Things to do in Melbourne in June

Prepare to enter the pearly gates of doughnut heaven, sweet Melburnians. Queen Victoria Market's free Donut Festival is back for its fourth year, from Saturday May 31 to Sunday June 1. It's bigger and better than ever before in 2025, with eleven of Melbourne's most dough-licious creators and bakers set to make an appearance, plus a fun program that features roving entertainment, a huge 4-metre inflatable donut and even a pop-up Milo Mocktail bar to add to the fun.  Choose a churro bowl with creamy vanilla ice cream or take a walk on the wild side with savoury spaghetti and mac and cheese doughnuts from Pasta Face. If you're loopy for loukomades, try a few from St. Gerry's with a variety of different toppings. The friendly faces at Jamm'd Dessert Bar will be serving up hot Danish dougnuts, cheesecake and sundaes, while G-Free Donuts and OMG Decadent Donuts cater for the oft overlooked gluten free, vegan and nut free crowds (and reach OMG levels of delicious). And if you like your doughnuts on the boujee side, Shortstop Donuts is the vendor to visit for classy artisanal flavours (last year, they were slinging brown butter and maple walnut, vanilla and Aussie honey and sea salt doughnuts – yum). There are also three brand new traders to the fold this year, so be sure to check out Walker's Doughnuts for classic glazed and cinnamon-dusted options; Crème Brûlée Doughnuts unique flame-brûléed treats; and cult fave Gotham Doughnuts, who'll be bringing their popular range of...

If there's one fantasy series to rule them all, it's hard to go past The Lord of the Rings. And now, Middle-earth is about to collide with our cultural capital, with the news that The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale, has landed in Melbourne. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved epic trilogy, the stage production is showing at the Comedy Theatre until June 22. This musical invites audiences to join the Hobbits on a quest, bringing Middle-earth to life with a cast of multi-skilled actor-musicians in a theatrical event that celebrates community, courage and camaraderie – featuring an original folk-inspired score.  *** Time Out Sydney reviewed The Lord of the Rings - A Musical Tale when it played at the State Theatre in January. Read on for that three-star review:   For elder Millennials like me, The Lord of the Rings franchise conjures memories of a simpler time: a time when movies were treated more like a coveted form of storytelling rather than just another option in an endless barrage of ‘content’ to ‘stream’. A time when I would go to the local cinema to watch each new instalment in the adventures of my favourite beardy boys club with my dad, who even loaded my sister and I into the car for a day trip to Sydney to check out an epic exhibition about how those epic movies were made across the ditch in New Zealand. (So many used prosthetics! So cool!) I believe that there’s elements of LOTR lore that are so inescapable that you need not have watched the movies or read the...

Snakes have curled their way around mythology for millennia. Present in countless creation stories from Egyptian, Greek and Indian to Norse and First Nations cultures (including the Rainbow Serpent), the loaded symbolism of this coiled creature clasping its tail between its fangs – the ouroboros – evokes eternity.  Sometimes the serpent holds the world together. Other times, it’s a constricting chaos agent. Either way, the fireside nature of myths, oft-shared in storytelling sessions spun under the stars, is inherently unending, melding anew with each retelling. Tackled by everyone from Roman poets Virgil and Ovid to Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire and Katee Robert’s queered novel, Midnight Ruin, the myth of Eurydice and her Orpheus finds new life in the hands of folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. Her eight Tony Award-winning smash-hit musical Hadestown began life as a sung-through community project before she turned it into a concept album, and then a Broadway smash with help from director Rachel Chavkin. In most Greek tales, Eurydice and her Orpheus are happily married, torn apart by a cruel twist of fate: a viper’s bite (sometimes while pursued by toxic dudebro Aristaeus), not even a malicious god in disguise. As she fades into the Underworld, ruled over by Hades and his niece/abducted wife Persephone (!!!), a desolate Orpheus, son of a musical muse, plays his lyre like her life depends on it. Descending into the abyss and crossing the River Styx, he makes a...

