Things to do in Melbourne this weekend (Oct 4-Oct 6)

Every year, the Melbourne Fringe Festival makes jaws drop and eyes widen across the city with its unconventional line-up of independent theatre, comedy, drag, art, music and events. This year marks the 42nd iteration of the festival, which is known for championing big, radical ideas and being an all out celebration of Melbourne at its weirdest.  Melbourne Fringe returns to the city again this October, with a program of events set to show punters exactly how to experience the best that the arts in our fair city has to offer. The theme of the 2024 festival is ‘Eat Your Art Out’, because the program focuses on the messy yet moreish intersection between food and art. After all, in divided times, what brings the community together better than a fringey feast? A barbecue pavilion aptly named 'Cooked' will pop up in Fed Square, transforming the amphitheatre into a public dining meets performance space. The Wheeler Centre will fascinate you with saucy storytelling, and a special edition of Melbourne Museum’s Nocturnal will give you food for thought. But that’s just the beginning. As always, this year’s festival will feature a mix of established and emerging artists, while the open access program is a feast for the senses created by independent artists. Keep an eye out for 'Free Fairy Floss' – where performer Niow dances with fairy floss, spreading it into the air while flying high above Maddern Square in Footscray. Or, watch the powerful 'Body of Knowledge', an intimate and playful

Going to the movies is always a treat, but it’s especially thrilling when you're watching on the biggest screen in the Southern Hemisphere. With the school holidays just around the corner, save a trip to the mega-sized IMAX Melbourne during the two-week break and see the latest release T.rex 3D.  This short but sweet documentary capping at 45-minutes, will keep the kids entertained and learning with an out-of-this-world tale of history’s scariest creature. Created with the aim of producing the most accurate T.rex documentary ever made, the filmmakers collaborated with leading Tyrannosaurus scientists and pioneering paleo and visual effects artists to bring this film to life. Narrated by Sam Neill, the O.G. dinosaur expert on screen (Jurassic Park anyone?), and featuring stunning 4K visuals, this hair-raising film will transport you straight back to prehistoric times.  Wrap up your dino-themed day by meeting Victoria the T. rex at Melbourne Museum, home to Australia's most impressive real T. rex fossil. Plus, come face-to-face with the Tyrannosaurus’ other Cretaceous cousins including the T.rex’s formidable foe, Horridus the Triceratops.  Playing exclusively on the seven-story screen at IMAX Melbourne, be sure to catch T.Rex 3D this school holidays. Tickets range from $12-$26.50 and get yours here.

Some visit the show for the thrilling rides, others come to marvel at award-winning cakes, the incredible woodchoppers, the pavilions filled with the cutest baby animals… or maybe we’re all just united in a mutual love of sugar-filled show bags.  This year’s Melbourne Royal Show is set to be bigger and better than ever, running for 11 days from September 26 until October 6, with all the fantastic attractions that we know and love, as well as exciting new additions, plus a killer live music line-up.  “There’s incredible new attractions and entertainment offering greater value including loads of freeactivities, with family fun and farm adventures by day, and delicious food and specular entertainment by night," says Melbourne Royal chief executive Brad Jenkins. The animals were the original stars of the show and will be this year too, with pony rides, dog shows and so many more family-fun farm experiences at the new Rural Pavillion. You can get up close and personal with cows, sheep, poultry, dogs and even alpacas, or just rock up to one of the shows to see if you can pick the winning animal. There are even opportunities to try your hand at milking a cow or shearing a sheep. Or for those just looking to cuddle a lamb or baby chicken, the animal nursery is the place to be for a dose of cuteness, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year with a surprise, new farm animal experience as part of a celebratory event.  Foodies at the show are certainly looked after. Sur

