Things to do in Melbourne today

Mary Shelley was onto something when she penned the sci-fi and horror-inspiring novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus – namely arrogant men messing with stuff they shouldn’t, stuffing things up for everyone else. That, and we can’t get enough of a poor, persecuted emo ‘monster’ who just wants to be loved. Her genius has sparked life into a bazillion adaptations since then. Universal Pictures produced eight films, beginning with James Whale’s Frankenstein, followed swiftly by Bride of Frankenstein. Hammer bashed out seven. Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey made a horny one. There have been straight plays, operas, songs and side quests, like Penny Dreadful, Poor Things or The Bride!But of all the skewwhiff looks at the source material, re-stitching its decomposing fleshy parts into something else entirely, multi-hyphenate funny man and The Producers mastermind Mel Brooks’ hilarious Young Frankenstein is one of the most genuinely inventive.  An outrageous spoof, co-written with Willy Wonka’s Gene Wilder, Young Frankenstein was so good they made it twice. With the help of book co-writer Thomas Meehan, Brooks adapted his own adaptation into the Tony-nominated 2007 musical that’s currently playing at St Kilda’s Theatre Works. It’s aliiiiiiivvvvveeeee? Who’s involved? This riotous new staging, presented near-deliriously by StageBugs Productions, is directed with the madcap energy by Christian Cavallo (Footloose). He casts a game Josh Direen as the preening and puffed-up Dr...

Love a good pop-up that’s packed with cool stuff – but hate that it disappears before you’ve had a chance to go back? Melbourne streetwear label Tild has heard your collective groan and is making shopping a bit easier by having its longest pop-up yet. Running from October 4 to November 1, it gives you an entire month to browse and buy their merch. Founded in 2021 by Melbourne sisters Tilly and Lucy Comb, Tild is all about blending streetwear with vintage-inspired style. Think jackets, hoodies, trackpants and singlets splashed with bold prints and playful graphics, as well as everyday staples with a retro twist. Get to this pop-up at 240 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy that’s open daily from 10am to 4pm. So, take your time and find yourself something fun. Get all the updates via their Instagram. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED:  Here's more to see and do when you're in Fitzroy Crown Melbourne's $200-million redevelopment is picking up speed

Ever wanted to soar above a rainforest canopy or wander beneath the frozen surface of the polar seas? Melbourne Museum invites you to do just that with Our Wondrous Planet, a breathtaking, immersive exhibition celebrating the interconnected magic of life on Earth. Spanning reef, rainforest, ice and soil, this multisensory experience drops visitors into the planet’s most vital ecosystems. Room-sized projections, interactive moments and storytelling bring the natural world to life. More than 800 remarkable animals from across the globe take centre stage, appearing in environments that pulse, swirl and shimmer. Witness the beginnings of a coral reef, come face-to-face with rainforest icons, glide through icy waters and explore hidden root networks and organisms working quietly beneath our feet. The exhibition is anchored by distinct spaces: Our Family, showcasing animals from the much-loved Wild gallery and exploring the human place in the tree of life; Our Roots, a reflective First Peoples-led space centred on care, reciprocity and connection to Country; and Our Moment, an interactive zone encouraging visitors to work together on the planet’s biggest challenges. What sets Our Wondrous Planet apart is its blend of First Peoples and scientific knowledge, showing how everything on Earth is connected and how small human actions can make a difference. Family-friendly, visually spectacular and thought-provoking, this exhibition entertains while leaving plenty to reflect on. Our...

Sax in the city? Yes, please. The Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) returns from October 16–25, bringing world-class jazz to venues across the city. Since 1998, MIJF has championed contemporary jazz – from cutting-edge improvisers to legendary names – with more than a third of performances free to attend. The 2026 program is filled with acclaimed jazz artists, including: The Teskey Brothers: Sidney Myer Music Bowl, October 17 Beloved Australian band The Teskey Brothers will headline the MIJF launch with a special tenth anniversary performance of their breakthrough album Half Mile Harvest, bringing their signature blend of soul, blues and vintage sounds to the stage. Returning to their Melbourne roots, the band will perform the album in full, plus favourites spanning the band’s acclaimed catalogue. Joining them will be trombonist legend Fred Wesley backed by The New JBs, plus ARIA Award-winning artist Emily Wurramara. Rebirth Brass Band: 170 Russell, October 18 Bringing the unmistakable spirit of New Orleans to Melbourne, Grammy Award-winning Rebirth Brass Band will make their Australian debut at MIJF. Hailed as a “New Orleans institution” by The New York Times, the band blends second-line rhythms with jazz, funk, soul and R&B for a high-energy sound that gets crowds moving. From the streets of the French Quarter to stages around the world, Rebirth Brass Band has become a defining force in New Orleans music, delivering joyful, brass-powered performances for...

Do you ever look around at the increasingly disastrous times we find ourselves in and wonder how we got here? Or who got us here?  When we think of folks who act like a god only to fall victim to hubristic overreach and despair, we leap to Mary Shelley’s fictional Frankenstein and his spurned, rightfully furious ‘monster’ in fiction, or to real life and J Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atom bomb, the man who infamously quoted the Bhagavad Gita, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” There’s another: Dr Joseph Weizenbaum, the subject of Eliza, MTC’s riveting new work by celebrated Melbourne playwright Tom Holloway, directed by Paige Rattray. I know Frankenstein and Oppenheimer, but who are Weizenbaum (and Eliza)? Forget Claude and ChatGPT, Eliza is the original AI ‘chatbot’, created by Weizenbaum in 1966. He was a computer whizz at MIT whose family escaped Nazi Germany thirty years earlier, fleeing to the US when he was still a kid.  Far from birthing an intelligent new lifeform – AI isn’t that – Weizenbaum was being a bit of a smart arse, purposefully creating Eliza as a software program designed to mimic the question-reframing language of therapists. Not because he wanted to make therapy easier and cheaper to access, but because unlike sci-fi authors including Asimov, he wanted to prove there was nothing close to human about AI. Eliza was a mimic, faking its way through the Turing test, yet easily out-sentience-d by a parrot.  Intriguing! So who’s involved...

