Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025 is here to blow your mind with 20 days of absolutely wild open-access artistic adventures.
Running from 30 September to 19 October, Melbourne Fringe Festival returns with over 500 boundary-pushing events that span everything from audience-performed theatre to burlesque Muppet parodies.
Melbourne’s longest-running multi-arts festival continues its 43-year tradition of democratising the arts through its open access program, where anyone with an artistic vision can apply to participate. This inclusive approach has created a festival that platforms First Nations artists, d/Deaf and disabled creatives, queer storytellers, emerging youth perspectives, and international risk-takers across multiple venues throughout the city.
Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025
- 30 September–19 October
- Over 500 events spanning the curated and open programs
- Various venues across Melbourne
- Find out more here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
DECADENCE: 10 Years of YUMMY
View this post on Instagram
- 30 September to 18 October
- Meat Market – Cobblestone Pavilion, North Melbourne
- Tickets here
The camp darlings of world-famous cabaret YUMMY celebrate a decade of transformative drag, circus and burlesque in this 75-minute spectacular. This legacy event features a star-studded cast delivering maximalist entertainment built around themes of legacy, excellence, community and joy. The large-scale celebratory cabaret promises skill, sass and style in an explosive 18+ production.
MZAZA: The Birth and Death of Stars
- 1 October to 5 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom, Carlton
- Tickets here
This award-winning folk music ensemble blends enchanting melodies with mesmerising animated visuals in a cosmic theatrical journey. Led by French-Australian vocalist Pauline Maudy, MZAZA performs rare and exotic instruments alongside stunning collage animation exploring humanity’s connection to the universe. The production draws inspiration from history’s philosophers and astronomers in this 60-minute captivating experience.
Resonance
View this post on Instagram
- 1 October to 4 October
- The Substation, Newport
- Tickets here
James Batchelor and collaborators unite three generations of dancers in this powerful work exploring the archive of late choreographer Tanja Liedtke. The production celebrates dance as a vital language of friendship, community and transformation while responding to Liedtke’s groundbreaking legacy with fresh insight and movement. Friday’s performance includes a post-show Q&A with the artist.
work.txt
View this post on Instagram
- 1 October to 5 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Common Rooms, Carlton
- Tickets here
This award-winning UK theatre piece is performed entirely by the audience in an exploration of contemporary work culture and automation. The interactive show follows a person in a city who has stopped working, with audience members clocking in, taking breaks and working together to uncover the mystery. The production has earned five-star reviews and multiple international awards.
JKS: A COMEDY(?)
View this post on Instagram
- 1 October to 12 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom, Carlton
- Tickets here
Tom Ballard’s new play takes audiences backstage at a weekly stand-up gig where comedians grapple with the death of a comedy legend. The 70-minute production explores the big questions about comedy’s purpose, featuring Jordan Barr, Kevin Hofbauer, Nicky Barry, Tom Ballard and Tiana Hogben. This longlisted Griffin Award play examines what makes something funny and who decides the boundaries.
Bent Burlesque: The Fuppets
View this post on Instagram
- 1 October to 5 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Solidarity Hall, Carlton
- Tickets here
Australia’s Queen of Burlesque presents a riotous Muppet parody blending felt, filth and fabulousness in high-octane vaudeville chaos. The five-night spectacle features Imogen Kelly, Kitty Obsidian, Christa Hughes, Ruby Slippers and Ira Luxuria in a rotation of guest stars ensuring each night differs. Expect fluff muppets, glitter gremlins and ducks on roller skates smashing through the fourth wall.
Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
View this post on Instagram
- 2 October to 12 October
- fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
- Tickets here
This unhinged equestrian rom-com road trip follows Quinn, a middle-aged dressage diva whose idyllic life shatters when his lover dumps him for a younger model. Enter Keegan, a mullet-sporting bogan claiming to be Quinn’s long-lost brother, leading to an increasingly deranged journey up the East Coast. The 60-minute comedy features Alex Aldrich, Lyall Brooks and River Stevens in multiple characters.
Fiasco: A Burke & Wills Musical
View this post on Instagram
- 8 October to 19 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom, Carlton
- Tickets here
Sammy J’s musical comedy reimagines the disastrous 1860 Burke and Wills expedition as a song-filled journey of ego, ambition and colonial omnishambles. Newly uncovered documents reveal the failed explorers were prolific songwriters, penning tunes while trekking from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The production features a full live band bringing these fictional historical songs to life.
Motion Sickness
- 8 October to 12 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Meeting Room, Carlton
- Tickets here
Winners of Melbourne Fringe 2024’s Best Theatre award return with pulsing electronic music and existential crisis exploration. The hour-long performance features urgent live music by Toby Leman and sharp text by Ben Ashby, asking how humanity can stay human in an increasingly inhuman world. The production offers a cathartic hour of fear, rage and hope against modern loneliness.
The Lucky Country
View this post on Instagram
- 13 October to 18 October
- Southbank Theatre, The Lawler, Southbank
- Tickets here
This critically acclaimed original musical explores Australian identity through a 65-minute mix-tape of stories featuring an ensemble of six performers and five-piece band. Created by Vidya Makan and Sonya Suares, the production nods to Australian musical greats while digging deep into themes of belonging and identity. The show includes yidaki performances and celebrates who Australians can be.
Masterpiece
View this post on Instagram
- 14 October to 18 October
- Meat Market – The Stables 1, North Melbourne
- Tickets here
Two clowns, one simple task and live musical accompaniment create this award-winning wordless comedy about art installation gone wrong. Rae Colquhoun-Fairweather and Will Bartolo star as installers trying to hang artwork while an audience watches and Gabbi Bolt scores their every move. The production has won multiple Sydney Fringe Festival awards and promises silly, poetic and deeply funny clowning.
Too Much
View this post on Instagram
- 15 October to 19 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Common Rooms, Carlton
- Tickets here
Lilikoi Kaos presents a solo cabaret mixing circus, comedy, magic and Pasifika heritage exploration. The Hawaiian Hurricane delivers high-level skills with feminism in a joyful reckoning with legacy, difference and defiance. The 60-minute show celebrates taking up space loudly, proudly and unapologetically while transforming self-doubt into triumph.
AUTO-TUNE
View this post on Instagram
- 15 October to 18 October
- Festival Hub: Trades Hall – ETU Ballroom, Carlton
- Tickets here
This innovative gig theatre work follows teenage Silverchair fan Michael who discovers he can time-hop to correct mistakes using auto-tune-like powers. Set in early 2000s Wagga Wagga, the production features fresh indie songs and live video captions in a genre-defying theatre experience. The multimedia performance explores staying human in an age of algorithmic perfection.
Cabaret Time Machine
View this post on Instagram
- 7 October to 11 October
- Meat Market – Craft Room, North Melbourne
- Tickets here
Isabella Valette leads an interactive evening where audiences control the clock, choosing historical eras for improvised performances. Each night creates different experiences spanning Ancient Rome to the psychedelic sixties, with talented musicians switching instruments and spinning songs, stories and theatrical gold on the spot. The Green Room award nominee promises witty one-liners and intricate narratives woven from audience suggestions.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Melbourne Fringe.