Fresh spring flowers are the perfect antidote to a long, chilly winter, and thanks to the return of the Tesselaar Tulip Festival, you'll be able to get them in spades. Now in its 69th year, the bloomin' good festival has become a must-visit destination for Victorians from far and wide, attracting around 100,000 visitors each season.  This year, the four-week festival will run daily from September 14 to October 13, with the added fun of themed events. Learn about Turkish, Irish and Dutch culture across three dedicated weekends, treat the tots to a day of floral fun during the school holidays with entertainment for kids, and eat, drink and be merry during the food, wine and jazz weekend. You can find the full schedule of events here.  The festival will run extra special attractions for kids between September 23 to 26 and September 30 to October 4, with a reptiles display, bubble show, drumming workshops, Dutch Findlay Fairground Organ performances, a fairy garden, treasure hunt, tractor rides and much more — making it the perfect family day out during school holidays. Plus, possibly the most exciting part of the festival, you can marvel at Australia's largest clog.  More than a million blooms will transform the fields into a vibrant kaleidoscope of colour, with everything from traditional buds to rare and exotic varieties on show. Fun fact: there will be more than 120 cultivars of tulips alone. Beyond the floral displays, the festival will feature an array of activities and ent

Update: the warmer weather arrived earlier than expected and so did the blossoms, so Cherry Hill Orchard is offering a sneak peek to visitors from September 9 to 13, before the official opening of the festival. Tickets during this period are cheaper, with adult tickets for $12 and free entry for kids.  This September, take in the magical sights of Japan right here in Victoria at the gorgeous CherryHill Orchards in Coldstream, Yarra Valley. You'll have the opportunity to wander through rows of millions of gorgeous cherry blossoms in bloom, sip on cherry-based drinks, enjoy delicious cherry ice cream, listen to live music and participate in fun activities for the whole family.  In addition to the cherry-themed goodness, the festival will offer an adorable high tea picnic, where you can nibble on scrumptious sandwiches, cheese and other sweet and savoury treats among the beautiful blossoms.  And there are plenty more fun-filled activities on offer, including candle making, cake decorating, perfume workshops, Japanese flower and jewellery making classes, and more. To top it all off, you can enjoy stunning sky-high views with a hot air balloon ride over the Yarra Valley at sunrise.  The festival is introducing brand-new elements for the 2024 edition, including a special kids hub with interactive workshops, face painting and fairy fun – while the adults can properly appreciate the beauty of the blossoms.  Plus, there'll be special evening sessions called Blossom by Light from Septe

From the story’s origins hundreds of years ago, to its transformation into the classic 1991 Disney film, Beauty and the Beast really is a tale as old as time. In its musical form, the production hasn’t been seen in Melbourne since the ’90s, when Hugh Jackman famously performed as Gaston in his first professional role. Fast forward three decades and we’re once again seeing a Melbourne stage transformed into the provincial town and Baroque castle we know so well. Only this time round, the lavish set design is augmented with cleverly integrated digital screens. It’s just one of several updates that ensure this reimagined production of the beloved fairytale keeps up with the times. From the moment the curtain rises, it’s clear this is a large-scale musical with all the belles, whistles and big bucks. Visual splendour is the MO here – think kaleidoscopic costumes, gasp-inducing illusions and spectacular lighting – and it’s easy to see why this show broke box office records at Brisbane’s QPAC.  However, all that Disney investment would be useless without the gifted cast. Shubshri Kandiah exudes whimsy-with-a-backbone as bookworm Belle, charming us with her sweet songs and sassy moments – though the folks in her provincial town just don’t get it.  Brendan Xavier’s beast is alternately ferocious and boyish. His startled squeals and hair-twirling moments help make Belle’s dramatic change in feelings a touch more believable. Both leads shine in their solo numbers, with Xavier’s ‘If I C

Māori storyteller Irihipeti Waretini has created a new exhibition of photography, multimedia art and film centred around the Māori matriarchy. Māreikura - Ka rere te rongoā (the medicine flows) is happening now at the CBD’s Immigration Museum, until late February 2025.  The exhibition, which is Waretini’s first solo showing, features 15 striking photographic portraits of Māori women, all of whom have moko kauae – aka traditional chin tattoos. Also included is an intricately carved pou (pillar).  ‘Māreikura’ is a te reo Māori term meaning matriarch or noble-born woman, such as those seen in the portraits. According to Waretini, “moko kauae has direct systemic healing mechanisms for Māori and anyone who beholds us wearing it.  “So naturally, it would be a key part of my first solo exhibition”, she says. “When the missionaries and early settlers arrived in Aotearoa, they brought with them their culturally specific understandings of the role and status of women, which was and is very demeaning to the importance and status of the Māori Matriarchy within Māori society. “Every opportunity we take to centre our Māreikura, we are returning to the ways in which we acknowledge the natural order of the universe, the interrelationship or whanaungatanga of all living things to one another and to the environment, and the overarching principle of balance, and securing an Indigenous future.” Māreikura is free to attend for members and children. Tickets for adults are $15, or $10 for seniors.

