Soft Centre unveils its most ambitious program ever

Soft Centre, one of Australia's leading experimental art, sound and new media festivals based primarily on Gadigal Land/Sydney, has today unveiled its 2025 program lineup, by far its most ambitious to date.

From Thursday, August 28 to Sunday, August 31, Soft Centre is set to transform into a multi-day, multi-venue and multi-disciplinary showcase.

Spanning four days, five venues, and six different events, the festival's return marks its biggest year yet in some of its home city's most iconic spaces. Those familiar with the event will know its dedication to pushing the boundaries of experiences traditionally associated with music, performance, light and sound, and the subtle changes and layers of further immersion it provides punters in each successive event.

In 2025, Soft Centre expands on that in ways never before seen in its almost 8-year history.

This includes:

• Its opening Workshop at City of Sydney Creative Studios on August 28, 'Extreme Bodies to Virtual Selves: Sumo, Butoh, Robots and Avatars’, spearheaded by Australian transhumanist performance artist, Stelarc. An opportunity for fellow artists to enter the mind, process and expertise of this much-revered auteur.
• Discourse, an evolution of Soft Centre's dedication to conversation and learning, refined in their 2024 Naarm/Melbourne event 'SUPERMODEL'. Set at St Barnabas Church on August 29, this is a full day of critical discussion, deep listening and experimental short films exploring topics like labour, automation, DIY, noise and the ever-present prefix "post".
• Para.Cine is Soft Centre's audiovisual arm, set to take place on the same day at the heritage Chauvel Cinema in Paddington and showcasing two audiovisual world premieres, eek's 'Hearsay' and work by NYC-based virtual performance and club theatre collective Team Rolfes & The Mustang Speedrun, described as a "whirlwind mo-cap speed chase."

From here, Soft Centre's 'traditional' festival takes place at White Bay Power Station on August 30 with a selection of contemporary experimental music, art, dance, audiovisual works, light and video installations. This includes international appearances by the likes of Dutch IDM artist upsammy, Queen Asher & Rehema Tajiri, Vietnamese experimental collective Rắn Cạp Đuôi, UK dubstep pioneer Coki, and so many more.

Locally, Soft Centre has tapped ‘CONTENT.NET.AU: The Musical’, an original production by David Ketamine, Sidney Phillips, kk88 and BAYANG (tha Bushranger), with music by Kuya Neil and visuals by Passive Kneeling, ‘ECSTATIC UTOPIAN FANTASY’ by House of Vnholy and featuring Capital Waste, Marcus Ian MacKenzie, Eugene Choi and Makeda, as well as ‘Excited State!!!’, an improvisatory live project by DJ and Absorb label head Kavil alongside crwlr and Rama Parwata, plus many more.

Soft Centre's late-night programming sees it descending upon 'yet to be revealed' locations, featuring appearances from hard dance icon Nick Skitz, Vv Pete, DJ DOGCUNT, Spiderdog and Aquenta among others.

The festival's closing concert, another first, sees an appearance from Japan's Ryoji Ikeda, as well as Aarti Jadu Ensemble and Malubi.

In an exciting move of global connectedness, Soft Centre 2025 will be the first Australian festival to partner with London-based radio station NTS. Not only will this mean many of its artists performing at this year's event, but Soft Centre will debut its own radio show, focused entirely on boundary-pushing selectors from its home of NSW.

At a time when there's never been more eyes on Australia's flourishing experimental electronic scenes, whether music, art or conversation, Soft Centre 2025 is set to prove itself as a key moment for the country's future on the global stage.

Tickets for Soft Centre are on sale now via its website. View Soft Centre's full lineup below:

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Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.