Return to Rio

29/05/2024

Get ready to scream! For the first time in history, we’re bringing the full festival magic to Sydney. And, in true Rio style — we’re going ALL OUT. Your ears will rejoice to the spell-binding beats and monstrous sound, your taste buds will water at the smells coming from Mikey’s Pop-Up Pizza Lounge, and your spine will tingle, with creepy surprises lurking around every corner.

The Rio weekend is really important to us, and so is our community. Although we sadly can’t go ahead with the weekend festival this year, we couldn’t miss getting everyone together. So, dust off your fancy-dress, friends!

Yes — this Day of the Dead, we’re transforming the Roundhouse and gardens into a horrible, haunted house, and we dare you to step inside! But beware: dodge spider webs, steer clear of coffins and stay well away from Professor Je***ff. Expect tarot readers, body painters, immersive horror shows and more…

Our HUGE eclectic line-up will drop here soon, so stay tuned. Spoiler alert: it’s an all-star cast that’s guaranteed to excite any music lover.

26/05/2024

What an honour it is to have a weekly show on London’s favourite underground station, Centreforce. Thanks for listening in 🖤 Incase you missed last week’s show (it’s a belter!), you can find the link in our bio.

05/05/2024

We’ve been overwhelmed by all the kind words and love following this year’s festival cancellation. It’s been a very sad and tough week here at the Rio HQ to say the least, but your support has really helped us through it. So —THANK YOU! We are blown away by all the stories of the marriages made and lifetime friendships formed at Return to Rio.

We also wanted to say an extra special thank you to our wonderful friend and publicist, () who’s worked so hard this week to get it all out there to the media. Celia’s a huge part of Return to Rio and a massive supporter of the scene. If you want to high five her, you can usually find her front right or dancing on a table at an after party.

Please keep the Halloween weekend free because we have some very BIG things in the works. Stay tuned, friends…. X
📸 1: .samus.creative 📸 2:

04/05/2024

02/05/2024

FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT: After a lot of thought, and with very heavy hearts we’re sad to announce Return to Rio 2024 won’t be going ahead.

Since the introduction of the NSW Festival Act in 2019, almost every electronic music festival in NSW has been deemed ‘subject’ (or ‘high risk’). This means that NSW Police and Health have full control over how much a festival pays for policing and medical, as well as any other extra costs they deem necessary for harm minimisation (e.g. riot squads, police boats, interrogation areas, strip search facilities, CCTV…the list goes on).

Return to Rio has an excellent record as a safe and well-run festival and has operated successfully for over a decade without any major incidents. But last year it was decided that our police and medical costs should increase by a whopping 529%. This, combined with the extra rules and regulations we have to adhere to, meant last year we incurred more than $300K in extra costs. For a small family-run business, this makes it almost impossible not to run at a loss.

NSW Police is charging what’s reported as twelve times more than in VIC. And just to cover all these exorbitant extra costs we’d have to add at least $100 per ticket. With so many people struggling financially right now, passing these crazy-high fees onto you is not something we’re prepared to do.

The sad reality is that in NSW electronic music is unfairly targeted. And if this continues, we’ll only be left with beige government-run events and commercial mega-corp festivals, while the smaller diverse and boutique events die out.

The community, connection, and sense of belonging people report after attending a festival is more important now than ever. And we believe we all have the right to enjoy festivals as the rest of the world manages to do safely without this heavy-handedness. But sadly, it’s becoming impossible to keep doing what we do here in NSW. So, we’re stepping out of the game this year, in the hope that this madness stops, and common sense prevails.

We hope to be back bigger and better in 2025. Much love x

📸: Flo Samus Creative

28/04/2024

Reminiscing on some of the best Rio moments...What's your favourite memory?! x

22/03/2024

Massive Buzz on tomorrow night and rightly so ;-)

20/03/2024

Set times are in and looking sexy! 🤩

19/03/2024

This Saturday is looking hot!

