Next Wave Festival goes skyward for Great Heights- a keynote project consisting of a series of immersive events which will take place on a Melbourne rooftop.

Great Heights 1- Imbroglio City (Unit 1) is a messy project by four-member Sydney collective, Bababa International. From May 19th to May 21st the rooftop of Melbourne Central will house a warm mud bath. Six audience members at a time can sink into its depths, getting into the grit of the festival in more ways than one. So you can be at once immersed in earth and closer to the stars in a rare juxtaposition.

It’s always nice to rise above the city. Something about climbing closer to the sky is innately appealing and while you look over the grubby city down below, mud dripping from your fingertips, you’ll feel intrinsically part of it yet worlds above it. And if nothing else, rolling around in mud in the middle of the rigid, suit-clad, multistoried CBD will be incredibly liberating, and with hundreds of windows stretching upwards around you, who knows who’ll be watching.

Bababa artist, Ivan Ruhl says that Imbroglio City (Unit 1) is both “recreational and contemplative. It’s also a way of getting dirty with people.” And if getting hot and muddy with five other people in the middle of looming skyscrapers isn’t a bonding experience then I don’t know what is.

Oh and a little tip- things could get pretty messy so you probably shouldn't plan a hot date or dinner with the in-laws straight after the show.