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 immersive yourself in 36 hours of daring music.”  

Confirmed session details are: 

• Tryp I – Friday 27 February, 8pm, Hindley Street Music Hall 

Boris & Merzbow present Dronevil (JPN) 

Takkak Takkak (JPN and IDN)  

Jannah Quill x House of Vnholy (AUS) 

Harry Freeman (AUS) 

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 

DJ Haram (USA) 

SOVBLKPSSY (AUS)

SKORPION KING X Mr. John (AUS) 

H34VEN0N34RTH (AUS) 

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 

James K (USA) 

Lyra Pramuk (USA) 

Barker (UK)  

DJ /rupture (USA) 

D-Grade (AUS)  

Wilson Tanner (AUS) 

Maryam Rahmani x Sebastian Collen (IR/AUS)  

Romi (AUS) 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 tradition