The best things to do in Melbourne this weekend

It's officially that time of year again when the Moonlight Cinema returns to Melbourne for the summer. There's just something special about snuggling into a bean bag and catching a film under the stars in the Royal Botanic Gardens – with an ice cream or a wine in hand, of course.  Australia's favourite outdoor cinema has dropped its summer screening schedule, with tons of  blockbusters, nostalgic favourites and comedies on the program. Catch Christmas highlights like Love Actually, Elf, Home Alone and The Holiday on the big screen from December 9-23, or enjoy a summer blockbuster like Wicked: For Good and special screenings of Eternity and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Kids will love Zootopia 2, Moana 2 and How to Train Your Dragon. To celebrate turning 30, Moonlight Cinema wants you to vote now for your favourite classics like Shrek, Dirty Dancing, The Castle and Jurassic Park – the top picks will star in The People’s Program from January to March. Those looking to splurge can opt for Singapore Airlines' Gold Grass that comes with prime viewing, express entry and food and drinks delivered to your seat. Anothere cool option is the Connoisseur Lounge ticket that includes a bean bed plus a yum Connoisseur ice cream. And did you know the Moonlight Cinema is pooch friendly? For the first time ever you'll also be able to order a doggie bag meal from the food menu thanks to Lyka. Doggy date night, anyone? Screenings kick off at sundown, so bring your picnic rug, your...

Melbourne, start your engines. F1: The Exhibition has zoomed into town, marking its first-ever appearance in the Asia-Pacific region. After sell-out runs in Madrid, London and Amsterdam, the globally acclaimed show has made a pit stop at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, transforming it into an adrenaline-fuelled hub for motorsport fans. Part museum, part immersive experience, the exhibition will trace Formula 1’s past, present and future through six expansive galleries, with a seventh new section devoted to Australia’s own racing legends. Expect everything from championship-winning cars and rare memorabilia to video interviews and archive footage that captures the sport’s greatest rivalries and most spectacular victories. Visitors begin their journey in 'Once Upon a Time in Formula 1', charting seven-plus decades of drama before stepping inside 'Design Lab', a behind-the-scenes look at the factories of Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren. 'Drivers and Duels' pays tribute to legends like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, while 'Revolution by Design' explores how engineering innovation and human daring have continually pushed the limits. The exhibition’s emotional heart, 'Survival', displays the remains of Romain Grosjean’s scorched Haas car from his 2020 Bahrain crash, a stark reminder of the sport's danger. Visitors then arrive at 'The Pit Wall', a cinematic wrap-up that relives Formula 1’s most unforgettable moments. Melbourne’s edition adds...

If you’re looking for a magical night out in the city, the neon-lit Maho Magic Bar is back after sold-out shows and rave reviews from their 2023 season in Chinatown, and this time it’s found a new home at Melbourne’s new entertainment hub, Spiegel Haus. Inspired by Japan’s rich history with magic, this immersive 60-minute experience comes from Broad Encounters (the team behind A Midnight Visit) and brings a line-up of magician superstars direct from Japan, performing a mix of brand-new tricks and audience favourites.  From November 25, step into the whimsical cocktail bar and be whisked away to Tokyo where expert magicians perform up-close magic alongside delicious cocktails. There's no stage for the performers here as the intimate show will take place right at your table, where you'll assist the magicians in their bamboozling sleight-of-hand magic. Japan’s best magicians will surprise and delight visitors, incorporating debonair storytelling, mind-blowing illusions and kawaii charm. While you enjoy the show, you can order from a menu of bespoke cocktails mixed by a Japanese master mixologist. Or if you're after a more traditional libation, try authentic Japanese sake, whisky, shochu and rare spirits like umeshu.  If you're prepared to be dazzled, this experience will surely do the trick. Maho Magic Bar is performing multiple shows a day between Tuesdays and Sundays with adult shows (recommended for ages 12+) in the evening and family-friendly matinees. Book a ticket, a...

