Melbourne Festivals and Events 2026
Melbourne’s calendar is dense enough that accommodation prices move around several fixed points each year. Here’s what to plan around, with the 2026 dates that matter.
Australian Open (January)
Melbourne Park hosts the year’s first tennis Grand Slam every January, and the whole city fills up around it.
St Kilda Festival (February)
One of the country’s largest free community festivals runs along St Kilda’s foreshore each February, with live music across multiple stages, on the same stretch of bayside where the little penguins come ashore most other nights of the year.
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (February-March)
A season of chef collaborations, masterclasses and wine tastings across the city’s restaurants and producers.
Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix (6-8 March 2026)
Albert Park hosts F1’s Australian round, and hotel rates spike across the whole city for the weekend.
Moomba Festival (March)
Melbourne’s own festival, running since the 1950s, with a parade, live music and events on the Yarra River.
Melbourne International Comedy Festival (March-April)
A month of stand-up and comedy across venues citywide, one of the largest festivals of its kind anywhere.
AFL season and Grand Final (March-September, Grand Final Saturday 26 September 2026)
Australian Rules football is close to a civic religion here, with matches split between the MCG and Marvel Stadium at Docklands, building to the Grand Final at the MCG. The MCG’s capacity of over 100,024 makes Grand Final day the single biggest ticketed event on the calendar.
Melbourne International Film Festival (August)
A major festival screening features, documentaries and shorts from around the world.
Melbourne Writers Festival (August-September)
Author talks, panels and workshops for a city that takes its literary festivals seriously.
Melbourne Cup (Tuesday 3 November 2026)
“The race that stops a nation” runs at Flemington, and it’s a public holiday, but only within metropolitan Melbourne, not nationally.
Queen Victoria Market Winter Night Market (Wednesdays, June-August)
A seasonal after-dark market at the historic 1878 market, with food stalls and live music replacing the daytime produce trade.
Booking early matters most around the Australian Open, the F1 weekend and the AFL Grand Final, when the city’s usual hotel supply gets tight. Getting to any of these on the day is easier than it looks: the Free Tram Zone covers CBD hops for free, and Melbourne’s tram network, the largest in the world, keeps running through most event crowds, but book SkyBus early if you’re flying in just for the day. See our travel tips guide for the rest of the planning basics, or the full Melbourne guide .