of women as composers and arrangers from her homeland.
The repertoire will shine a light on iconic figures such as Cátia de França, Anastácia, Dona Ivone Lara, Joyce, Marlui. Miranda, and many others. Drawing from the vast rhythms and unique characteristics that define Brazilian culture, the performance weaves together a mosaic of songs - a culture so varied and rich that it leaves an indelible mark on each and every style, celebrating both its diversity and its profound unity.
As part of Sleepless Festival, Pour Things transforms a disused Footscray shopfront into a space of ritual, gathering, and storytelling.
Meeting in a local backyard studio over the course of several months, five artists came together to make, share knowledge and study rhyta, aquamanilia and askoi, exquisite animal-shaped vessels from various early civilisations — and to explore the act of pouring out as both a functional gesture and a symbolic offering.
Inspired by traditions of communal feasting, libations, and sacred rituals, and seeking to capture some of the character and whimsy of archaic depictions of animals, these sculptural ceramics evoke histories of shared moments, where vessels were not just objects but conduits of connection. In this vacant space, absence becomes presence, emptiness becomes possibility, each pour becomes an act of transformation.
DAILY - All Day
Punk a Photographic Journey captures and celebrates the colour, style and attitude of the contemporary Melbourne punk scene.
For the duration of the Sleepless Footscray Festival 2025, over 80 punk photos will be projected inside Footscray record store Coco Bananas.
Come along after dark, and see images of gravity defying hairdos, handcrafted studded jackets, vibrant clothing and the anti-social attitude that goes hand in hand with being a punk.
All images have been taken by punk historian Melynda von Wayward at events like the infamous Melbourne 'Punk Pub Crawl' and other punk gigs around town.
"As a subculture punk has always been more than just a fashion statement. To those in the scene it is an attitude, a way of life, a reason to get out of bed in the morning, a supreme form of self-expression, a raison d’etre." (Melynda von Wayward)
Daily - dusk ‘til dawn
SCINTILLA takes you through a new sound world, created solely from electric guitar samples. This work questions how we listen as a society. We often ignore sounds so familiar and common to us, that we forget to use our ears to reimagine our world. How can we listen more effectively, and turn the ordinary into something beautiful and unique?
SCINTILLA means “a tiny trace or spark of a specific quality or feeling: a scintilla of doubt”. These sparks in SCINTILLA create a radical sound world that flits and fleets, creating a 3-dimensional world of sound around you. The aim of SCINTILLA is to absorb you into sound, as you step into a multi-channel speaker system. As you step in, feel how the sound moves around you. I encourage us to reimagine the sounds around us and be creative with our ears. We often ignore so much and let it pass us by. Step into the world of SCINTILLA, let the sounds move around you and wonder–are any of these sounds familiar? How can this all be electric guitar? Use your imagination and feel the sound and music around you.
Starting 4 May - ending 12 May
Open 11am-4pm Wed & Thur, 11am-3pm Fri & Sat, 12pm - 5pm sun
Enter Skullies Cinema—a down low movie night, with fun films by Footscray’s giant Snuff Puppets.
Since 1992, Snuff Puppets work has reached millions worldwide, mixing performance art with street interventions, celebrating handmade brute art and liberated from self-censorship. Beyond woke. Not-for-profit arts charity & proudly opera, ballet & sports-free.
From a dusty old warehouse in Footscray, Snuff Puppets has enjoyed over 40 international tours to arts festivals in 30 countries, including; Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Democratic Republic of the Congo, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan & Thailand.
Now, Snuff Puppets return home with a fun film screening of their experimental and playful movies, shot in Kinshasa, Switzerland, and on the streets of Footscray.
The troupe’s videos have gained international headlines worldwide as their Everybody promo went viral amassing ONE BILLION views. During the pandemic, another video, Everybody Isolates, also captured global attention, garnering over 150 million views.
The screening will be hosted by Skullie Empresario, a human-sized skeleton puppet who has been a figure in Snuff Puppets shows for over 30 years. Skullies exist in the space between life and death, between puppet and human.
Come say hello to Skullie and enjoy a fun night of creativity, chaos, and community
“In an age defined by digital spectacle, there is a renewed sense of wonder in these handcrafted illusions” - The Age
Showtime: 7 PM - 8 PM
Doors & Bar: Open at 6:30 PM
Cinema is PG rated
'Superimposition' is an extended, lyrical, computer-based performance piece. The central conceit is to treat the laptop screen (projected for the audience) as a space of lyrical expression.
