The best free events at the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2023

Libraries are one of the few spaces where you can connect through study, curiosity and conversation – or revel in your own solitude. Solace: The Sensory Experience is a mini-library that offers a range of audio-visual experiences for you to listen to within the State Library Victoria's rooms, corridors and little nooks. Why not listen to a whale song at the Redmond Barry reading room or even follow the white rabbit through the bookshelves in the Dome? 

Ranging from video movement works or ASMR-inspired soundtracks, all of the Solace experiences will be free to stream on your device at the Library.

Invoke your inner child and come for a swing at this eight-metre-tall swing. From October 20 until 22, see the city from a whole new perspective and hop aboard this playful interruption of the everyday. Tickets for Swing may be sold out but there is still plenty of room available for walk-ups. 

The sessions on Friday, October 6 between 12pm-2pm are designed for wheelchair users. Book ahead.

This free all-ages live-action video game is staged within a miniature greenhouse at Lygon Court, where the audience can control the actions of a puppet by typing instructions on a computer keyboard. Part video game and part theatre installation, You Are Me combines full-body puppetry with technologies to explore ideas of control, identity and conformity. 

Accessed via an 1800 number, The Hotline will allow callers to explore anecdotes on reproductive healthcare where each caller can create their own choose-your-own-adventure style narrative. Satirising anti-choice pregnancy helplines, The Hotline will explore how patriarchal medicine impacts those with reproductive health issues. The Hotline number will be revealed on October 3.

What I Know, How I See is an outdoor photographic exhibition in the Trades Hall driveway that sits at the intersections of place and Blak identity. Ten First Nations photographers have interpreted the theme of ‘place’ and responded with their own styles, experiences and stories. Through displaying this collection, photographers will share with viewers ways in which places intersect, interact and influence the experiences of First Nations people.

Take a wander through the city, and you may stumble across a structure built from steel and rope held aloft with invisible tension. In Common is a thrilling new work by One Fell Swoop Circus, and will see sculpture and circus combined with the company’s signature style of virtuosic acrobatics and choreography.

It is set to be a powerful and intimate show that lets you experience the joy of throwing yourself into someone else’s arms and the weight of bearing them. The cross-city event will occur from three locations: Gasworks Arts Park, Nicholson St Mall in Footscray and the Amphitheatre at Fed Square.

Experience a synthesis of light, water and sound at this installation on the Yarra River. Created by Laservision and featuring orchestral music by Shaun Rigney, Sky Symphony emerged from Shaun’s desire to connect with the community and to harness the power of lasers projected onto mist. 

Cult of the Lamb: The Ritual summons the characters, artwork and music from the smash hit indie game by the developer Massive Monster to Melbourne’s Fed Square and ACMI.

The soundtrack designer and musician River Boy (Narayana Johnson) will perform a live DJ set, providing a backdrop to a ritual led by a giant puppet. Come dressed in your best cosplay and get ready to become part of the cult.