Buy tickets for Miguel Campbell & M.O.S., on 10:00 PM, 23 Mar 2024 at Carousel, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW, Australia.

17/03/2024

Sydney, this Saturday we are in for a treat!

Two of the world's finest, Miguel Campbell & M.O.S. are going to be tearing up the sound system at Sydney's best club Carousel
Trust us, you don't want to miss this one...

Buy tickets for Miguel Campbell & M.O.S., on 10:00 PM, 23 Mar 2024 at Carousel, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW, Australia.

10/03/2024

Next up from us: Melodic heavyweights M.O.S. join Miguel Campbell for a night of deep & sexy sounds at Carousel We hope you can join us 🙂
Miguel Campbell & M.O.S.

25/02/2024

To say we're buzzing about M.O.S.'s Australian debut would be a massive understatement. This superstar duo have released on more labels than we have time to mention, including Anjunadeep, The Soundgarden and All Day I Dream. Ticket link in bio and comments.

21/02/2024

Something Special Sexy Wonderful 🖤

A weekend filled with music and fun, dancing, drinking, laughter and sun.

17/02/2024

Tonight’s looking the bomb, we really hope you can join us 💥🔥✨
The Abercrombie will be pumping 🥳

16/02/2024

Happy Pride Week, lovers 🪩💗
📸: .samus.creative

15/02/2024

Tickets for Miguel Campbell & M.O.S. are officially on sale and already flying 🚀 Head to the link in our bio or in comments below to secure yours 🖤

14/02/2024

This Saturday we’re taking over The Abercrombie for a Rio Family get-together celebrating our Sisters in music. It’s a jam-packed night of incredible talent over multi-levels, featuring the amazing Samantha Loveridge (Innervisions & Get Physical). So get down early so you don’t miss a beat. Last chance to secure tickets for $20 and avoid paying more on the door. Link in bio and comments 👇🏻

14/02/2024

We’re back in our favourite new space, Carousel to present this massive double header! Finally, the mighty Miguel Campbell, Hot Creations legend, is returning to Sydney. We’ve been itching to bring him back since his last sell-out show and this will be “Something Special Sexy Wonderful”.
Joining Miguel for their Australian debut is melodic heavy-weights, M.O.S. (Melody of the Soul, All Day I Dream, Anjunadeep, The Soundgarden). Sydney, you’re in for a musical treat. And, with superstar Rio Residents Oliiv and Robbie Lowe on opening and closing duties, you know Carousel will be heaving.

Tickets on-sale 9am tomorrow x

14/02/2024

We’re back in our favourite new space, Carousel to present this massive double header! Finally, the mighty Miguel Campbell, Hot Creations legend, is returning to Sydney. We've been itching to bring him back since his last sell-out show and this will be "something special sexy wonderful”.
Joining Miguel for their Australian debut is melodic heavy-weights, M.O.S. (Melody of the Soul, All Day I Dream, Anjunadeep, The Soundgarden). Sydney, you're in for a musical treat. And, with superstar Rio Residents Oliiv and Robbie Lowe on opening and closing duties, you know Carousel will be heaving.

Tickets on-sale 9am tomorrow x

13/02/2024

Set times for Sisters Round 2 are in! And it’s shaping up to be a big one 🪩

11/02/2024

In case you missed it — do yourself a favour and wrap your ears around our Rio Radio Show with very special guest Anthony Pappa. Head to Mix of the Month in our bio or listen via link in comments. Monday motivation sorted!

11/02/2024

We’re busy at the Rio HQ cooking up a tasty line-up for this year’s Halloween weekender. Who’s on your wishlist?! 🧙‍♀️

10/02/2024

A huge Happy Birthday to our sister, Emily Harkness. Have the best time dancing under the stars with your Neo family. You can catch Em at our second edition of SISTERS next Saturday!

09/02/2024

Happy Friday, friends 💗