Combining livecoding, audio synthesis, and pastiche, Mara MacDonald will be creating an extended ambient improvisation live, displaying the audio software and various videos (both found online and filmed personally) as the piece develops. The generative software used for the audio will be slowly transformed and updated as the videos play. There will also be a vocal element, with singing processed with extensive effects to create otherworldly textures. The piece’s location, a glass-walled empty storefront in central Footscray, has the hauntological wisp of vaporwave, of machines and objects with lives all their own.
Evoking the mystery and isolation of late night internet browsing, the piece is a mediation on what it means to be young and unformed on the internet, of rabbit holes and the personal theatres of cruelty we all now live with, as a necessity for survival.
"The Empty Seat" is a photographic series capturing chairs left waiting across Melbourne’s streets, laneways, and front yards—turning the ordinary into a meditation on presence, absence, and the stories that objects hold. Over two years, Maria collected over 200 casual images using her phone, documenting chairs in their quiet, often unnoticed existence. Some are perfectly intact, others worn by time, but all of them serve as silent witnesses to the lives that moved past them.
This project is a reflection of Melbourne’s character—a city that mixes old and new, that repurposes what’s been left behind instead of letting it disappear. Some chairs might get a second chance—reclaimed from the curb, given a fresh coat of paint, or taken in by someone who sees potential in the worn-out and forgotten. Others stay put, watching the world move on without them.
The exhibition is designed to be immersive and reflective—a wall of prints that surrounds viewers, creating a sense of both overwhelm and intimacy. The repetition of chairs asks people to look closer, to notice what’s usually ignored.
But isn’t just about chairs—it’s about the traces we leave behind, the overlooked poetry of city streets, and the stories everyday objects carry without meaning to.
It’s an invitation to slow down, to notice the gaps and absences, and to see Melbourne’s quiet side—the one that reveals itself if you’re paying attention.
DAILY - 12pm-8pm Mon-Sat / 12pm-7pm Sun
Town Ace are a noisy post-punk 4 piece, utilising motorik rhythms, jagged guitars and driving basslines. They previously released their debut album 'Peers' through Stargazed Records, receiving local and international attention, from PBS, RRR, State 51 and Post-Punk.com
They have shared the stage with No Hoper, Carpal Tunnel Band, Winternationale, Great Australian Bank, Favoured State, Double Happiness
Town Ace will be performing with Blondel and Nothinge for Sleepless Footscray.
Untitled Baseball Game is an experimental narrative project centred around the culture of Melbourne’s Western Suburbs. Its story follows someone who formerly lived in Footscray and has spent several years abroad. The project begins with their return to Melbourne and their re-discovery of the culture of the Western Suburbs.
Their return was prompted by the passing of a close friend, which then leads to re-connection with all the friends they had grown distant from in their years away. This experience of re-connecting, and finding things that were previously unseen with new perspective is something that drives their curiosity through a changed Footscray. A place they thought they knew had either changed in their years away, or they had never truly seen it for what it was. Their perspective begins to open as they find out that their old friends had started a local baseball team, and they decide to stay and play the season together.
Untitled Baseball Game is a cultural collage of Footscray and the City of Maribyrnong, encompassing many aspects of our personal connection to the space. Luke had grown up in Maribyrnong, near the river, and this has become a focus in our experiments. As the game is mixed-media, Super 8 footage taken around Pipemakers Park was used as textures within there game. Sunny too, had created mixed-media collages from places like Footscray Milking Station as backgrounds for the games world.
The project is aimed at accessibility for those who do not have experience playing video games. It was designed around community and intuition, opposed to systems reliant on knowledge of genre and complex control schemes. It is presented as a cultural collage that we hope the community will be able to access without any former experience with the medium.
Starting 6 May - ending 16 May
Open 4.30pm-8.30pm Weekdays / 4.30pm-10.30pm weekends
Join Syrian singer and poet Gabriela Georges and her band Zikra as they play mesmerising songs of the Middle East and North Africa interwoven by poetry and cultural stories.
From Andalusian music that's over 500 years old to Egyptian pop music from the 90s, you'll hear nostalgic tunes that are still revered to this day. Be introduced to songs by iconic singers such as Fairouz and Googoosh, as well as folk music from Gabriela's ancestors' village.
Zikra began as Gabriela's attempt to reconnect with her heritage and consolidate her identity as someone who lives between two cultures. That's why Zikra plays Eastern music with Western instruments - it's a perfect reflection of the journey as a diaspora member.