Introducing Tryp

Take a Tryp on Adelaide Festival’s Opening Weekend

Adelaide Festival introduces you to Tryp: a bold and exciting return to contemporary music programming designed to tempt and inspire the radical, the curious and the daring.

Debuting in 2026 over the Festival’s opening weekend in three unique Adelaide venues, audiences can expect a triptych of performance experiences featuring a selection of high impact Australian exclusives, world class collaborations, and the best local and global voices in experimental, club and electronica music that will resonate long after the lights come up.

Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM said: “Tryp is our new contemporary music program and  perfect for anyone who wants to experience cutting-edge and daring electronica music from around the world in the club and band spaces of Adelaide. We wanted the program to showcase not only the dual themes of darkness and light, but also provide a stage and dance floor for both local and international artists, giving the opportunity to perform together in the same ecstatic line up. 

Start your night with a full throttled music, sound, and experimental rock experience at Hindley Street Music Hall, before spiralling downstairs to Divide Nightclub for the late-night session of daring club, dance and dubstep sets by a mind-blowing line-up. Finish off the triptych on Saturday afternoon with chill out celestial and ambient music at Adelaide University’s Cloisters Bar as the summer sun goes down. Each event is its own sonic and music experience, but I encourage you to attend all three sessions to immerse yourself in 36 hours of daring music.”

Confirmed session details are:

Tryp I

Friday 27 February, 8pm, Hindley Street Music Hall

As darkness falls, the frayed edges of noise, metal and avant-audiovisual art will coalesce for an evening of ritual and sonic transgression, headlined by the seismic collision of two cult icons of Japanese noise and metal, Boris and Merzbow, in a world premiere Australian exclusive. Japanese-Indonesian duo Takkak Takkak fuses eardrum-piercing club music, hypnotic gamelan patterns, and howling vocals, to create an utterly singular vortex of sound. The night is rounded by an all-encompassing sensory light, sound and audio A/V experience by Melbourne-based cross-disciplinary artist Jannah Quill and Adelaide’s Matthew Adey (House of Vnholy), while percussionist Harry Freeman constructs a thunderous soundscape that washes over the audience with distinct physicality.

Tryp II

Friday 27 February, 10:30pm, Divide

Descend into the murky depths for a kick-on of leftfield bass, diasporic rhythms and hyper-distorted club bangers. Local emerging collective H34VEN0N34RTH will welcome audiences with a taste of Adelaide’s underground club culture, featuring a collaborative set from founder know.clu and resident cherub woah.motion, accompanied by live performance from Kaurna Ballroom founder Aki and others. Hyperdub’s ‘anti format audio propagandist’ DJ Haram then takes the helm, fusing experimental bass, Jersey club, and Middle Eastern percussion into a sharply dynamic sound, shaped by her mid-2025 release Beside Myself. Ngarrindjeri and producer DJ SOVBLKPSSY continues the percussion-heavy club rhythms with a dose of musical nostalgia, before Kaurna Yerta DJs SKORPION KING and Mr. John close out the night with a mix of deep bass and underground dubstep.

Tryp III

Saturday 28 February, 3pm, Cloisters

A new day invites us back to our earthly selves, completing Tryp with a restorative blend of deep listening, heavenly hymnals, intelligent dance music and mystic folksong on the banks of Karrawirra Parri. Drift through hazy afternoon ambience into the evening’s ecstatic electronica; from the wine-soaked sounds of Wilson Tanner to james K’s downtempo dream pop, and D-Grade’s frenetic, hypnotic, bossy and beautiful sounds. Multidisciplinary artist Lyra Pramuk draws on her own blend of symphonic devotional and gospel music, while local Santur player and vocalist Maryam Rahmani joins with composer and pianist Sebastian Collen to share mystical folksong and fresh takes on classical traditions. Barker’s beatless trance arpeggios will energise the early evening, while local digger Romi’s cerebral, left-field sounds animate the day. New York audiologist DJ /rupture (also known as Jace Clayton) closes the evening with a rapturous genre-spanning set. The perfect preparation for the rest of your weekend, and the next two weeks of Adelaide Festival!