As is Melbourne tradition now, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is returning to the stage once again this festive season. Running until December 24, the smash-hit staging of the timeless holiday story will be playing at the Comedy Theatre.  A Christmas Carol was the most-awarded play of 2021, sweeping the Tonys with five wins. Two Tony Award winners themselves created the magical rendition: director Matthew Warchus (Matilda the Musical) and playwright Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The production delivers striking staging, moving storytelling and 12 traditional Christmas carols, including ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Silent Night’. The cast announced for 2025 includes Lachy Hulme as Ebenezer Scrooge, alongside an exceptional cast of talented performers including Stephanie Lambourn and Tony Cogin. 'A Christmas Carol' is showing at the Comedy Theatre until December 24, 2025. For more information and to book your tickets, head to the website. Read our four-star review of the 2023 production here: One of the defining aspects of Christmas that delights and frustrates, depending on your inclination, is its inexorability; it comes around again and again, like the white horse on a carousal. Maybe this will also be the case with the Old Vic production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which proved a great success last year and is back to spread its Yuletide cheer around the Comedy Theatre once more. The central change – in fact, the only significant change – is the...

Silly season is upon us – if you’re ready to pop the Champers, laugh ’til your belly hurts and revel in tricks you didn’t know were humanly possible, strap in for a glittering night at Blanc de Blanc Encore.  The cabaret spectacle lands at Melbourne’s brand-new Spiegel Haus in late October as the headline affair. The pop-up entertainment precinct has set up camp on the rooftop of the Golden Square Car Park on Lonsdale Street ready to dazzle Melburnians.  Blanc de Blanc Encore fuses a delectable mix of circus, cabaret, jazz and comedy (with a couple of bottles of bubbles for good measure) for an effervescent night out – leave the kids at home for this one. Blanc de Blanc Encore is the second instalment of, you guessed it, Blanc de Blanc, when it visited Melbourne in 2017. Don’t fret if you didn’t see the first one – you’ll enjoy the encore every bit as much as a standalone. It’s been a hit internationally, and arrives off the back of extended Brisbane and Sydney seasons. Watch Blanc de Blanc Encore at the Spiegel Haus Melbourne from October 31. Group and special events packages are available just in time for Chrissy party planning. Book your tickets here.

Love it or hate it, Christmas is almost upon us. And just as you can be sure that Michael Bublé is slowly defrosting and getting ready to croon the festive season away, and Mariah Carey is counting the fat stacks that pile up on cue as ‘All I Want for Christmas’ goes back on high rotation – you know that the battered DVD of one particular British rom-com at your mum’s house will also be back on steady rotation, actually.  Love Actually is the festive flick that never gets old, but if you want to fall in love with it all over again, grab a ticket for this special live viewing experience. Following sell-out tours across the UK and in Australia the last few years, Love Actually in Concert is coming back to Melbourne just in time for Old Saint Nick’s next whip around.  Pack the tissues, as this experience features a full live orchestra performing the hit soundtrack as the film is projected onto a screen. Love (and Christmas) will be all around you, and so the feeling grows. Get ready to question how many lobsters were present at the birth of Jesus Christ, and fire up at Alan Rickman and his saucy secretary all over again (Emma Thompson’s cry to Joni Mitchell will really slap with an orchestral backup, to be fair). Melburnians can get in on the holly jolly action on December 21 and 22 at Melbourne Town Hall. For more information and to grab your tickets, head to the website. Want more? Check out the best of Melbourne theatre and musicals this month.

