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A shirtless man wearing a bright orange suit jumps enthusiastically inside a distorted, circular panoramic view of a city square under a sunset sky.
29 Sep – 18 Oct

Melbourne Fringe Festival

  • Festival
  • Comedy

Melbourne Fringe Festival returns with a program of 500+ exciting, boundary-pushing arts events. Curiosity is a spark and Melbourne Fringe Festival is where it catches alight. This year the festival is challenging Melbournians to Turn Towards the Heat.

Melbourne Fringe Festival is Victoria’s longest-running multi-arts festival, platforming the vital voices of our brightest artistic talent for 43 years. Its inclusive programs platform anyone with an artistic project to share, particularly working to showcase First Nations artists, d/Deaf and Disabled creatives, queer storytellers, emerging youth perspectives, and international risk-takers. It offers a focused snapshot of urgent, ambitious art being made right now.

This year festival hubs are located at Trades Hall, Carlton and North Melbourne’s Meat Market.

For information on individual shows, all venues and ticketing visit the website.

Hours

Date Times
Tue 29 Sep
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Wed 30 Sep
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Thu 1 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Fri 2 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sat 3 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sun 4 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Mon 5 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Tue 6 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Wed 7 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Thu 8 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Fri 9 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sat 10 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sun 11 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Mon 12 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Tue 13 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Wed 14 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Thu 15 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Fri 16 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sat 17 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am
Sun 18 Oct
  • All day 12:00am - 12:00am

Location

Victorian Trades Hall Council
54 Victoria St
Carlton 3053

Open in maps location for Victorian Trades Hall Council

Price and bookings

From free to $50

Book online for Melbourne Fringe Festival

Contact details

  • telephone number: 03 9660 9600
  • email address: info@melbournefringe.com.au
  • Visit website for Melbourne Fringe Festival
Instagram page for Melbourne Fringe Festival

Accessibility

  • Accessible toilets
  • Assisted listening
  • Audio description
  • Auslan interpreted
  • Blind/low vision supports
  • Mobility access
  • Quiet spaces
  • Relaxed/low sensory
  • Service animals

All accessibility information is self-reported by the listing owner. It has not been verified by the City of Melbourne.

Part of Melbourne Fringe Festival

A young person with long blonde hair, wearing a  green satin top and making an animated, expressive gesture with hands up near their face against a solid olive-green background.
9 – 18 Oct

Tegan Higginbotham: Follow That Turtle!

Award-winning comedian Tegan Higginbotham is back with an unmissable hour of stand-up gold.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A performer in a black outfit, shorts, and a wide-brimmed black hat stands on a stage with a red floor, holding a large, flowing red cloth like a matador.
28 Sep – 11 Oct

Marketing Man

Satirical chaos that tears the lid off hustle culture, hype mythology, and the dark art of the sell.

  • Comedy
  • Entertainment
A man in three different exaggerated poses against a pink, starry background.
30 Sep – 4 Oct

Twinky Twinky Little Star

Zak shares his gay childhood, his parents' broken gaydar, and his quest to understand gay life.

  • Comedy
  • Entertainment
A theatre production featuring three actors dressed in mid-20th-century period costumes against a dark, moody background.
6 – 10 Oct

Murder in the Market: A Murder Village Improvised Whodunnit

It's Agatha Christie but improvised - in Murder Village, people shop till they drop dead.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A performer sits at the top of a tall ladder, playing an electric guitar while below them, another performer stands facing away from the camera, holding the ladder steady with uplifted arms.
15 – 18 Oct

Ocker

Ocker is roving circus tearing through the streets on a portable railway track built in real time.

  • Free
  • Family and kids
Woman lying on her back, her legs bent over her head, feet against a window.
29 Sep – 3 Oct

The Boards Above Her Face

An original solo show about a young woman who has the power to transform things into other things.

