Brunswick Music Festival returns from 1 to 8 March with community celebrations, international collaborations and programming that stretches far beyond traditional venues.
Now in its 38th year, the festival produced by Merri-bek City Council and curated by local legend MzRizk delivers a week of sound that spills across Brunswick Ballroom, Howler, Quad Club, Gilpin Park, the local library and unexpected corners of the neighbourhood.
From Sicilian percussion masters to Philadelphia noise-rap experimentalists, kids punk bands to New Orleans-style brass explosions, this year’s program showcases Brunswick as Melbourne’s most sonically adventurous postcode.
Brunswick Music Festival
- 1 to 8 March
- Various venues across Brunswick
- Tickets via brunswickmusicfestival.com.au
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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Big brass and Southern Italian ritual
Horns of Leroy bring their New Orleans-inspired brass bonanza to Brunswick Ballroom on 8 March, promising to wobble the very foundations of the venue. Formed in 2013, the seven-piece have become one of Australia’s premier brass bands, gracing stages from the MCG to Dark Mofo with their fusion of traditional street band sounds and Melbourne pub energy. They’re joined by Jake Amy Trio and MO’JU on DJ duties for what’s shaping up to be one of the month’s sweatiest nights.
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Earlier in the festival, Brunswick Ballroom hosts a headlining collaboration between Crown Ruler and Research Records on 5 March. The bill pairs Alfio Antico & Go Dugong with Khaled Kurbeh and RAFET. Antico is considered the undisputed master of the tammorra and frame drum, a Sicilian musician who has radically transformed traditional percussion with unprecedented timbres and phrasing. Milan-based producer Go Dugong layers electronic textures over Antico’s primordial rhythms in a collaboration that merges archaic heartbeat with contemporary experimentation.
The neighbourhood expands
BMF’s Neighbourhood Noise program activates spaces across Merri-bek with live performances, installations and activities that blur the line between gallery, library and music venue. Brunswick Library hosts Riot Baby and Thndo on 7 March in a free, family-friendly afternoon that captures the festival’s community spirit. Riot Baby play punk for kids, drawing inspiration from Australian children’s books and playground chants while tackling topics rarely heard in music aimed at younger audiences. Zimbabwean-born soul powerhouse Thndo, widely known as Melbourne’s First Lady of Soul and R&B, brings serious vocal firepower to the library setting.
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Next Wave presents an installation by Worimi multidisciplinary artist Leon Rodgers at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute throughout Sydney Road Street Party on 1 March. Titled Gulan, the audiovisual work brings playful sensory territory to one of Brunswick’s most architecturally distinctive spaces.
At Counihan Gallery, Burmese singer-songwriter Naung Yoe performs live in response to visual artist Ma Ei’s exhibition Pit Yourself Against – showcasing newly created video and photographic self-portraits, revealing the fragility, resilience and emotional depth of human experience.
Free finale at Gilpin Park
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The festival closes with a free outdoor concert at Gilpin Park on 8 March, running from 2pm to 8pm. Butchulla songman Fred Leone teams up with Radio For Ghosts alongside Allysha Joy, Cool Out Sun, Jace Clayton and Pirritu for an afternoon under the trees. Leone is one of three Butchulla songmen, bringing traditional knowledge to contemporary Australian culture through songs performed in language. The entire community is invited to recline on the grass for what promises to be one of Melbourne’s most distinctive free concerts of the year.
Club nights and unexpected spaces
Quad Club hosts several highlights throughout the week. Dreamache presents Eternity is a Terrible Thought on 4 March, a multi-sensory theatre and electronic music experience featuring Rita Bass. The Melbourne producer and live act creates bass-heavy electronic music layered with ethereal vocal harmonies, blending experimental textures with broken beats and pulsating low end.
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DJ Haram arrives at Quad Club on 5 March with support from SKNOW, Stev Zar, HipHopHoe and Megatronic. The Brooklyn-based producer has built a reputation for integrating bass and club music with analog sound design, Middle Eastern instrumentation and experimental noise. Her 2025 debut album Beside Myself on Hyperdub cemented her position as one of electronic music’s most distinctive voices.
New partnerships bring programming to unexpected corners of Brunswick. Found Sound hosts a pop-up exhibition celebrating 10 years of WORNG Electronics, while That Paper Joint returns with Books, Tunes & Snips, continuing the weird and wonderful collaboration with BMF. Brunswick Picture House presents BEATS WORKING on opening night, rounding out a program that finds music in every available space.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Brunswick Music Festival.
