Asia TOPA (Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts) has announced the triennial’s Nightlife program. The brand-new programming stream includes Club 8, a pop-up nightclub at Arts Centre Melbourne that brings together contemporary performance art and club culture.
Returning to Naarm/Melbourne for the first time in five years from 20 February – 10 March 2025, Asia TOPA is a city-wide celebration of the very best of Asia-Pacific arts, culture and ideas. The triennial’s Nightlife program features a range of specially-curated events across the city — from free concerts to food-and-art festivals, and opportunities to experience galleries after dark.
Over three weekends, the recently renamed Leaper Family Pavilion in the Theatres Building at Arts Centre Melbourne will be transformed into Club 8, the festival’s late-night destination. Artists and nightlife denizens from across the Asia-Pacific will curate nine distinct club nights featuring cutting edge DJ’s, art happenings and experimental performances from leading musicians and artistic mavericks of all genres.
Highlights of Asia TOPA’s Nightlife stream include free opening weekend concerts at Fed Square and Bunjil Place, NGV Friday Nights curated by Asia TOPA and a plethora of club legends curating unforgettable nights at Club 8.
Asia TOPA’s Creative Director Jeff Khan says opening a pop-up nightclub in the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct is a radical gesture.
“For next year’s Asia TOPA, we wanted to honour the energy and creativity of nightlife communities across the Asia-Pacific. So many people prefer to create and experience performance in nightlife settings and Club 8 and the wider Nightlife program challenges traditional notions of where and how culture is experienced.Clubs are made to be experienced communally: bring your crew and kick on with us.”
A reference to its location on level 8 of Arts Centre Melbourne’s Theatres Building, Club 8’s name is also a tribute to Chinese numerology, embodying luck, prosperity and success.
“Rooted in the cultural significance of the number 8, Club 8 celebrates diverse diasporic artists and communities. Weaving tradition into contemporary culture, offering good fortune and recognition to its creators and audiences,” said Khan.
Club 8 – and several other Asia TOPA Nightlife events – will offer specially-curated food and beverage menus featuring a range of crafted drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and snacks to keep the good times flowing.
CLUB 8 – PROGRAM
OPENING NIGHTLIFE – Thursday 20 February 2025
Asia TOPA teams up with their good friends at Big Bao to bring a truly auspicious line up of delectable musicians and performers to celebrate the opening of Asia TOPA and the first night of Club 8. Including performances from cheeky drag artist Scarlett So Hung Son (Scotty So), radiant music icon Rainbow Chan and the ballroom-meets-performance-art stylings of Aurora Labeija (Thailand).
INAMO Kiki Ball – Friday 21 February 2025
This summer throwdown brings together the Asia-Pacific for a powerful evening of Ballroom culture, curated by Naarm/Melbourne’s Founding Mother, Kianna Oricci of the House of Oricci, and Mirasia Silky, the Overall Mother of the House of Silky. A new collaboration from two of Australia’s iconic Ballroom houses, INAMO Kiki Ball is a Kiki Ball for Femme Queen liberation.
Shapeshifters – Saturday 22 February 2025
Headlined by supernatural shape-shifter, performance artist Phasmahammer (Justin Talpacido Shoulder) and enigmatic electronic artist PANELIA (New Delhi), Shapeshifters is Asia TOPA’s sacred arena for performers and musicians who morph between bodies, genres and cultures.
Aari? Aray! – Thursday 27 February 2025
From cypher to stage, Arai? Aray! brings the heat from across the Philippines Thailand and Australia. Fateeha and Miss A of Moro Beats (Philippines) join up-and-coming singer and songwriter Réjizz(Thailand) in a special night of hip-hop at Club 8. Dance collectives across Narrm/Melbourne will hold down the floor including special guests to be revealed.
乒乒乓乓 pin-pin-piàng-piàng – Friday 28 February 2025
Curated by Harrison Hall and Cloudy Ku, 乒乒乓乓 pin-pin-piàng-piàng pulls together the most innovative club artists from across the Asia-Pacific to create a genre-fluid experience steeped in Naarm/Melbourne’s iconic rave culture.
