7 May 2025
Carriageworks Drops Full Vivid Sydney Music Program feat. A Free, First Nations Pirate Radio Takeover and Trailblazing Artists
Gadigal Land / Sydney, Australia: Carriageworks has revealed its full music program for Vivid Sydney 2025, opening with Echoes of the Block: A Live & Local Blak Hip Hop Collaboration, a fearless First Nations-led music takeover with collective Awesome Black.
From 5-8 June, Echoes of the Block will transform Carriageworks’ Track 8 into a live pirate radio station - a transmission built on Blak creativity, community, and controlled chaos. By day, the space becomes an open studio where a hand-picked crew of Mob artists will create, collaborate, and experiment. By night, the doors swing open and the broadcast goes live - uncensored and direct from the streets to the stage. Daytime sessions are free and open to the public. Evening performances (6-8 June) are free with registration.
A fusion of live performance and open creative process that invites music lovers into the heart of culture-making, artists on the lineup include DOBBY, Mr Rhodes, Izzy, ChillCheney, Minty, Prodikal-1, The Chaza, Emerald Brunt and Yung Brother - with more to be announced. Echoes of the Block is presented in collaboration with Koori Radio, Sydney’s only First Nations radio station, and is supported by production crews from Kameygal Studio and Nakama Arts.
Awesome Black Founder & Creative Director, Travis De Vries, said: “The inspiration for Echoes of the Block goes back to Duck Rock: Malcolm McLaren’s chaotic, globe-trotting pirate radio album that played on repeat in my house growing up. That record was wild, joyful and deeply problematic - McLaren didn’t credit the Black musicians who built it. So, I wanted to rebuild that energy, but centre Mob voices, pay proper dues, and do it our way.”
“Carriageworks sits on unceded Gadigal Land, and Mob have always had a connection to this place - cultural, political and creative. This project is about honouring that legacy. It’s about making space for the next wave of Blak hip hop, while grounding it in Redfern's stories, its artists and its fight.”
Alongside Echoes of the Block, Carriageworks presents a powerful live music program spearheaded by homegrown and international artists pushing boundaries across soul, jazz, indie rock, R&B, funk and electronic sound.
Mall Grab, moktar and Pure Space & Butter Sessions will be joined by a stacked lineup of supports designed to create a high-energy dancefloor atmosphere with immersive visuals, genre-blending sets and full-throttle party vibes, as Carriageworks transforms into an electronic music hub. Skegss and DIIV will rock the stage alongside heavy-hitting openers, while music trailblazers Ngaiire, Kamasi Washington and Black Star will deliver genre-defying performances - cementing Carriageworks as one of Vivid Sydney’s most unmissable live music destinations.
Carriageworks Vivid Sydney 2025 Program:
- Mall Grab with RONA., Oots, Claire O’Brien
- Kamasi Washington with Micah Heathwood
- Skegss with The Buoys and Fool Nelson
- Ngaiire’s PAIA
- DIIV with Negative Gears
- moktar with Tash LC, Wax’o Paradiso & Ben Fester, Anusha
- Pure Space & Butter Sessions: Andy Garvey and Sleep D with Diskonnected, Wings of D'sire
- Black Star
- Echoes of the Block: A Live & Local Blak Hip Hop Collaboration
Carriageworks’ Vivid Sydney 2025 program takes place from 5 to 14 June. Registrations are open, and tickets are on sale now.
Vivid Sydney runs from 23 May to 14 June, for more information visit vividsydney.com
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