It’s safe to say we all know Melbourne’s food and drink scene is outstanding, so it’s always great when we get the accolades to prove it.
Each year Time Out launches the City Index, a poll of 27,000 city-dwellers from Melbourne to Madrid, Chicago to Copenhagen and Tel Aviv to Tokyo. This year, we wanted to find out which cities really stepped up and pulled together. So we asked you not just about food and culture, as we always do, but also community projects, green space and sustainability.
The results are in, and while Melbourne has slipped from its high spot in previous years down to 15th, there is still much to celebrate about our city – in lockdown or out of lockdown.
Firstly – food and drink. A whopping 94 per cent of respondents ranked Melbourne highly for its food and drink scene, helping it come in sixth on this list of the world’s best cities for eating and drinking. Everything from parmas to dim sims, banh mis to kebabs can be found on every corner of our city – and thankfully many of these things can be delivered right to our doorsteps during lockdown.
Similarly, Melbourne was voted highly for its cultural offerings. Ninety-one per cent of City Index respondents gave Melbourne four or five stars for culture, making its plethora of art exhibitions, festivals, events and gigs some of the most exciting in the world.
Of course, we have to mention the elephant in the room – lockdown. Many of the other cities on the best cities list are out of lockdown while Melbourne (and our buddies over in Sydney) are still shuttered to help curb this deadly Delta wave. Melbourne has felt the absence of culture and social life more acutely than most cities, having been in lockdown for over 200 days at this point. And yet the results of the survey show that Melburnians are still fiercely proud of this city and community spirit is still strong. Businesses have had to be creative and resilient, and Melburnians have responded with vigour and passion. Sandwiches are selling out, tickets to online concerts have been bought and people are still managing to find some joy in their day-to-day lockdown lives.
We all want to see our city back on its feet, so hearing about how passionate people are about Melbourne makes us excited for what the next couple of months will bring with increased vaccination rates and more freedoms.