BLAX: ACT ONE – Saturday 1 March 2025
Curated by critically acclaimed global First Nations festival YIRRAMBOI, BLAX: ACT ONE is an immersive club night that embodies freedom and radical self-expression from a First Nations point of view. Headlined by DJs Soju Gang (Naarm/Melbourne), Katayanagi Twins (Aotearoa/New Zealand) and nudibranchia (naarm/melbourne), at BLAX: ACT ONE Blakness is the pulse that drives the night.
The Prey and The Ruler – Thursday 6 March 2025
Curated by ROOM40, The Prey and The Ruler is an exercise in extended sound practices that trace a line north from Naarm/Melbourne. Each performance interrogates a different sonic form and methodology and pushes outward to create orbits of meshing sound worlds and post-zonal atmospheres.
Club 4A: Night Vision – Friday 7 March 2025
Sydney’s celebrated Club 4A descends on Naarm/Melbourne for Night Vision, a night that traces a musical lineage originating in South Asia, evolving, and transforming over time, alongside performance artists who navigate hybrid realms — drawing on global dance and vocal traditions and reshaping them into something entirely new.
THE B_B – Saturday 8 March 2025
THE B_B unites performance priestesses Betty Apple (Taipei) and Betty Grumble (Gadigal/Sydney) in a transcendent dance ritual where digital mystics become flesh, pussy power meets sonic protest, and the B-side of reality erupts into collective ecstasy. Taiwan and Naarm/Melbourne based artists join two performance priestesses, dedicated to radical presence, guiding us into collective ecstasy.
FREE OPENING WEEKEND EVENTS + PARTIES ACROSS THE CITY
Asia TOPA x Fed Square Live: a free, all-ages opening concert – Friday 21 February 2025
This free all-ages concert sees Asia TOPA and Fed Square join forces to celebrate the opening of the triennial. A spectacular celebration of Eastern-fusion contemporary music with a line-up of local and international stars, and headlined by a soon-to-be announced major act that is gaining phenomenal world-wide success. The gig features Japanese born and Melbourne-based Shio, Tokyo-based experimental pop band Tam Tam and an internationally acclaimed Australian group.
NGV Friday Nights: Asia TOPA – Friday 21 February
Experience and explore the largest exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s iconic work at night, alongside DJs, drinks and food. Featuring a line-up of international and local DJs guest-curated by the Asia TOPA team.
Bunjil Place x Asia TOPA Welcome Gathering– Saturday 22 February
A free opening party featuring food, performance, and music specially curated by Bunjil Place. This family friendly event also showcases the major new performance commission Bunyi Bunyi Bumi and the Pacific Sisters’ captivating exhibition, FROCK A WHANAUNGATANGA.
NongKrong: Sarapan – Sunday 23 February
A free, all-day event of sarapan (‘breakfast’) and performances presented by Nongkrong Festival that transforms Fed Square into a space to nongkrong – or to ‘hang out’ in Bahasa Indonesia. Listen to music from local community groups, including the Maluku Besudara Choir, Talo Balak (Sumatran gamelan), Mugi Rahayu (Javanese gamelan), Punta Panji Asmara (Cirebon gamelan) and more. Watch dance performances by Makassan dancer Abdi Karya, Poppin Jack and Jiggy Jaya from Stale Biskitz and more. Join a kecak voice workshop with Gamelan Dan Anda or a dance class with GROOV3.
As part of its partnership with Serendipity Arts Festival, Asia TOPA will present artists in Club 8’s Shapeshifters event and NGV Friday Nights: Asia TOPA in an international exchange supported by The Centre for Australia-India Relations.
Asia TOPA includes three public programming streams: Performance, Nightlife and Knowledge. The triennial’s Knowledge program – artist-in-conversation and workshop events – will be announced in January 2025.
A 15% discount on select events across the Asia TOPA program is now available when three or more performances are purchased together.
For more information visit asiatopa.com.au.