Things to do in Melbourne this weekend

Melbourne will experience a “blak-out” on Saturday, May 8 as Yirramboi hosts a free city-wide celebration of Indigenous culture. "Barring Yanabul" means "we all walk the path" in Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung language and the overarching event features more than 40 free events spanning art, music, dance and theatre.

Tizzy up your hair and whip out your powder blue dinner suits – a musical comedy based on The Wedding Singer is coming to Melbourne. The Wedding Singer – the Musical Comedy has announced it’s coming to the Athenaeum Theatre from April 30 2021, following sold-out performances in the UK and on Broadway.

This year, the Murray border community of Echuca Moama is throwing a brand new festival around this legendary river. Moama Lights is a sound and light event that runs from May 8 to 22. It will take place at the Horseshoe Lagoon, a 600-metre-long lit-up trail that visitors can traverse and explore three different chapters of Echuca Moama’s story – its Indigenous heritage, subsequent European colonisation and finally, modern-day Echuca Moama.

After the huge day that is Barring Yanabul, keep enjoying Yirramboi at night with Yirramboi After Dark. This is sure to be one of the most dazzling events during Yirramboi, with an all-female line-up of musical artists set to hit Malthouse's Outdoor Stage. Bop along with the Merindas, Kee'ahn, Bumpy, and DJ Soju Gang on the night. The event also features First Nations cabaret stars Kamron Wahanui McKinnon, Dale Woodbridge-Brown and Lilikoi Kaos, plus ballroom group House of Alexander. 

Gnocch, gnocch. Who's there? It's the Ascot Lot's second-ever Gnocchi Festival of course. The food truck park will transform into a potato dumpling haven with food trucks and stalls dishing out gnocchi by the plateful on Saturday, May 8 and on Mother's Day Sunday, May 9 and let's hope their puns aren't as bad as ours. 

Stilt-walkers, kaleidoscopic colours, glittering tarot card readers and suited-up magicians, all in one, fantastical, dizzyingly colourful set-up? That's right – the circus is back in town. On every second Saturday night of the month until mid-November, an immersive, circus-themed pop-up is set to bring a little escapist fantasy to Docklands, taking over the arcade game filled den of Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq.

Some of the most talented First Nations artisans, makers and creators are one show this May as part of the Blak Makers Market. The market is happening for one day only as part of Yirramboi festival and showcases fashion, jewellery, food and crafts from talented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander makers. 

The team behind the wildly successful Christmas Gin Market are back – because gin really is best enjoyed all year round. The Craft and Co Gin Market returns this autumn for a four-day gin-stravaganza that connects local distillers and with Melbourne’s gin-thirsty residents. 

Fangirls, a new Australian musical by Yve Blake, is an ode to the agony and ecstasy of teen longing – the feeling of loving so much you might actually, literally, die. And what better lens to view this feeling through than a young woman's love for a boy band heartthrob? 

Attention sweet tooths: arguably the state’s sweetest destinations – Yarra Valley Chocolaterie, Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie and the Mornington Peninsula Chocolaterie – are throwing a month-long Rocky Road Festival of Flavours this May. The chocolateries will be taking this old-time favourite treat to new rocky heights, reinventing the traditional mix of chocolate, nuts and marshmallows into a line-up of 31 different flavours.

Hear that distant drumbeat? That's the sound of live musical performers, the Drummer Queens, pounding their way into Melbourne this autumn. The all-women percussion troupe brings together various styles of drumming for a commanding and theatrical performance. Think Tap Dogs or Stomp but led by eight amazing female drummers.

Arguably Australia's most famous performative artist, Mike Parr is transforming Anna Schwartz Gallery as part of his new solo exhibition Half Way House. Over the course of three months, Parr – aka the guy who lived under a Hobart road for Dark Mofo – is presenting four blind peformative works and installations at the Flinders Lane gallery.

It doesn't matter how old you are; everyone has experienced a moment of "back in my day". That is, someone senior to yourself informing you things were done differently, possibly in a way unconscionable to present times. It's these moments – the jarring standards of then and now – that are explored in The Cane. The Mark Ravenhill play (Shopping and Fucking, Some Explicit Polaroids) revolves around teachers Maureen and Edward and their adult daughter Anna, plus an angry mob of school children. Red Stitch's Kirsten von Bibra-directed production stars Caroline Lee, Dion Mills and Jessica Clarke.

Nyoongar/Burmese writer NazAree Dickerson is putting First Nations women at the forefront in her debut play. Ngarngk; Giver of Life is a story of Indigenous motherhood and the desire to return to traditional practices. 

