Around Melbourne

Are you ready to laugh so hard it hurts? One of the largest comedy festivals in the world, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) returns next month with a program that promises to be as entertaining as it is expansive.  Since being launched in 1987 by Barry Humphries and Peter Cook, the festival has since grown to become Australia's largest cultural ticketed event offering both family entertainment and show-stopping adult performances. After Montreal's Just for Laughs and the Edinburgh Fringe, the MICF is the third-largest comedy festival in the world and attracts the crème de la crème of comedians from across Australia and around the globe.  In 2025, you can expect a mammoth line-up of international performers such as Ruby Wax (UK/US), Amy Gledhill (UK), Jin Hao Li (Singapore/UK), Ahir Shah (UK), Melanie Bracewell (NZ), Anirban Dasgupta (India), Schalk Bezuidenhout (South Africa) and more.  As for local acts, you can see the likes of Bron Lewis, Claire Hooper, Geraldine Hickey, Gillian Cosgriff, He Huang, Jenny Tian, John Safran, Lous Wall, Nazeem Hussain, Zoë Coombs Marr and so many more. Much-loved annual events such as the 35th Annual Great Debate and Upfront return, alongside the Raw Comedy competition, Deadly Funny and Class Clowns. The Asian All-Stars Gala will return for a second edition, showcasing extroadinary talent from Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and more.  Running from March 26 to April 20 2025, the program is chock-full of stand-up...

This beloved First Nations event is back for its fifth iteration, with the 2025 program – the festival's most ambitious to date – exploring the powerful anchors of legacy, joy, reclamation and akin. 'Yirramboi', which translates to 'tomorrow' in the local languages of the Boonwurrung and Woi-wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations, will take over Melbourne (Naarm) from May 1-11.  This main hive of activity for this year’s festival will centre around the Uncle Jack Charles event space – named after the late Aboriginal actor, activist and great arts Elder. Located in the Malthouse Theatre and Chunky Move, the space will be transformed by installations and performances, including five world premieres and two international works. The festival platforms expressions of culture, identity, unity and truth – and encourages the breaking away from preconceived ideas of First Nations 'art' via experimental practices.  Some of the program highlights include Holding Space, a deeply moving exhibition that invites audiences to reflect on resilience and the enduring ties that bind people to place; The Black Woman of Gippsland, a thrilling theatrical exploration of Victoria's dark past; and banj ba walert: water and possum, a world premiere led by Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Vicki Nicholson-Brown and Wurundjeri, Dja Dja Wurrung and Ngurai Illum-Wurrung woman Stacie Piper that reawakens and renews the cultural practice of possum skin drumming.  And don't miss the bottomless drag brunch at Mabu Mabu...

Calling all bookworms, literature lovers and BookTok obsessives: the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) line-up has just been unveiled. This year’s program reads like a list of the crème de la crème of the 2025 literary world, featuring New York Times best-selling authors, Booker Prize standouts, first-timers and MWF exclusives. The festival will spread big bookish energy across the city and surrounds via four days of workshops, talks, events and panels, running from May 8-11. This time around, the central theme of the program is 'Magical Thinking' – which will explore the power of storytelling as a transformative force and celebrate the magic that lingers long after the final page.  International highlights include Irish authors Marian Keyes and Colm Tóibín; 2024 Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, who will open the festival with a star-studded panel discussion; and UK philosopher AC Grayling, who will tackle the topic on everybody’s lips: the culture wars.  On the local front, catch writers, friends and co-authors Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland sit down to discuss brain health with host Clare Bowditch; listen as Jimmy Barnes recounts the his larger-than-life adventures; or see five First Nations women showcase their artistic practices in writing, poetry, music, performance and art for Blak Magic Women. “Across four packed days this May, some of Australia and the world’s most brilliant and incisive writers and thinkers will gather in our City of Literature to celebrate...