As the cultural capital of Australia, Melbourne’s events calendar is packed with a diverse range of unmissable festivals. Whether you’re into food, fashion, comedy, or cultural celebrations, our city has a festival for you — and in this guide, we share some of our favourites!
At Show Me Melbourne, we know our city inside out. As leaders in Melbourne day tours and private tours in Melbourne, we have carefully curated a range of fun and fascinating ways to explore our melting pot of history and culture.
In fact, we welcome many visitors who are in town for a festival and looking for a deeper, more meaningful Melbourne experience.
Our city is alive with events year-round, so we have put together this Melbourne Festivals guide to help you choose the perfect time for your visit. Scroll down to get started! And if you have any questions about our private and day tours in Melbourne, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Moomba is an iconic festival held annually over the Labour Day long weekend in March and is known for its family-friendly atmosphere. The festival features a spectacular fireworks display and the iconic Birdman Rally, where brave participants attempt to fly as far across the Yarra River as possible without mechanical assistance.
Then there’s the Moomba Carnival, Masters, Parade, and live music. This annual extravaganza offers fun and frivolity at locations across the city over four incredible days. Moomba is Australia’s largest free community festival and it’s a cornerstone of our events calendar.
Moomba is a culturally important event here in Melbourne and has been celebrated since 1955. It regularly attracts up to a million visitors, although in 2018 a staggering 3.8 million people (including 2.3 million tourists) attended.
When the festival began in the 1950s, organisers asked a local Indigenous group for help in finding the perfect name. The group suggested “Moomba”, which they said meant “Let’s get together and have fun.” Let’s just say the term means something a little different…
Every March and April, Melbourne transforms into the world’s comedy capital with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF). This month-long event showcases a diverse range of comedic talent from around the globe. You can watch performances at various venues throughout the city, but the Melbourne Town Hall serves as the festival’s hub.
MICF is the world’s second-largest international comedy festival and an absolute must for anyone looking for a hilarious live event!
If you’re in town for the MICF or any other festival mentioned in this guide, we can build exclusive experiences around the events you’re attending with our private tours in Melbourne.
Foodies, rejoice! The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF) is a gastronomic extravaganza held annually in March. With a bumper program of around 400 events to choose from, you can immerse yourself in our city’s rich culinary culture.
The star-studded line-up includes renowned chefs, local food heroes, and specially designed experiences for the public to enjoy, from street food markets and wine tastings to cooking classes.
Looking for a uniquely Melbourne experience to elevate your stay during the MFWF? Our Melbourne Hidden Bar Walking Tour is your gateway into the best hard-to-find bars in our famous laneways!
Rising is Melbourne’s newest major cultural event. Taking place in late May and early June, it’s a celebration of contemporary creativity of all kinds. It combines art, performance, theatre, dance, and music, transforming the city’s streets, parks, and venues into a dynamic festival landscape.
As an early winter chill settles over our city, Rising’s 100+ events over sixteen nights bring the longer nights to life with a vengeance. There are free and ticketed events to choose from, and hundreds of Australian and international artists to warm your spirits.
The Melbourne Fashion Festival (MFF), held in late February and early March, is a celebration of the fashion industry’s style, design, and creativity. This festival features runway shows, fashion film screenings, industry seminars, and exclusive shopping events.
While MFF is Australia’s largest consumer fashion event, it also showcases the gritty, enduring, artistic, and cutting-edge world of Melbourne’s fashion scene, bringing greater visibility to local creatives.
The Fashion Forecourt outside the Royal Exhibition Building on Museum Plaza is the official home of the festival. This a free, non-ticketed area with gourmet fare, stylish drinks, live entertainment, and DJs.
Do you want to complement your time at the MFF with some retail therapy? Look no further than our Bargain Hunting and Bubbles Melbourne shopping tour, a guided outing around some of our city’s best shopping spots.
Held every March at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is a horticultural wonderland. It is the largest flower and garden show in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting garden enthusiasts from around the world.
Spread over five wonderful days, the festival features the best Australian and international landscaping and floral talent. And there’s an extensive array of garden retail products for sale to help inspire your own home landscaping efforts!
If you want to take your love of nature to a much grander scale, we think you’ll love our Great Ocean Road tour from Melbourne. Discover more about an unforgettable trip to one of Australia’s most iconic destinations.
The Tesselaar Tulip Festival, held from mid-September to mid-October, is a visual feast set against the beautiful backdrop of the Dandenong Ranges. The festival celebrates the blooming of thousands of tulips in vibrant colours and offers a range of activities for all ages. Kids aged 16 and under can enter the festival for free!
Midsumma Festival is Melbourne’s and Australia’s premier LGBTQIA+ cultural festival, running from mid-January to early February. It features a diverse program of art, theatre, music, and community events celebrating queer culture.
Taking place over 22 days in Melbourne, and featuring local, interstate, and international artists, Midsumma is an explosion of events that revolve around mainstream and hidden aspects of queer culture.
Taking place in late June, the Firelight Festival is an epic winter celebration held in Docklands. This festival brings warmth and light to the darkest months with fire displays, live music, mesmerising light shows, and delicious food.
Fiery installations light up Victoria Harbour from 5 pm on each of the festival’s three nights. Expect anything from blazing sculptures to jets of fire! The multimedia experience Firelight Labyrinth at Marvel Stadium is a new addition too.
Lightscape, running from June to August, transforms the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne into a magical illuminated trail. This immersive experience features stunning light installations, soothing soundscapes, and beautiful scenery.
The trail itself is breathtaking but look to the lakes for equally impressive reflections. The luminous pathways, illuminated sculptures, and 100,000+ lights on display make Lightscape the perfect excuse for a nighttime winter stroll.
Cheese lovers unite at the Mould Cheese Festival! Held in June, this multi-city tour celebrates the best of Australian artisan cheese with tastings, masterclasses, and cheese-inspired dishes.
The festival showcases as many as 80 cheese varieties, spanning soft to hard, earthy to textured, mild to stinky, and everything in between.
Our Essential Melbourne walking tour is the perfect way to supplement this festival or any of the others in this guide. Led by one of our local expert guides, we’ll show you what makes Melbourne tick.
Melbourne’s multicultural fabric is reflected in its vibrant array of cultural festivals throughout the year. These events celebrate the traditions, food, music, and dance of various ethnic communities, enriching the city’s cultural landscape.
Looking for more local tips and insights to help plan your stay in our city? We think you’ll love our Melbourne city guide!
We hope our Melbourne festivals guide has shown you just how many amazing events you can enjoy year-round in our city! No matter what time of year you visit, Show Me Melbourne is here to make your stay even more meaningful. Enjoying your chosen festival and discovering the vibrant, diverse, and exciting side of the city hosting it is an unbeatable combination!
Experience Melbourne like a local — browse our Melbourne day tours and find the perfect excursion for your needs. Or for a more exclusive outing, learn more about our customisable private tours in Melbourne.
The Show Me Melbourne team is here to help however we can, so please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.