Yirramboi festival is collaborating with Queen Victoria Women's Centre this May to host a series of talk, workshops and exhibitions. Women's Healing Place brings together four First Nations women to explore identity, culture, trauma, self-care and healing through mediums like visual arts, storytelling, yarning, song and movement. 

The Spanish Film Festival is about to sashay into town once more, lighting up Melbourne’s Palace Cinemas with 20 features from across the length and breadth of Spain, plus Latin America, from April 22 until May 9.

This Yirramboi festival, Melbourne's own Na Djinang Circus is showing the connections between Country, culture and people through acrobatics and circus arts. In Arterial, audiences watch as four performers – Maggie Church-Kopp, Jada Narkle, Dylan Singh and the award-winning Harley Mann (who also directs the show) – weave an enchanting circus production exploring the link between First Nations people and the land. 

After a year on pause, Malthouse is staying true to its experimental roots and relaunching with possibly the largest and most daring immersive theatre production to ever grace Australian stages. Because the Night is an immersive theatre experience where audiences can explore the massive, maze-like set while actors weave the narrative around them. Don't come expecting to sit down and watch actors on a stage – Because the Night unfolds all around you, with guests encouraged to explore every nook and cranny of the space.

Australia’s most popular playwright of recent decades, Joanna Murray-Smith, is returning with a show about two young people meeting one night in Berlin. They have vastly different family backgrounds, and each has been affected by the city’s dark past. It touches on history ranging from World War II until today, with Germany’s frequently debated approach to refugees coming under the microscope. Iain Sinclair, behind MTC’s excellent A View from the Bridge, is directing Grace Cummings in this premiere.

Melbourne's Botanic Gardens has got to be one of our favourite places to stretch our gams. It's might soon be one of your favourites too, with the gardens (re)launching its Botany Bootcamp program. The Botany Bootcamp first ran in 2020 but had to be put on pause due to you-know-what. The two-hour sessions have participants power walking around the lush grounds while also learning more about the plants in the gardens. 

Musician James Henry (Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaraay, Yorta Yorta and Yuin) is taking Town Hall's Grand Organ to new heights this May. As part of Yirramboi First Nations Arts Festival, Henry is presenting Madhanbaa Mayrraa – an exploration of traditional-style songs in Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay languages, alongside the Grand Organ. 

Some of the most well-known Australian Impressionist paintings are currently front and centre at the Ian Potter Centre. She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism brings together nearly 300 Australian Impressionist paintings from the likes of Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Jane Sutherland, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder, Clara Southern and John Russell. Works featured in the exhibition include what are easily some of the most recognisable Australian paintings, including Tom Roberts' 'Shearing the Rams' and Jane Sutherland's 'Field naturalists'.

When you think of 1960s fashion, you think of Mary Quant. The revolutionary designer changed the way young people dressed forever, encouraging them to be playful with fashion and to disregard the style of their parents and grandparents while also being one of the driving forces behind the Mod fashion movement. Bendigo Art Gallery pays tribute to the influential British designer with a new, exclusive exhibition, Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary.

Everyone knows and loves Miffy, the adorable rabbit made famous in a series of picture books drawn by Dutch artist Dick Bruna. Much like Hello Kitty, Miffy has managed to become a globally recognised and sincerely loved character for over 60 years. Now, Miffy is getting her own exhibition at Bunjil Place. Miffy and Friends will showcase original drawings and illustrations by Bruna as well as early book covers and posters of Miffy.

Moulin Rouge, The Hours, Big Little Lies, Paddington… Nicole Kidman’s career has spanned decades, genres and mediums. There’s a reason she’s one of the best working actors out there. So, to show their appreciation for our Nic, Classic Cinema and Lido Cinema are hosting a Nicole Kidman retrospective throughout April, May and June.

The weather has long been the go-to topic, especially in Melbourne (talk about four seasons in one day, am I right?). The weather is more than just small talk, however – it is intrinsically linked to the climate and the environment. Big Weather explores Australia's weather – and specifically the knowledge, stories and perspectives on the weather as told by First Nations artists. The exhibition showcases works from Indigenous artists that are related to the weather, including representations of ancestral rain, hail and storm spirits; works exploring climate change-induced extreme weather events; and the place of animals and how they're affected by the environment and weather.

There have been many exhibitions on French-born artist Mirka Mora, but none quite like this. The Jewish Museum of Australia has announced Mirka: the most extensive survey of Mirka Mora ever. The museum is turning into an “immersive Mirka-world” for the exhibition, which features never-before-exhibited works from the Mora family and Mirka’s studio archives. 