Get your wands at the ready, because Melbourne is set to play host to the Australian premiere of Harry Potter: The Exhibition. This behind-the-scenes extravaganza will leave Potterheads spellbound, and features interactive recreations of famous film scenes, props and costumes from the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a multimedia experience featuring the Whomping Willow, dementors, the Marauder's Map and the chance to conjure a Patronus charm. Budding witches and wizards will be sorted into Hogwarts houses and earn points as they explore the exhibition – it could be through a potions class, predicting the future à la Professor Trelawney in Divination or defeating a boggart in Defence Against the Dark Arts. There will also be opportunities to practice spell casting and Quidditch skills, plus win golden snitch medallions to become a model student. Each experience comes with plenty of photo ops and, of course, magical interactive moments. There's even a recreation of the Great Hall for visitors to enjoy in all its splendour, complete with floating candles.  This official Harry Potter exhibition is part of a global tour, previously selling out in cities like Boston and Madrid. It will be apparating into Melbourne on April 4, with tickets on sale now. You can find out more about this enchanting experience via the website.  Looking for more family-friendly things to do? Here's our guide to the best activities for kids in Melbourne. 

Way back when Tim Burton was a much weirder filmmaker, my wee brother and I were unreasonably thrilled by the chaos engine of awfully bad behaviour that was Michael Keaton’s unhinged and unwashed demon, Betelgeuse.  The grotty pinstripe-suited monster ate up the 1988 film of not quite the same name – the studio figured folks would stay away unless the title was simplified to Beetlejuice. Named after the red supergiant star blazing ferociously in the constellation of Orion, some 600 light years from our solar system, Betelgeuse is an outcast from the hilariously bureaucratic afterlife, aka the Netherworld. Which leaves him preying on the naïve recently deceased, like sweet young couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), in an attempt to crowbar open the sort of ridiculous loophole the Greek gods are fond of. Say his – apparently too complex – name three times and he’ll be unleashed on the mortal coil once more.  But Betelgeuse’s sleazy attentions are soon distracted by Winona Ryder’s goth child Lydia, when she reluctantly moves into Adam and Barbara’s now-empty house with her dad, Charles (disgraced actor Jeffrey Jones), and his new squeeze, OTT sculptor Delia (fabulously demented goddess Catherine O’Hara). A smash hit, Beetlejuice is a wild and unruly thing writhing with unhinged ideas, from its stop-animated black and white sand worms to characters shrunk into a model of sleepy town Winter River, and on to the hilariously-depicted dead of the...

Melbourne's favourite illuminated event is back again for a fourth year, with more than 20 dazzling new light installations to meander through in wonderment. From June 20 to August 10, take a nighttime stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens and experience luminous pathways, lit-up tree canopies, soothing soundscapes and more spectacular sights. For the upcoming season, you can expect a reimagined 2.2km trail accompanied by stunning lakeside reflections, large-scale illuminated sculptures and other wonders, with more than 100,000 tiny lights on display. Expect 2025 highlights to be huge illuminated canopy of flowers and the mesmerising 'lawn of light'. Most importantly, you'll also be able to grab a bite to eat and warming drinks, like hot chocolate and mulled wine, at the Welcome Zone or along the trail. They say that Melbourne is at its best in winter and events like Lightscape, where you can rug up and join friends for a magical experience, are a big reason why. Adult tickets start at $36 and are available through the website – be quick as they tend to go fast.  Want more? Check out the best things happening in Melbourne this week.

May the 4th is a special date for any Star Wars fan, but this year it'll be one to remember. A brand-new Lego Star Wars exhibition is making its world premiere, and it won't be in a galaxy far, far away but right here in Melbourne.  Lego Star Wars: the Exhibition at Melbourne Museum comes from revered Lego genius Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught, who's back with his latest mind-boggling project of massive Star Wars brick creations – some standing at a whopping four metres tall.  There'll be Lego replicas of many of the iconic characters, fan favourite scenes, spacecraft and more, from both the classic films and newer releases. Plus, the exhibition will include interactive brick-based activities inclusive of all ages.  While there's still some time to wait for the exhibition opening, building has already begun, and it's expected it'll take more than 25,000 hours to finish and use a wild 8 million Lego bricks. One of the most monumental creations is a three-metre-tall red X-wing spacecraft, made of an astonishing 64,759 bricks, taking 382 hours to build.  "Fans will be blown away by the scale of the experience," Brickman says. "Building these iconic scenes and characters in Lego Star Wars form is an extremely complex task – taking the humble Lego brick and using it by the millions to translate into Star Wars builds and models at an epic scale the world has never seen before.  "My team and I are super excited to launch this mind-blowing experience right here in Melbourne. My inner...