  • Theatre
  • Entertainment
Woman dressed as a fairy smoking a cigarette and looking grumpy.
6 – 18 Oct

Rama Nicholas in Fairy Smut

Comedy, fantasy and romance collide in this hilariously smutty tale.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A man in a red racing suit with patches sewn all over it, wearing a helmet and glasses with a cartoon godzilla in the background.
7 – 18 Oct

The Year There Were No Monsters

A brand new one-man comedy from the award-winning Shane Adamczak.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
Three actors wearing beige clothes lined up together, noses bleeding and looking startled.
1 – 18 Oct

Nosebleeds

A comedy-sketch show as hilarious as it is dark.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
Burlesque performer wearing a glittery tank top with long fringed gloves, holding a wire.
9 Oct

Club Fringe: Club Blaq

Featuring a line-up packed full of the best queer BIPOC acts and DJs.

  • Nightlife
  • Cabaret
View of Melbourne from across the Yarra River
9 – 18 Oct

Hand Foot in Mouth

A raucous, raw one-woman show and live DJ set by Gen Z's Mary Poppins, Bronte Locke.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A black cat lying on its back under a dramatic spotlight beam with two disembodied arms reaching up to touch it.
28 Sep – 3 Oct

Autonomy of Flo(w)

Experience the raw complexity of being human in a play that tackles the issue of sexual violence.

  • Theatre
  • Entertainment
A person dressed in a formal tuxedo and white gloves holding a small silver tray with two whisky glasses on it.
13 – 17 Oct

Country House: An Improvised Comedy of Manners

Peek into the lives of 1920s high society with Wilde, Wodehouse and Downton Abbey, improvised.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
People standing in a circle around a central figure with confetti raining down.
3 Oct

Congress

Interwoven with music and dance, the work addresses personal visions for our collective future.

  • Free
  • Theatre
Three performers dressed in Regency outfits with fan, book and top hat.
29 Sep – 18 Oct

Jane Austen Improvised

A wholly improvised performance of a tale woven in the moment by the talented cast.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
Artwork showing three identical cars floating against a blue sky with a woman's image repeated running down the right side border
29 Sep – 4 Oct

Get Real

To describe life realistically would take longer than to live it – Get Real is shorter than life.

  • Theatre
  • Entertainment
Dancers lying in grass, each framing each other's head with their arms.
7 – 17 Oct

Break Down

Watch what happens when a group of dancers runs into a pile of compost.

  • Free
  • Dance
A man with several birds around him and a toy cockatoo on his lap, against a bright orange background.
5 – 11 Oct

Oliver Pol: Featherbrained

New Zealand comedian Oliver Pol is a silly goose.

  • Comedy
  • Entertainment
Comedian Matt Bell looking to the side with one eyebrow raised, holding a torch.
2 – 10 Oct

The Ex Files: A Comedy True Crime Tour

Join award-winning comedian Matt Bell to unravel Melbourne’s most shocking true dating crimes.

  • Comedy
  • Tour

Only In The City

Winter Only in the City - Checkout the cold list

Discover more

A group of older adults smiling and interacting at a table during a community gathering.
1 – 31 Oct

Victorian Seniors Festival

Celebrate Victorian Seniors Festival with free and low-cost events for older Victorians.

  • Free
  • Festival
A person in a pink suit with a large headdress and heavy make-up, smiling and holding a microphone.
15 Nov

Opera Up Late with Reuben Kaye

A wild ride through the world of opera with a decidedly queer lens.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A woman wearing an orange dress, an apple  balanced on her head, sitting inside a metal shopping trolley with her legs pointing up over the edge and three large, yellow pom-poms stuck to the trolley.
Until 30 Aug

La Mama Explorations

See exciting, risk-taking, boundary-pushing, thought-provoking works in progress.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
A train station lit up in rainbow lights

Melbourne's best drag shows and queer-friendly venues

Find burlesque life drawing, cabaret and the best queer-friendly venues in Melbourne.

  • Comedy
  • Theatre
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Australian Aboriginal Flag Torres Strait Islander Flag

The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.

We accept the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and are committed to walking together to build a better future. For more information, visit Aboriginal Melbourne.

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