Divorced, beheaded… live? This unconventional pop rock musical takes a dry historical topic and turns it into a rowdy 80-minute concert to rival the Spice Girls themselves. Everyone knows that King Henry VIII had not four, not five, but six wives – enough to require a mnemonic technique to keep track. History has reduced the legacies of these ladies to little more than singular words in a rhyme detailing their fearsome fates, but what if we carved out space to remember them as real, three-dimensional women?  Six the Musical takes on this noble task by embracing a far-fetched premise: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr have formed a royally red-hot girl band and they’re fighting over who should reign supreme as the lead singer. In a play on the present-day concept of the ‘oppression Olympics’, each queen takes centre stage for a solo song to explain why she had it the worst. On paper, it sounds bizarre, but in the Comedy Theatre, the feminism-tinted pop bangers have the audience whooping and hollering on a school night. Once you’ve achieved the appropriate level of suspension of disbelief, these yassified queens with their up-to-date dating app references and punchy historical facts are apt to take you on a fast-paced journey through Henry VIII’s missteps, misdeeds and tendency to revert his Mrs to Miss. The unusual concert format, onstage band and swift 80-minute runtime (how refreshing to see a musical unafraid

Fans of sneaky street art, rejoice! The acclaimed works of Banksy, the mysterious master of graffiti, are coming to Australia, and you won't even need to scour the city's laneways to see them for yourself. The Art of Banksy: Without Limits is a blockbuster exhibition that will feature murals, sculptures, photos, mapping shows (aka images or animations projected onto irregularly shaped surfaces), installations (including an “infinity room” filled with mirrors) and a simulation of ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’ (for those who’ve never heard of it, it’s a gritty, dark theme park that was created by Banksy in 2015). It will also include a mix of replicas and originals of some of the artist's most famous works, like 'Rude Copper', 'Flower Thrower' and the instantly recognisable 'Girl with Balloon'. But wait, that's not all: Banky's recent Ukraine murals will be referenced, and there’s even a space that pays homage to the MV Louise Michel, the high-speed boat that Banksy financially keeps afloat in the Mediterranean Sea to rescue refugees. The exhibition will take place at The Disctrict Docklands, and has just been extended until October 13. You can snap up a ticket here.  Will Banksy be in attendance? Is this the moment Banksy's real identity will be revealed? The artist hasn't endorsed the exhibition, but knowing him, anything could happen!  Get pumped for the Banksy exhibition by checking out the best street art in Melbourne.

Strap on your lederhosen and practise your best danke schön because Melbourne’s fave and original German restaurant Hofbrauhaus has announced the return of Oktoberfest for its 56th year. From September 21 to October 26, join the beloved beer hall for a vibrant celebration featuring traditional Oktoberfest fare, imported German premium bier and an electric atmosphere of live music and exciting competitions.  Drinking authentic German beer is a must at Oktoberfest, and there are 16-plus varieties to choose from. Of course, you’ll also be spoiled for choice with plenty of delectable German dishes like schnitzel and bratwurst to soak up all the bevvies. Head to Hofbrauhaus on Thursday and Friday nights from 6.30pm to celebrate Oktoberfest with your co-workers, or swing by on Saturdays from 12.30pm for a day party that can easily turn into an all-nighter. For families wanting to join in on the Oktoberfest fun, Sundays from 6pm is the best option for a more chill atmosphere.  Throughout the Oktoberfest period, patrons can test their strength in stein-holding competitions, with winners scoring free beer for a whole year. Plus, if you’re celebrating a birthday in September or October, book a function package with a minimum of four guests and you can enjoy a complimentary stein of bier and a round of schnaps for your table. If letting loose to German tunes tickles your fancy, make sure to book a table on Friday and Saturday nights for a special performance from an Oktoberfest band. Da