The best things to do in Melbourne this weekend

From the orchestral jump scares of Aliens to the lush classicism of Titanic and the trumpet flourishes of Avatar, composer James Horner is responsible for some of cinema’s most memorable scores. This March, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is bringing Hollywood to the laneway city, paying tribute to Horner's illustrious career with three live performances of Art of the Score: James Horner at Hamer Hall. The concert is led by conductor Nicholas Buc, and self-described “film score geeks” Art of the Score podcast co-hosts Andrew Pogson and Dr Dan Golding will be there on the night. They'll delve into the stories behind Horner’s most beloved works and long list of accolades, among which he claims 10 Oscar nominations, two wins, and holds the title for the highest-selling orchestral soundtrack in history — yes, we’re talking about Titanic. The MSO has previously collaborated with Art of the Score on sell-out concerts celebrating the great John Williams and Hans Zimmer. This year, audiences can expect an immersive journey through Horner’s musical universe and back catalogue. Expect songs from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Apollo 13, Aliens, The Rocketeer, Braveheart, Titanic, Avatar and more. The Music of James Horner is coming to Hamer Hall on Friday, March 27 at 7:30pm, Saturday March 28 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 29 at 2pm. Tickets range from $93 to $150. Get yours here.  Better yet? Time Out readers can score 20 per cent off tickets with code TIMEOUT. Cha-ching!

Ready to laugh until you cry? The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is back from March 25 to April 19, serving up nearly a month of punchlines and pure joy in venues across the city. Since its inception in 1987, the festival has grown to become Australia's largest cultural ticketed event – and the third-largest comedy festival in the world, behind Montreal’s Just for Laughs and the Edinburgh Fringe, luring the funniest peeps from around Australia and across the globe. The 2026 program opens on March 25 with the Comedy Allstars Supershow at the Palais Theatre. Get ready to LOL with homegrown faves like Celia Pacquola, Dilruk Jayasinha, Jenny Tian, Josie Long, Nazeem Hussain as well as international talent like Sam Jay (USA), Phil Wang (UK/Malaysia) and David O’Doherty (Ireland). From stand-up and sketch to improv, musical comedy and even film, this year’s line-up is stacked with hilarious heavyweights – think Josh Thomas, Gillian Cosgriff, Lizzy Hoo, Nat Harris, Wil Anderson, Lano & Woodley, Hannah Gadsby, Denise Scott, Urzila Carlson, Matt Okine and Sammy J, plus plenty more international acts. Championing First Nations storytelling remains front and centre, with a shows featuring Leon Filewood, Elaine Crombie, Steph Tisdell, Dale Woodbridge-Brown, Dane Simpson, Kevin Kropinyeri and Tarsh Jago. Beloved annual events also return like The 36th Annual Great Debate featuring six comedy superstars and one fearless moderator; Upfront featuring a line-up of the...

Colour and creativity will burst into bloom when the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show returns to the lush surrounds of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens in Melbourne from March 25-29. Just like this year’s theme 'Kaleidoscope', visitors will enter a world of shifting patterns and perspectives, and are invited to look at gardens from fresh angles of design and sustainability. From intimate urban retreats to immersive landscapes, the five-day event showcases how gardens continue to evolve as places of connection and creative expression. A major drawcard is the Show Garden Competition, where acclaimed designers transform ideas into living landscapes. Visitors can wander through these breathtaking installations before casting their vote for the coveted People’s Choice Award. This year's finalists include landscaping icon Jamie Durie with a visionary garden focused on sustainability, Matt York’s immersive native garden, Emma Doman’s resort-style retreat and Jason Hodges’ purpose-built wedding garden among others. Inside the Royal Exhibition Building, the breathtaking Great Hall of Flowers will once again bloom beneath the grand dome, transforming the historic space into a floral gallery. New for 2026, Growers Avenue will celebrate Australian-grown flowers while The Petal Project will hero a single flower through striking installations. The new Wildplace Children’s Garden offers an imaginative playground inspired by Indigenous perspectives...