If you’ve ever watched the films Her or Ex Machina you’ll know how easily the lines between AI and humans can blur and how harrowing that can be. Scienceworks’ latest exhibition Born or Built? explores how sophisticated robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) have become, how easily they can mimic human beings, and delves into the evolution of technology. 

The first rule of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is that you don’t talk about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Safeguarding spoilers is an expected responsibility for anyone who attends the Potter-verse’s first on-stage outing. There’s even a hashtag: #KeepTheSecrets. But in truth (as far as theatre critique is concerned, at least), JK Rowling needn’t have worried. This marathon, five-hour spectacle has a plot so dense and sprawling, so wonderfully, unashamedly elaborate, it would take many thousands of words more than any theatre review to even scratch the surface.

You can keep your Oscars, your Golden Globes, your worthy French films. Give us a terrible movie that we can laugh at any day. And that's exactly what Lido Cinemas is doing, with a monthly screening of notoriously terrible movies on the first Friday of the month. Even better, the event is being hosted by Zachary Ruane, of side-splitting comedy troupe Aunty Donna. First cab off the rank is ultimate terrible movie classic The Room.

Yhonnie Scarce is known for her masterful, almost magical, glass blowing technique and for her assemblages and public works. This year, ACCA pays homage to the leading contemporary artist in Missile Park, a survey of the last 15 years of Yhonnie Scarce's work, featuring all-new commissions. 

Over the last 20 years, Rone has cemented himself as one of Australia’s most successful street artists. He has carved himself a niche in the world of urban art by routinely taking over abandoned places and distressed spaces and filling them with large, despondent portraits of women. What you might not know is that Rone – real name Tyrone Wright – is from Geelong and he’s returning home for his first survey exhibition.

In a society that glorifies always being on, TarraWarra Museum of Art has chosen to amplify the opposite. For its 2021 biennial, the gallery presents Slow Moving Waters: an exhibition exploring slowness, deceleration, drift and the elasticity of time. From March 27, TarraWarra will exhibit works from 24 Australian artists that examine the slow road through life – whether that be through concept, medium or political statement.

Every year Melbourne Music Week explores the undercurrent of Melbourne’s vibrant local music scene in some of the city’s most forgotten corners. Usually, the "week" is more like ten days but in 2020 the event has really outdone itself in regards to stretching said week. Now, MMW will run all summer long to give Melburnians all the live gigs they've been missing (and to also allow for maximum events and artist opportunities while adhering to health restrictions). 

Local artist Troy Emery's work often entails exploring animals and anthropomorphism while also playfully toying with colour, texture and materials. Sonder is no different. This exhibition at Linden New Art presents six new animalistic sculptures from the Melbourne-based artist. At once the sculptures are both faceless and foreboding, and candy-coloured and inviting; it's hard to know whether you should feel threatened or excited by sharing a room with them. 

The District Docklands gets a glow-up with Imaginaria –  a magical "future play experience". In layman's terms, Melbourne, its a giant, glowing, otherworldy all-ages playground to explore. Imaginaria allows (let's be honest, event-starved) Melburnians to explore fantastic custom-built, interactive structures like a giant inflatable bubble, glowing light maze, and a "cosmic abyss". The whole installation features bespoke sound, light and even scents that are activated as guests explore the dreamscape.

The glory and pain of our formative years never leave us. The awkwardness, the heartache, the moments of soaring joy and the losses that crushed us often feel as real as the day they happened. The Immigration Museum is now plumbing these universal experiences in an immersive exhibition that’ll have you feeling the entire spectrum of human emotion.

Escape rooms are fast becoming one of Melbourne's favourite way to have fun, but it was not always thus. Psychologist Owen Spear and Ali Cheetham brought the concept to Melbourne after falling in love with escape rooms during a trip to Budapest. Their first Melbourne venue was at the bottom of Owen's mother's garden, and the South Melbourne incarnation features new fiendishly created rooms. The original Escape Room has also launched a very 2020 room, called, appropriately, Isolation.

The Coen Brothers really are the dream team, writing, producing, directing and often editing their own work, so it’s fantastic news that Melbourne's Classic and Lido cinemas are celebrating their canon with a jam-packed retrospective of their best work. The season, including all three movies listed above, runs on Thursday (Lido) and Friday (Classic) nights from February 4 until June 4.

Take a look at our ultimate bucket list: 101 fun things to do in Melbourne, plus what makes the city great, from the food to the festivals and everything in between.