How to do Melbourne Fringe Festival 2024 in style

Prepare for a PG-rated sausage fest at Fed Square this October, where the hot plate meets the stage in a festival-long pop-up dedicated to the act of grilling. What does that all mean, you might ask? Well it’s better seen to be believed. However, we can tell you there will be performance art and a working barbecue with both edible and artistic delights to enjoy.

Start your Melbourne Fringe Festival with ‘Seasoning the Grill’ – a deadly First Nations-led takeover of the Fed Square amphitheatre. Prepare for a night of smoke, dance, DJs, art and mad feeds at this opening night of the festival. The party doesn’t stop there though, every night things will heat up with ‘Cooked: Hot Nights' – where chefs and artists take over the space to collaborate over the BBQ with live music, performance and snacks.

During the day, get sizzling with ‘Cooked: Open Grill’ for a free daytime drop-in series facilitated by artists who'll add flavour to conversations and spice things up with pop-up performances. While ‘Cooked: Grill Privé’ is a dinner party like no other, hosted by the UK’s Ecstacy Cookbook and dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Harrison Ritchie Jones.

Cooked is open from October 1-20, so get your tongs ready for a truly spectacular cook-up. Find out more on the Melbourne Fringe Festival website here.

Creative couple and performance art duo The Huxleys are putting on a show of epic proportions titled ‘The Winner Takes It All’. This large scale participatory event is free with registration, and takes place over two days during the first two weekends of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in the South East. 

‘The Winner Takes It All’ invites ordinary citizens from the LGBTQIA+ community and allies who’ve ever felt excluded by sport into a safe space that is part grand final, part disco. Captured through a series of joyous and surreal photographs, live out your sporting fantasies with no hand-eye coordination required (thank god). 

With a special focus on the LGBTQIA+ community, The Huxleys want “anyone to be a sporting star, a wild spectator or anything in between. In a country where sport constantly overshadows art, this is a way to put the art into the sport.”

To find out more and the register for this event, head to the website here.

No Fringe Festival is complete without entering the Festival Hub: Trades Hall, and we mean it. With hundreds of show all under one roof, a pop-up bar and lounge and a late night club for all-night dancing – you need to make this your one stop shop for everything Fringe. 

If late-night dancefloors, DJ sets and high-art mischief sounds like your vibe, then Club Fringe is the place for you. The bustling club is hidden away inside the Melbourne Fringe Festival Hub: Trades Hall and it’s hosting wild high-concept parties regularly throughout the festival. So see you there.

Head to the Melbourne Fringe Festival website to find out more about what shows are playing at Trades Hall.