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,...

Melbourne's most fashionable time of year is upon us once again. ICYMI, Melbourne Fashion Week (M/FW) will return from October 19-25, putting a spotlight on the city's diverse fashion scene. Expect incredible outfits (both on the runways and in the audience, our city's street style scene is unmatched), lots of events and plenty of shopping inspo. This year's theme is 'Wear the Moment', which is all about embodying self-expression and inclusivity – fitting for Australia's most stylish city (if we do say so ourselves). More than 300 local designers, big and small, will show off their latest designs over the course of the week. There's over 100 free and ticketed events including premium runways, independent runways, workshops, panel discussions and clothing swaps. In a M/FW first, the opening ganbu marra runway, which spotlights First Nations designers including Atyene Clothing, Ebony Noire, Kaninda, and Marnin Studiowill be held at the NGV. The iconic Student Collections Runway will return to the heritage wool trade site Younghusband, where fashion design students from Box Hill Institute, RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles, Whitehouse Institute of Design Australia and LCI Institute showcase the three-piece collections they have designed and brought to life over the year. The City Square Runway, featuring designers including Clothing The Gaps, ELK the Label and HoMie has a combination of ticketed seats and free standing room – a great free runway to go to if you can get in...

Remember when we collectively discovered just how obsessed men were with the Roman Empire? Consider this your warning: a major, Melbourne-exclusive exhibition is officially bringing Ancient Rome to Melbourne Museum in April 2026.  Rome: Empire, Power, People is a large-scale exhibition developed by Museums Victoria in collaboration with Italian partners, drawing on extraordinary loans from the Museo Nazionale Romano and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze. More than 150 original objects dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE will be on display from April 1 to October 25, 2026 – all shown in Australia for the very first time. You can expect original statues, mosaics, frescoes, jewellery and everyday artefacts that trace Rome’s story from the fallout of Julius Caesar’s assassination through the rise of the Empire and its eventual collapse. The exhibition will foreground the lived experience of being an ancient Roman – think experiencing the theatrics of the gladiator arena, the hustle and bustle of marketplaces, domestic life inside Roman homes, and the luxury and politics that shaped the Eternal City. Immersive scenography and multimedia elements will also be used to transport Melburnians through imperial splendour and ordinary life, revealing how Roman ideas of power, governance and spectacle continue to shape the modern world. Beyond the gallery, the Roman theme is taking over the whole museum. Expect Italian-inspired food and drink offerings, exclusive...

Love video games? You’re invited to step inside one at ACMI, where acclaimed Chinese artist Feng Mengbo transforms modern Chinese history into a surreal, interactive adventure. Presented by ACMI and the City of Melbourne’s Now or Never festival, Feng Mengbo: Long March Restart reimagines China’s rapid 20th century modernisation through this retro video game. Inspired by the Long March of 1934-36 (the military retreat of the Chinese Red Army that helped establish Mao Zedong’s rise to power), the artwork takes history into unexpected territory. Visitors can guide a Red Army soldier across two giant screens, navigating a pixelated world filled with supernatural creatures, pop culture characters and historical references. The soldier is armed with an unlikely weapon: Coca Cola cans. The visuals draw on iconic 1980s games including Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter II, while the different levels weave together historical landmarks, Cold War science fiction and retro video game imagery. Feng, who grew up during China’s Cultural Revolution and the later period of economic reform, is a pioneering figure in Chinese digital and interactive art. Feng Mengbo: Long March Restart reflects his fascination with how technology and popular culture can reshape the way we understand history. 'Feng Mengbo: Long March Restart' is on now until January 31, 2027, in the foyer near the ACMI Shop. Entry is free; no bookings are required. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne...

From the bush to our own backyards, the eucalypt has long shaped the Australian landscape and imagination. A new exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art delves into the significance of this iconic tree with more than 163 works and five significant new artist commissions. Opening on July 10, Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree draws on Australian art history and contemporary works from the University of Melbourne's collection, alongside major loans from across the country to explore the tree as a source of creative inspiration. Colonial paintings by John Glover, Eugene von Guérard and Frederick McCubbin will sit alongside 20th century works by Arthur Boyd, Hans Heysen, Albert Namatjira, Grace Cossington Smith and Jessie Traill, as well as contemporary artists like Nici Cumpston, Vincent Namatjira, Joan Ross and Christian Thompson. Translating to “breathing for us” in the Woi Wurrung language, Ngarn Wa’ngal considers the gum tree as both subject and symbol, prompting conversations around Indigenous sovereignty, Australian identity, ecology, climate and the global legacy of the eucalyptus.  A major feature of the exhibition is five new commissions created specifically for the showcase, including a photographic work by Jane E. Brown using early carbon-printing techniques; an installation of seed-filled papier-mâché forms by artist Dean Cross of Worimi descent; a large-scale piece by interdisciplinary artist Megan Evans featuring eucalyptus leaves collected over decades; a...