Things to do in Melbourne today

The government has announced closures of restaurants and bars in metropolitan Melbourne, but takeaway and delivery services are still available. This is a list of restaurants and bars still able to offer you food from their menus, rescue packs and even produce boxes that can get you through these tough times.

With many of us spending more time just pottering around the house, there’s never been a better time to try your hand at being a literal potter. Although they’ve had to close their studio doors to the public, a bunch of ceramics studios have adapted their businesses so you can get busy moulding your own mugs, vases and assorted sculptural vessels at home. Go on, allow the tactile task of rolling clay between your hands to remind you of the sensation of human touch as you re-enact that classic scene from the 1990 romantic hit Ghost.

In 2018, Tyler Mitchell became the first African-American photographer to shoot the cover of US Vogue, when his image of Beyoncé became the face of the magazine’s September edition. Mitchell is one of 15 emerging and established Black photographers featured in The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, which comes to Bunjil Place Gallery as part of the Photo 2020 International Festival of Photography.

Australia’s Indigenous nations are the oldest living cultures in the world, with at least 60,000 years worth of history, knowledge and art underpinning them. But while the symbols and stories of Indigenous communities are ancient, it has only been in the last 50 years that they have been shared as art. The NGV’s Marking Time exhibition examines the iconography of Indigenous nations from across Australia, and how these markings have endured and evolved through time. The best part? You can view it extensively online right now.

Melbourne International Jazz Festival's 23rd year looks a little different. The festival has gone online to keep presenting top the range jazz to Melburnians during the crisis. After launching in May, MIJF is back at the end of June with its These Digital Times program. From 10.30am on Saturday, June 27, MIJF will be livestreaming perfomances from some of the best jazz performers from Australia and around the world (highlights include Joey DeFrancesco and Federico Casagrande). There will also be workshops for kids and families and career development panels, all of which will be broadcast for free on YouTube.

Seeing as restaurants will be operating at partial capacity for the foreseeable future, Robert Perrone from Premier Foods is now selling (and delivering) truffles around the Melbourne metro area for the whole truffle season. Depending on the truffle, you're looking at $1.50-$2 a gram. The truffles he is currently selling around town are from Ballarat, but will soon switch over to Manjimup from WA as the season progresses. In case you're wondering, Perrone is the real deal. Restaurants that he stocks truffle to include Ides, Amaru and Carlton Wine Room.

It is important (perhaps now more than ever) to prioritise our health, both physically and emotionally. With that in mind, Handpicked Wines is hosting virtual yoga and wine tasting classes every Saturday through until mid July. The online yoga and wine classes are led by experts and held live over Zoom. First guests participate in a 45-minute yoga class followed by a 30-minute wine tasting session hosted by a Handpicked Wines sommelier. The online sessions cost $95 but includes three bottles of wine that are sent to your house prior.

Usually, we’re all for people getting out and having a rollicking good time in Melbourne. However, that’s proving to be difficult this year, so you’ll have to enjoy the best of the city at home. It’s a task made slightly easier by the fact that you can now get a box of all-Melbourne goodies delivered to your doorstep. Each Melbourne Box contains five products from local makers. You’ll get something to eat, to drink, something for your home, your body and some art. The specific items are randomly selected, although you do get to choose between tea or coffee because some divides are too deep to cross.

The State Library of Victoria’s physical doors may be shut for the time being, but it doesn’t mean you can’t explore the best parts of this mega library online. Everyone now has access to the library’s massive digital collections, which includes thousands of photographs, personal manuscripts, magazines, journals, newspapers, comics, theatre programs and advertisements – even video archives. You can also access more than 19,000 ebooks, music and a huge range of journals and articles.

When things are bad (*cough* 2020 *cough*) sometimes all you can do is laugh. That will certainly be easier thanks to the news that Adam Hills is hosting a new digital comedy night. Every Thursday nights from June 25, Hills is hosting Easey Comedy – a Zoom comedy night featuring some of Australia’s most rib-splitting comedians. Line-ups will be different every week, but we can confirm at-home audiences will be able to enjoy jokes from the likes of Dilruk Jayasinha, Cal Wilson, Nath Valvo, Tom Ballard, Michelle Brasier and Jude Perl in the first week alone.

Does anything feel a little… familiar about the current circumstances? Yes, metro Melbourne is going back into lockdown for another six weeks for what we’re calling Iso 2: The Virus Strikes Back (alternative titles include Iso 2: Electric Boogaloo and Lockdown 2: 2 Lock 2 Down). The current circumstances have got us feeling a little bit of déjà vu, which is defined as the feeling “that one has lived through the present situation before”. It’s all very familiar – so why not lean into it by watching some of our favourite films featuring time loops. 

We've collected the best ways for you to experience Melbourne while staying at home here into this hub, so you can stay sane, comfortable, fed, watered and entertained at home – while helping small business owners, hospitality workers and creative people who desperately need your business.