Melbourne's Now or Never festival just dropped 150 plus events and an overnight sleep concert under a dome

Only Melbourne could turn a sleepover into a ticketed cultural event, and honestly, we would not have it any other way.

The City of Melbourne has dropped the full 2026 program for Now or Never, its arts, ideas and technology festival, running from Wednesday 19 August through Sunday 30 August. This is the fourth edition, built around the theme A Whole New World, and it lands with more than 150 events spread across the city, from immersive art installations to talks on everything from artificial intelligence to the history of the internet.

The one everyone is talking about is SOMNIA, an overnight sleep concert under the frescoed dome of the Royal Exhibition Building. On Saturday 22 August, ticket holders settle into individual beds from 10pm and drift through a night soundtracked by American composer William Basinski performing his four part work The Disintegration Loops in full, continuously, for the first time ever in one sitting. The whole thing wraps at 8.30am Sunday. It is equal parts art experience and genuinely strange night's sleep, and tickets for that kind of novelty do not last.

The Royal Exhibition Building is doing a lot of heavy lifting across the program.

Alongside SOMNIA, Orchestra Victoria performs a tribute to minimalist composer Philip Glass, including a rare full performance of his Piano Etudes by pianist Maki Namekawa. There is also Breath Haus, a breathwork and sound bath session featuring First Nations artists David and Daniel Wilfred from Hand to Earth, which sits somewhere between wellness event and live performance.

With 150 plus events across eleven days, nobody is realistically catching all of it, so the smart move is picking two or three that actually sound like you rather than trying to complete the whole program. Melbourne's winter festival calendar is crowded, but Now or Never keeps finding genuinely strange, worthwhile ways to stand out from the pack.

Tickets are moving fast for the headline shows, so if SOMNIA has your attention, do not sit on it too long.