It's your last chance to power up, unlock that final level and beat the big boss, because ACMI's Game Worlds is about to be clocked (aka it's finishing up soon). So don't let it be game over before you get a chance to enter this immersive, fully playable exhibition. Perfect for fans of The Sims, Neopets or World of Warcraft, this blockbuster celebration of video games will transport you into the worlds of more than 30 iconic titles, including Final Fantasy XIV Online, Minecraft, Doom and Stardew Valley. Also featured are classics like Maze War and Zork, fan faves with cult followings like The Elder Scrolls Online, and new releases like Guardian Maia. Spanning games from the 1970s right through to this year, you'll be able to check out rare concept art, original design materials, early hands-on protoypes and so much more. There are 44 fully playable experiences (think Celeste speedruns on two huge screens), and four new microgames by emerging and established Aussie game developers have been specially commissioned for the exhibition.   “Our exhibition honours the real-life experiences that are made possible by and through videogames, highlighting the players and developers – and stories that bring videogame worlds to life,” said co-curators Bethan Johnson and Jini Maxwell. Want to take a part of the exhibition home with you? There's limited-edition merch and exclusive books available for purchase at the ACMI shop. Game Worlds is now on at ACMI until March 29. For more...

Want to frolic through a field of flowers? You don't have to wait until spring. Head to Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges to enjoy the Tesselaar KaBloom, Festival of Flowers this autumn. Open daily from Saturday, March 21 to Sunday, April 19, it's a perfect day trip to take during the Easter school holidays.  In case the name sounds familiar, it's because the Tesselaar team are the same peeps who bring us the beloved annual Dutch tulip festival. Wander through fields filled with sunflowers, salvias, marigolds, dahlias and more – just watch out for those snap-happy Instagrammers!   When is the Tesselaar KaBloom Festival on?  The festival runs every day between March 21 to April 19 – yes, even on the Easter weekend public holidays – and it's open from 10am to 5pm.  With more than a million gorgeous blooms across five acres, KaBloom invites visitors to wander through fields of diffferent flowers arranged in stunning designs that blend nature, art and creativity. What else does the Tesselaar KaBloom Festival offer? For something different, take a ride on the ferris wheel to get an aerial view of the floral arrangements. The festival also features a host of kid-friendly events among the flower fields with garden games, obstacle courses and hands-on workshops. Playful characters and storytellers will keep little ones busy and they're sure to love a ride on the tractor train. Add in a vibrant Market Faire that's brimming with handcrafted items, fresh flowers to take home and food...

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. February and March highlights include new releases like Wuthering Heights, Hamnet, Marty Supreme and a special screening of Charli xcx’s mockumentary The Moment. 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 snacks and your friends. Tickets are now available via the website. Want more fun in the sun? Here are the best things to do in Melbourne this December.

When we first glimpse bone-wielding apes careening around a towering, dark monolith in the opening moments of Stanley Kubrick’s epic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, we are awestruck and alarmed by its ominous presence.  So, too, the vast pier of the West Gate Bridge that dominates the Southbank Theatre’s Sumner Stage during labourer-turned-playwright Dennis McIntosh’s new work, West Gate. Simply but astonishingly realised by set and costume designer Christina Smith, the foreboding presence of this towering structure makes Cassandras of us all.  Even as the showering sparks of its creation pierce the dark, with lighting designer Niklas Pajanti working hand in glove with Smith to deploy the lighting rig as construction gantries, we are bitterly aware that it will fall, much like Troy. Is that a spoiler? Only if you’re oblivious to the tragic history of one of Melbourne’s darkest days.  Just before midday on October 15, 1970, a 112-metre, 2,000-tonne span of the under-construction steel box girder bridge twisted and tore free of its fatally flawed moorings. The cataclysmic plunge of steel and stone erupted in a quagmire of mud and flames.  Still Australia’s biggest industrial disaster to this day, the catastrophe claimed 35 lives, injuring 18 more. The subsequent Royal Commission identified the flawed design of Freeman Fox and Partners, the engineers responsible for another fatal collapse in Wales just a few months earlier, and the removed contractor, World Services and...