While winter seems like the time to hide under the doona and get reacquainted with your Netflix must-watch list, that is absolutely the wrong approach. Cold weather brings with it a kind of magic in the form of frosty air and clear, still views that seem to go on forever, and this is especially the case in regional Victoria.  If you're keen to head on a cool-climate caper but aren't sure where to begin, you're in luck: the East Gippsland Winter Festival is returning for its fifth iteration. Rug up and hit the road for a month-long celebration packed with lavish winter feasts, fantastical art installations, live music, lantern parades, creative workshops, wellness experiences and much more. This year, the festivities kick off on June 20 and coincide with the Victorian school holidays. Returning highlights of the program include the Medieval Winter Fire Festival at Bruthen complete with swordfights, costumes and bonfires; a long lunch on the Nicholson River Trestle Bridge showcasing the region's best produce; live ice sculpting and a fire show at Meetung; and Lakes Lights – an incredible display of lantern sculptures, light projections and roaming performers on the foreshore of Lakes Entrance.   New events on the line-up include an après-ski party complete with mulled wine, hot toddies and DJs; the Op Shop Ball in Cann River, where attendees are encouraged to wear their finest oph shop garb; and the Great Alpine Scarecrow Competition. And don't miss the sunrise dip in the...

In 1984, director Trevor Nunn was doing press for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express when he offered the perfect maxim for a Webber fan: “Here is my money. Hit me with the experience.” Arguably none of Webber’s shows have hit harder than his 1971 rock-opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, which arrives at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre after a much-lauded run in Sydney. First revived at London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2016 for the show’s fiftieth anniversary, it’s been restaged in Australia by director Timothy Sheader. Sheader favours a ‘more is more’ approach, leaning into every ‘Webber-ism’ that made the show a success in the first place: rock'n'roll maximalism, near-inhuman vocal lines, emotional spectacle. No crucifix is too glittery or top note too loud. Megawatt vocals and an electric ensemble cast make it a cut above the other Webber revivals we’ve seen in the last couple years. Yet its heavy-handed approach also exposes the limits of spectacle for spectacle’s sake, even when it comes to Webber. It’s a dazzling experience, but ultimately soulless.  The curtain rises on a disassembled rock concert: amps, concert speaker boxes and microphone stands peppered around a set of towering balustrades, exposed steel beams and grating that hide the band. Set and costume Designer Tom Scutt puts us somewhere between Rent’s gritty urbanism and the steampunk simplicity of Hadestown. Meanwhile, lighting designer Lee Curran adds a splash of Mad Max to things by throwing dirty...

As a chill settles over the city each winter, Rising returns with a nocturnal vengeance. This year, the much-loved arts festival will take place across twelve nights from June 4-15, with a red-hot program featuring 65 events, 327 artists and nine world premieres. Musical highlights include an exclusive Australian performance by British indie-pop girlie Suki Waterhouse; a one-off show by Beth Gibbons of Portishead fame, who will bring her haunting solo album Lives Outgrown to Hamer Hall; and Brooklyn rap legends Black Star (aka Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli) live on stage in Melbourne for the first time ever. Joining them on the line-up will also be Japanese Breakfast, Marlon Williams, Forest Swords and Mount Kimbie. On the first Saturday of the festival (June 7), Fed Square will be taken over by Blockbuster – a vibrant celebration of South Asian culture featuring contemporary Pakistani music, an eye-catching Punjabi truck art installation and plenty of delicious street food.  Flinders Street Station will double as a mini golf course when Swingers – The Art of Mini Golf takes over. This immersive (and fully playable) exhibition will include works by some of the world’s most dynamic and boundary-pushing female-identifying artists. The Capitol Theatre will also be transformed thanks to a massive kinetic light installation by Shohei Fujimoto. If it's a break from the hustle and bustle of life you're after, Korean artist Woopsyang's viral “do nothing” challenge comes to QV Square,...