Feel Like a Trip to Melbourne? Here’s What’s On in 2026

Melbourne’s 2026 calendar is stacked. Some weekends are going to be filled with comedy shows and food events, then during others sport takes over whole neighbourhoods, or music plays all through the night. Here’s how to plan a visit around the festivals and events that make 2026 one of Melbourne’s best years to visit yet!

Melbourne’s Busy Festival Calendar

Don’t get us wrong, Melbourne is a fun city to spend time in even without a festival or event. The food is good, the neighbourhoods are social, and there’s a natural ease to being out and about. But fold festival season into that and you’ve got a whole world of possibility.

Land in Melbourne on the right week in 2026 and your plans simply get handed to you. Some periods revolve around overflowing stadiums, late nights of music, and inner-city streets buzzing well past midnight. Others stretch out over weeks of comedy shows, food events, and cultural festivals that turn ordinary venues into busy street parties.

And a trip can take very different shapes depending on who you’re with. Taking a trip with the grandparents? Plan a visit to a cultural festival or literature event where exhibitions, performances, or cultural programmes steal the show. Or completely switch it up and book a music festival with friends ready for late nights, and packed venues.

The appeal is that Melbourne’s event schedule? It truly supports everyone’s interests at once.

What’s on in Melbourne in 2026

In 2026, Melbourne’s calendar is full of long festivals, big weekends, and city-wide events that spill into theatres, parks, pubs, and streets. These are the ones worth planning a trip for.

St Kilda Festival

Dates: 14–15 Feb

St Kilda Festival takes over St Kilda’s foreshore this weekend, with multiple outdoor stages running from midday into the evening. Expect a heavy focus on Australian artists, free entry across the entire site, and a crowd that swaps between beach, parkland, and live sets throughout the day. Food trucks, pop-up bars, and family zones sit alongside the music, making it easy to spend a full summer day by the water with a background of music, if that’s what you like.

Holi Festival Melbourne

Dates: 28 Feb – 1 Mar

Held across parks and open spaces on 28 February and 1 March, Holi Festival Melbourne centres on daytime colour throws, live DJs, and dance performances. Indian street food overflow with classic snacks and sweets, with music and activity zones super spread out across the city. Most visitors drop in for a few hours, time a colour throw and grab some food to eat in the park.

Antipodes Festival (Greek Street Party)

Dates: 28 Feb – 1 Mar

Running along Lonsdale Street in the CBD, Antipodes Festival celebrates Melbourne’s wonderful long-standing Greek community; it’s one of the largest outside Greece. The street closes to traffic for live music, traditional dance performances, and rows of food stalls serving classic Greek dishes and pastries. Eat, drink, listen, watch and dance this weekend!

Lunar New Year at NGV

Date: 22 Feb

Held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Lunar New Year at NGV features a full day of scheduled performances, food stalls, and cultural demonstrations celebrating the Year of the Horse. The program typically includes lion dances, live music, calligraphy, and hands-on activities, spread across the NGV forecourt and gallery spaces. Events run during the day, entry is free, and most people visit for an hour or two alongside exhibitions in the arts precinct.

PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival

Dates: 14 – 28 Feb

Fashion takes over venues across the city during PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, with a packed program of runway shows, talks, and public events. Australian designers headline the schedule, showing new collections alongside panel discussions, exhibitions, and retail activations that pull fashion out of closed rooms and into the city. Expect a busy mix of industry crowds, dressed-up locals, and visitors building evenings around shows, launches, and late dinners nearby.

Summer Night Market & Book Market (Queen Victoria Market)

Dates: ongoing through Feb/Mar

Open-air evenings at the Summer Night Market and Book Market bring together food stalls, booksellers, and local makers across the market sheds. Street food spans multiple cuisines, with books, art, and small goods set up between aisles, alongside live music and pop-up bars. The markets run repeatedly through February and March, meaning you can visit as often as you wish. Top tip: see if you can work your way around all the different food!

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Dates: 20 – 29 Mar

Ten days of events across the city define the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, with chef-led dinners, tastings, and pop-ups running in restaurants, public spaces, and temporary venues. Programming puts Victorian producers right at the front and centre, paired with visiting chefs and international influences across different price points. Expect ticketed headline events alongside smaller sessions, so you can dip in and out of what you like.

Moomba Festival

Dates: 6 – 10 Mar

Moomba Festival is a totally free, multi-day public festival built around the Yarra River, with events spread between Birrarung Marr, Alexandra Gardens, and the river itself. The program usually includes the Moomba Parade, water-skiing on the Yarra, rowing events, carnival rides, fireworks, and large outdoor concerts. It’s an event that attracts big local crowds during the day, especially families, and it is great as a drop-in event alongside time in the CBD or along the river.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Dates: 25 Mar – 19 Apr

For almost a month, nights in Melbourne revolve around comedy shows during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Hundreds of performances run every night across theatres, pubs, basements, and pop-up venues, with early shows, late shows, and everything in between. Big international names sit alongside plenty of lower priced try-out gigs, which means you can book a headline act or walk into something last-minute (or do both).

Melbourne Writer’s Festival

Dates: 7 – 20 May

Talks and conversations drive Melbourne Writers Festival, which can be found across theatres, libraries, and cultural venues around the city during May. You’ll fine big international names as well as Australian writers, journalists, and thinkers, with sessions covering fiction, politics, culture, and current ideas. Events are ticketed individually and kept relatively short. Disappear back into cafés, bookshops, or long lunches between sessions.

Melbourne Fringe Festival

Dates: 29 Sep – 18 Oct

Across three weeks in spring, the Melbourne Fringe Festival turns small venues, warehouses, bars, and temporary spaces into performance sites. The packed and super diverse program focuses on independent theatre, dance, comedy, and experimental work, with many artists self-producing and testing new material. You should expect short runs, plenty of unconventional formats, and shows that feel very different from the city’s main theatre season.

Melbourne Royal Show

Dates: 24 Sep – 1 Oct

Everyone in Australia loves a Royal Show. For a few weeks each spring, showgrounds on the edge of the city fill with livestock judging, woodchopping, produce competitions, and pavilion displays during the Melbourne Royal Show. Agricultural programming runs all day, while rides, showbags, stunt shows, and evening entertainment take over after hours!

CoRE Melbourne (Debut)

Date: 28 Nov

Late November sees the debut of CoRE Melbourne; a one-day event built around electronic music, immersive visuals, and large-scale production. It’s going to be a good one! The concept centres on high-impact audiovisual design and a lineup aimed at fans of club culture and experimental electronic sounds. With its first edition landing at the end of 2026, CoRE positions itself as a new entry for people looking for something different to the standard live show.

Where to stay in Melbourne

During Melbourne’s busiest festival periods, location and atmosphere matters.

Tucked into Flinders Lane, Adelphi Hotel sits within easy walking distance of theatres, galleries, small venues, and late-night dining. Design-led rooms, a rooftop pool overlooking the city grid, and a compact footprint suit travellers moving between shows, dinners, and nights out rather than spending long hours in their room.