Hey Melbourne, the Mormons are back! After wowing audiences in Sydney with plenty of "did they really just say that?” humour, The Book of Mormon is heading to the Princess Theatre from February 6. This somewhat unconventional musical comedy cleaned up at the Tony Awards after it debuted on Broadway in 2011, going on to break box office records and garner near-unanimous critical acclaim when it opened on London’s West End. When tickets for the show’s Australian debut in Melbourne were released in 2015 – nearly a year in advance of opening night – the Princess Theatre recorded its highest pre-sale period of any production in its 159-year history, also going on to win the Helpmann Award for Best Musical. For the uninitiated, The Book of Mormon follows two inept Mormon missionaries from Salt Lake City on their journey to save mortal souls in a corner of Uganda ruled by a one-eyed warlord. It’s the brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone – hence, you can expect a lot of explicit language – along with Avenue Q and Frozen co-creator Robert Lopez.  So what’s the secret of the show’s success? As Time Out London’s Theatre and Dance Editor Andrzej Lukowski wrote, Mormon was always going to be a hit, but what made it into the Mormania phenomenon is the fact that non-South Park fans love it too. The songs are excellent. Filthy, witty and outrageous, but also sumptuous and note-perfect, they nod to the golden age of the American musical.  As for how the show has...

Step into a garden of ideas at the Potter Museum of Art, where three familiar figures from nature – a velvet ant, a flower and a bird – will encourage you to rethink what intelligence really means.  A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird is a new exhibition curated by the internationally renowned curator Chus Martínez that draws on works from the University of Melbourne's art, biology and classics collections, alongside contemporary commissions and performances, to propose a radical rethinking of how knowledge is made and distributed across species and materials.  Structured around the velvet ant, the flower and the bird, each 'being' carries a symbolism: the velvet ant, inspired by recent scientific research into its light-absorbing body, represents radical adaptation and material intelligence; the flower is there to embody renewal and creative transformation; and the bird, drawing on studies of flocking behaviour, points to the power of collective intelligence. Historic artefacts and contemporary artworks sit side by side, forgoing the usual exhibition hierarchies between disciplines, objects and media. Visitors to the exhibit will move through an environment and let their imagination take the lead. Rather than presenting knowledge as fixed or linear, Martínez invites audiences to think relationally – to consider intelligence as something shared across living systems, environments and technologies. The exhibition features work by a wide-ranging group of Australian and...

From Cleopatra and Mark Antony's empire-toppling romance to Romeo and Juliet's family-defying affair, love has often been an act of rebellion. Rebel Heart: Love Letters and Other Declarations takes matters of the heart seriously in this sweeping, immersive new exhibition at the State Library, drawing on its extraordinary archives to trace how people have dared to love across centuries of Australian history. The exhibition runs for almost a year and brings together handwritten letters, private diaries, rare manuscripts and deeply personal objects to weave a tapestry of passion, heartbreak and devotion. You’ll encounter Victorian-era same-sex couples living together against the odds, a mid-century interracial marriage that challenged the White Australia policy, and the prison romance between bushrangers Captain Moonlight and James Nesbitt. Fragile keepsakes are also featured in the show, including a haunting 1853 mourning brooch woven from lovers’ hair, alongside letters that read like a late-night confessional. What makes Rebel Heart especially distinctive is how it bridges the past with the present. Historical stories are amplified by newly commissioned music from Australian artists Angie McMahon, Mindy Meng Wang, Mo’Ju and Amos Roach, each responding to real love stories held in the library’s collection.  The exhibition also explores how rebellion and romance play out today – from DMs and fandoms to fan fiction and even AI relationships. It’s set to be a smart,...