Around Melbourne

For as long as there have been curtains, folks have been twitching them for a nosy beak at the neighbours. It’s basically hardwired into our DNA to wonder incessantly about what goes on behind closed doors. Which is why the geniuses who came up with the original Open House program way back in 2008 knew exactly what they were doing. Satisfying the snoop inside of all of us is a never-ending affair, so here we are, almost 20 years later, still craving more, more, more!  Open House Melbourne Weekend, radiating out across the city from July 26-27, goes all out this year, squishing our nosiness into almost 200 rarely snooped inside establishments. No shit, you can dive headlong into the surprisingly stunning surrounds of Melbourne’s first-ever poop house. The French Renaissance-style red brick edifice that is the Spotswood Pumping Station opened in 1898 to help funnel crap from the city’s stinky sewers out to the treatment works at Werribee. Though its great gassy engines fell silent in 1965, it made its cinematic debut shortly thereafter, appearing in George Miller’s game-changing 1979 dystopia, Mad Max, and later popping up in beloved ABC show Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Just make sure not to bump any of the pipes too firmly, what with a flood of faeces still flying through the site on its way westward.  If you’ve never had a chance to fly in or out of Essendon Fields Airport, only Australia’s second international hot spot when it opened with grass runways in 1921,...

It’s lights, camera, action for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this August, when a red carpet will be rolled out for a massive eighteen days of cinematic revelry. The festival celebrates Australian and international filmmaking with a program of more than 250 films. With so much to see, we've cut through the curtain to unveil everything you need to know.   What is the Melbourne International Film Festival? Now in its 73rd year, MIFF is one of the oldest film festivals in the world, alongside Cannes and Berlin. The annual festival is held over three weeks each year throughout Melbourne and surrounds. Founded in 1952, the festival presents a curated global program of screen experiences and the world's largest showcase of Australian filmmaking.  When is the Melbourne International Film Festival? Running between August 7 and 24, MIFF will include 18 days of bold in-cinema programming with star-studded events, world premiere screenings, headline features and filmmaker talks.  What sort of things can we expect from the program? So far, we've only gotten a sneak peek of the first 26 films of the 2025 program – including 17 international and local highlights, and two special events – but it's safe to say we're already excited. On August 11 and 12, don't miss Julia Holter: The Passion of Joan of Arc – an Australian premiere that's exclusive to MIFF. The live-score event reimagines the famed 1982 French film by visionary Danish director, Carl Theodor Dreye and...

Stand beneath a simulated thunderstorm, ponder eternal life, venture inside a massive lung-like inflatable installation and hear boundary-pushing sounds – Now or Never is back this winter.  Returning for a third year, the 2025 program has just dropped, cementing the festival as an exciting addition to Melbourne’s cultural calendar. From August 21 to 31, this multi-venue festival takes over some of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings to host artistic works at the forefront of creative innovation. With a whopping 140 events over 11 days, it features the recipe that the festival made waves with when it debuted – and some thrilling new elements.  The transformation of the Royal Exhibition Building into a cavernous rave cave has been a huge highlight from previous years, but this year the heritage space will morph into a completely different form. The space will house a massive installation by Spanish collective Penique Productions that will fill the building with a mammoth inflatable balloon to be experienced from the womb-like insides. ‘MATRIX’ will be on show for the first four days of the festival and it’ll be free to experience during the day, while also hosting immersive artistic evening events. Melbourne Town Hall will also come to life with a large-scale installation, a kinetic textile artwork that will dramatically drape 20 metres across the ceiling, titled ‘Einder’ by Dutch artist Boris Acket. Rippling with light and sound, this piece will also be free to see for just...