Lift access

Wheelchair accessible

A free, all-day event of sarapan (‘breakfast’) and performances presented by Nongkrong Festival that transforms the Square into a space to nongkrong – or to ‘hang out’ in Bahasa Indonesia. 
The event celebrates Nongkrong’s 2025 theme, ‘Roots and Routes’, exploring the deep connections between ancestral heritage and the evolving pathways shaping Indonesian-Australian identities. Come for breakfast and stay to nongkrong, as the Square is filled with open-air performances.
Learn about the Indonesian diaspora’s cultural practices. Eat traditional and contemporary Australian-Indonesian iterations of Indonesian breakfast dishes served from Nongkrong’s gerobaks (street food carts). 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.
Nongkrong is free and family-friendly, so bring loved ones and spend the day on island time.
Presented by Asia TOPA, Art Centre Melbourne and Fed Square.
<a style="text-decoration: none !important; border: 0px !important; outline: none; border-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; border-bottom: none;" href="https://www.asiatopa.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone" style="font-size: 16px;" src="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/asia-topa-logo.png" alt="&quot;" width="330" height="100%" /></a> <a style="text-decoration: none !important; border: 0px !important; outline: none; border-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; border-bottom: none;" href="https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone" style="font-size: 16px;" src="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arts-centre-melbourne-logo.png" alt="&quot;" width="330" height="100%" /></a>
Check out the full program of free live music, outdoor cinema and community events on as part of <a href="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/events/open-air-at-the-square/">Open Air in the Square</a>.

nongkrong-food

Music

Free

Asia TOPA’s opening concert is set to be a spectacular celebration of Eastern-fusion contemporary music, featuring a major headliner (yet to be announced) and international acts.
This free, all-ages gig is set to kick-off Australia’s major triennial of Asia-Pacific performance, with a line-up of incredible international acts and local stars.
Japanese born and Melbourne-based Shio will open the night, setting the mood by spinning ambient textures and electric pulses that make for the perfect segue into an unforgettable night.
Tokyo-based experimental pop band Tam Tam sets the mood at dusk with their innovative fusion of jazz stylings, soul grooves and psych pop beats.
Launching Asia TOPA the Opening Concert is where sound becomes a cultural trip – no passport needed.

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Asia TOPA x Fed Sq Opening Concert

The Main Square

Main Square

Kids + Families

Installation

Shadows in Twin Cities is a project by artists Jessica Wilson and Gijong Yoo 유기종, which  brings together children from Jeonju (Korea) and Melbourne (Australia) in unusual conversations between each other and their city landscapes.
Shadows in Twin Cities: 쌍둥이 도시의 그림자들 features three events designed for children aged 5–11 years that take place across ArtPlay and Fed Square (Melbourne), and Palbok Art Factory (South Korea) during Asia TOPA.

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shadow-in-twin-cities-asia-TOPA

Asia TOPA: Shadows in Twin Cities

Performance

Consume the sights, tastes and sounds of Punjab in this vibrant installation and performance series about migration and resilience by artists Thukral and Tagra.
Bread, Circuses and Home is a free public installation and mini-festival by innovative Delhi-based artist duo Jiten Thukral (Jalandhar, Punjab) and Sumir Tagra (New Delhi).
Inspired by the artist’s research in Melbourne and their ongoing work with migrant communities, this work takes its cue from the urgent agricultural crisis faced by Punjabi farmers in India. Year on year, generational divisions of land, climate change, politics and inadequate laws have severely affected Pubjabi farmers’ livelihoods, forcing many to relocate their lives, including to Australia.
Bread, Circuses and Home is a collaboration with Melbourne’s diverse Punjabi communities and a celebration of the unique ways that cultures adapt, survive and transform in the wake of international migration.
Drawing inspiration from the act of kushti (a form of traditional Indian wrestling) and the wrestling ground Akhara, Bread, Circuses and Home is a seven-day-long, vibrant display of Punjabi folk music, radio programming and interactive game plays. Gather with the Punjabi community to learn, share meals, reflect and celebrate.
The full performance program will be announced soon – watch this space!
<h2>About the artists</h2>
Thukral and Tagra are a Delhi-based artist duo comprising Jiten Thukral (b. 1976, Jalandhar, Punjab) and Sumir Tagra (b. 1979, New Delhi).
Driven by the artistic methodologies of painting, gaming, archiving and publishing, their multifaceted studio practice reflects the scope of engagement in the cultural and political landscape of India and the world. While their early career work dealt with the intricacies of consumer culture globally, their recent interest in ecology and climate change is a revisiting of their family histories of migration and farming in the Indian state of Punjab.
Through and beyond their studio practice, Thukral &amp; Tagra create new formats of public engagement and attempt to expand the threshold of what art can do. These also include the non-profit Foundation that addresses ongoing social issues through education and art, their collaborative learning lab Pollinator that fosters cross-pollinations across creative fields, and the new publishing and distribution platform andArchive that reconfigures the potential of the print and the archive.
Thukral &amp; Tagra’s immersive and multi-modal sensory installations offer seamless accessibility to audiences from varied backgrounds and approaches, breaking through the spectatorial protocols of “high art.”
Bread, Circuses and Home was commissioned by Fed Square and Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne with funding support from the Centre for Australia-India Relations.
Asia TOPA is a joint initiative of the Sidney Myer Fund and Arts Centre Melbourne, is supported by the Australian and Victorian Governments through Creative Victoria, Playking Foundation and the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
<a style="text-decoration: none !important; border: 0px !important; outline: none; border-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; border-bottom: none;" href="https://www.asiatopa.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone" style="font-size: 16px;" src="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/asia-topa-logo.png" alt="&quot;" width="330" height="100%" /></a> <a style="text-decoration: none !important; border: 0px !important; outline: none; border-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; border-bottom: none;" href="https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone" style="font-size: 16px;" src="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arts-centre-melbourne-logo.png" alt="&quot;" width="330" height="100%" /></a>
<a style="text-decoration: none !important; border: 0px !important; outline: none; border-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; border-bottom: none;" href="https://www.australiaindiacentre.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone" style="font-size: 16px;" src="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/australian-government-centre-for-india-relations-logo.jpg" alt="&quot;" width="660" height="100%" /></a>
Check out the full program of free live music, outdoor cinema and community events on as part of <a href="https://fedsquare.wpenginepowered.com/events/open-air-at-the-square/">Open Air in the Square</a>.

bread-circuses-and-home-thukral-tagra-asia-topa

Asia TOPA: Bread, Circuses and Home

Flinders Shard Edge

Flinders St Amphitheatre

Swanston St Forecourt

Festival

Food + Wine

Community

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

2025-02-23

‘Sarapan’, which means ‘breakfast’ in Bahasa Indonesia, is the culminating event of Nongkrong, which will transform Fed Square.

Asia TOPA: Nongkrong – Sarapan - Fed Square, Melbourne Australia

Asia TOPA: Nongkrong – Sarapan

Asia TOPA: Nongkrong – Sarapan

Dates

Venues

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Getting There

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