Melbourne Fringe Festival is finally here

It's rare that an event can live up to the tagline 'there's something for everyone', but Melbourne Fringe Festival's 440 event program that spans 2.5 week's worth of free and ticketed comedy, live art, theatre and music events, means it's going to try damn hard to be one for all. 

The hard part is picking out what you want to see from the cavalcade of events. Luckily, the team at Melbourne Fringe have come in to prep some specially curated guides. There are performances that put feminism first, including Femmo Hysteria which brings together the best queens in comedy for a feminist comedy gala on Friday, September 28. 

There's also the First Nation Guide to Fringe, which showcases comedy, art shows, dance and parties that represent Indigenous voices, including comedy show Aborigi-LOL and Matriarch, a one woman show that puts the spotlight on four generations of Gumbaynggirr women from the 1940s to now. 

The sprawling LGBTQI+ guide celebrates the festival's 700-strong queer artists that make up the backbone of much of the Fringe program, including Thy Neighbour, a tale about a lesbian couple and their neighbours during the plebiscite campaign, and the Fringe Festival debut of Charity Werk, Melbourne's favourite drag diva. 

Have a peek of the award winner's picks, too, which highlight performances that have already taken home accolades here in Oz and abroad. The free guide is all about giving you the best of the fest for nothing, and there are also guides for kids, different suburbs and disability and deaf arts, so you've got more than enough to explore. 

A little too many fish in the Fringe sea? We suggest playing Fringr! It’s like Tinder, but for the Fringe Festival program. All you need to do is swipe right for yes, left for no, and the rest is history. Plus, if you play now and find your perfect Fringe event, you're in the running to win a $100 Fringe voucher.

Game to try something new at this year's Fringe Festival? The Melbourne Fringe Festival kicks off on Thursday, September 13 and runs until Sunday, September 30.

Find out more about what's happening at the Melbourne Fringe Festival here.