Born just a year apart, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo (the visionary behind Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market) couldn’t have come from more different worlds – but both knew how to tear up the fashion rulebook. Their designs dismantled ideas of beauty, gender and taste, and now Melbourne gets a world-first chance to see their radical vision side by side. Open now at the NGV, Westwood | Kawakubo is a showcase of more than 140 boundary-breaking designs. Many are drawn from the NGV’s own holdings – an extraordinary cache of 300-plus Kawakubo pieces and more than 100 by Westwood – making this one of the most important showcases of their work anywhere in the world.  The exhibition is arranged thematically, moving from punk’s anarchic spirit in the 1970s to the avant-garde silhouettes of today. Expect explorations of their shared obsessions with historical dress, radical cutting techniques and subversions of gender norms, alongside rare runway footage, archival photography and film. There are plenty of highlights: punk ensembles once worn by the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie Sioux; the tartan Anglomania gown famously modelled by Kate Moss; Sarah Jessica Parker’s wedding dress from Sex and the City: The Movie; Rihanna’s sculptural ‘petal dress’ from the Met Gala; and key Comme des Garçons collections like Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body (SS97) and Uncertain Future (SS25). A centrepiece gallery pits Westwood’s sweeping 18th-century ballgowns against Kawakubo’s...

We're just as sad as you are that cherry blossom season is over, but the good news is that it heralds the start of the cherry-picking season. And if you can't get enough of those sweet and juicy red morsels, then make your way to CherryHill Orchards this summer to pick and eat as many cherries as your heart desires. This year's cherry-picking season will kick off on November 10 at CherryHill's 40-hectare orchard in Coldstream. On November 24, CherryHill's original orchard in Wandin East will follow suit and open its gates to eager pickers.  Sessions last for two hours, and cherries are charged per kilogram – trust us when we say these are some of the largest, sweetest cherries going around. But as you're picking, feel free to eat as many as you like! The fun doesn't stop at picking cherries; the orchard will host on-site food trucks and stalls hawking food and cherry-flavoured products. On top of the famed cherry ice cream, you can also shop pantry goods like cherry vinaigrette, cherry syrup, cherry barbecue sauce and cherry glaze. You can also bring your own picnic, or pre-order a box of goodies to enjoy on the orchard grounds. And if you visit on a weekend or public holiday, you'll be treated to the sweet sounds of live tunes performed by a rotating line-up of local musos. The cherry-picking festival will run until late December at the Coldstream orchard, and until early January at the Wandin East orchard. For more information and to book your spot head to the CherryHill...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Melbourne, and to help us ring in the festive season, the City of Melbourne has announced the return of its merry, month-long Christmas Festival. From November 28 to December 25, our city will come alive with family-friendly (and mostly free!) events that are sure to turn any Grinch into a believer.  The Christmas cheer begins with the lighting of our beloved 17.5 metre tree in Fed Square on November 28. Wander around to see tons of baubles and decorations adorning everything from Bourke Street Mall to Melbourne Town Hall.  The festive fun includes the supersized Crown Christmas River Show lighting up Southbank each night with laser lights and projections; the iconic Myer Christmas Windows at Bourke Street Mall (with a Lego-themed display); Santa and a crew of stand-up paddleboarders making their way down the Yarra; Christmas films and bubble shows at the Capitol; and choirs at City Square every Thursday evening. Our tip: check out the 12 Days of Christmas, a new trail through our laneways with an Aussie twist on a classic carol. Oh, and the best part? Most of the attractions are free, aside from the bubble show and Christmas Cinema. Find out more here.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. Looking for more festive activities? These are the best places to Christmas lights in Melbourne.

Ho, ho, ho! Meblbourne's beloved Christmas Wonderland event is back, bigger and more festive than ever. This family-friendly event is running from November 28 to December 24 at Caulfield Racecourse. The tinsel-filled extravaganza will delight the littlies, with a line-up of fun activities to enjoy, including a roller skating rink, carnival games, jumping castles, a craft village, gingerbread house decorating, storytelling and even a live Care Bears show. Kids will also be able to write a letter to Santa, and post it at the North Pole Post Office. There will be all kinds of characters to meet and grab photos with, including elves, Rudolph, the Grinch, Mrs Claus and even the big man in red himself (so you better make sure you've been on his nice list!). This immersive, walk-through experience runs for three hours and refreshements (both hot and cold food) will be available on-site. For more information and to purchase tickets, head to the website. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. Looking for more ways to celebrate Christmas in Melbourne? Check out this festive guide.