Around Melbourne

If you were to ask almost any local what Melbourne is best known for, there’s a chance you’ll get a reference to its laneways. While a good number of Melbourne laneways are already filled with art, eateries, and hidden bars, there are a fair few that are lesser known and haven’t reached their full laneway potential, until now. Supported by the City of Melbourne, Flash Forward is Melbourne’s most ambitious street art project, with over 40 large-scale works commissioned and set to hit the laneways of Melbourne. Among the program are familiar names like Celeste Mountjoy (filthyratbag), Jarra Karralinar Steel, Olana Janfa, Aretha Brown, DREZ, and Ling, with more lighting, music and creative installations in the works.  From Mountjoy’s ‘Your Turn’ on Little Lonsdale Street standing over six metres tall with vibrant pops of colour, through to LING’s gargantuan sculptural piece ‘Crushed Can’ on Wills Street paying homage to the city’s graffiti scene, Flash Forward is encouraging exploration with an element of surprise, as pieces seem to pop up across the city overnight. While a fair few pieces are already up, the ever-growing program list means there are still a bunch more pieces yet to hit the laneways of Melbourne.  If you’re interested in taking yourself on a laneway tour, there’s an interactive and printable map available on the Flash Forward website. Want more art? Check out the best street art spots in Melbourne.

Calling all bookworms, literature lovers and BookTok obsessives: the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) line-up has just been unveiled. This year’s program reads like a list of the crème de la crème of the 2024 literary world, featuring New York Times best-selling authors, Pulitzer and Booker Prize standouts, festival first-timers and MWF exclusives. The festival will spread big bookish energy across the city and surrounds via a week of workshops, talks, events and panels, running from May 6-12. This time around, the central theme of the program is 'Ghosts' – which invites attendees to ponder ghosts in the machine, ghostly characters, ghostwriters and stories that endure to haunt us.  Much-loved Tom Lake author Ann Patchett will venture Down Under from the US for the first time in ten years. She’ll join forces with Meg Mason (Sorrow and Bliss) to talk about their discarded (or almost discarded) manuscripts.  Japanese author turned global star Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s debut novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold sold more than a million copies, and now he’s on the way to Melbourne to discuss his ultra-popular works.  After winning the coveted Booker Prize last year, Irish novelist Paul Lynch will also be on deck to talk about Prophet Song, his tale of dystopian Dublin.  Plenty of stellar local writers will treat festivalgoers to their takes on their craft, including Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe, unflinching journalist David Marr and legendary novelist, essayist and playwright Christos T

The eighth edition of Melbourne Design Week will bring 11 days of exhibitions, talks and events to the city in late autumn and early winter. More than 300 inventive exhibitions will be presented during the festival, cementing its status as Australia’s largest annual design event. Each year brings a new theme for Melbourne Design Week and this year’s is ‘Design the world you want’. The theme is designed to encourage exhibitors and audience members alike to ruminate on the role of ecology, energy and ethics in combating complex global challenges.  Highlights of the program include a keynote speech from Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, who will speak to her socially responsive urbanism, and a symposium exploring radical speculative designs for the Birrarung (Yarra River). The Melbourne Art Book Fair will also be celebrating its 10th year, and will run its popular stallholder fair in the NGV’s Great Hall during the first weekend of the festival.  Melbourne Design Week is presented by Creative Victoria and delivered by the NGV. You can view the full festival program and book tickets here. Inspired by the book fair? Check out the best independent bookstores in Melbourne.