Discover what’s on at Fed Square

As Melbourne prepares to become Australia’s largest city, The Age presents the inaugural Melbourne Assembly &#8211; a milestone three-day public forum bringing together industry leaders, key decision-makers, and the community to shape our city’s future.
The event is headlined by two internationally renowned urban visionaries: former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and 15-Minute City creator Professor Carlos Moreno.
Across three days of compelling talks, panel discussions, and audience Q&amp;As, world-leading thinkers will confront the friction between rapid growth and liveability across four critical pillars: Shaping the City, Innovation &amp; Education, Healthy Places &amp; People, and Sport &amp; the Arts.
For the speaker lineup and more information visit: <a href="https://www.melbourneassembly.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.melbourneassembly.com.au/</a>

melbourne-assembly

Talk

Melbourne Assembly

Celebrate the vibrant culture of Indonesia with a day of food, music, performances and activities at Fed Square.
Festival Indonesia 2026 is an annual community-based celebration of Indonesian culture, creativity, business and friendship between Indonesia and Australia. The festival aims to promote Indonesia and strengthen people-to-people connections and deepen the relationship between the two countries.
With a history dating back to 2005, Festival Indonesia has become an important platform for showcasing the diversity, richness and contemporary spirit of Indonesia to the Victorian community. After a 10-year break, the festival returned in 2022 and has continued to grow as a vibrant meeting point for Indonesian and Australian communities.
The 2026 festival carries the theme “Discover Your Neighbour’s Endless Wonders”, inviting Australians to discover Indonesia through its many cultures, traditions, flavours, creativity and opportunities.
The celebration at Fed Square is the cultural centrepiece of the festival, featuring Indonesian food, traditional and contemporary performances, music, fashion, handicrafts, workshops, community activities and trade stalls.
More than a cultural festival, Festival Indonesia 2026 creates opportunities for cultural exchange, community engagement, tourism promotion, trade, investment and business connections. It celebrates the diversity of Indonesia while building stronger understanding and lasting relationships between Indonesian and Australian communities.
Everyone is invited to discover their neighbour’s endless wonders and experience Indonesia in the heart of Melbourne.
For more details check out: <a href="https://festivalindonesia.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://festivalindonesia.com.au/</a>

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festival-Indonesia-2026

Community

Free

Festival Indonesia 2026

A night for the classic horror fans out there – this Halloween we&#8217;re serving up zombies and body-horror with a duo of old-school, cult-status midnight movies from two masters and mavericks of the form: George A. Romero and David Lynch.
This Halloween, we&#8217;ve got a trick-or-treat double-bill of low-budget, high-concept, genre-defining horror, from two writer-director greats.
From the father of the modern zombie film, first up is George A. Romero&#8217;s Night of the Living Dead – a film that Franken-birthed the modern zombie film, giving us reanimated corpses, survivor lore and lots of gore.
Then, we&#8217;re backing it up with the debut feature from the master of the psychological, sinister and surreal, David Lynch&#8217;s Eraserhead.
Grab a deckchair or BYO camping chair or picnic rug, bring some treaties and a fellow horror fan and settle in for a night of gore, ghouls and beautifully creepy horror-dreams.

Silent Cinema with Live Scores, 2026. Photo: Tobias Titz.

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Outdoor-cinema-web

Screen

Halloween cinema: Night of the Living Dead + Eraserhead

A night of experimental dub and blues-infused sounds, featuring Luritja singer Keanu Nelson and blues singer and Walmatjarri Elder Kankawa Nagarra.
Luritja singer Keanu Nelson, from Papunya/Warumpi, NT, previews his forthcoming second album alongside producer Yuta Matsumura, road testing their evolving, way out, “dub country” sound through unreleased songs and cuts from his celebrated debut Wilurarrakutu.
Joining him is Kankawa Nagarra, the 83-year-old Walmatjarri Elder, teacher, activist and blues singer from Wangkatjungka, WA. From cultural songs at ceremonies to hymns, gospel and country, she discovered the blues years later after hearing a busker in Derby. Her album Wirlmarni, recorded with Darren Hanlon in the Kimberley, was awarded the 20th Australian Music Prize. With a follow-up underway, Kankawa will also share new material at The Edge.

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Music

Keanu Nelson + Kankawa Nagarra

Celebrate Diwali – Festival of Lights.
The beloved annual Diwali festivities return to Fed Square, for its 21st year.
Diwali is an important Hindu festival which symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness.
To celebrate, come and experience the traditional and contemporary cultural feast of India, with live music, classical, folk and Bollywood dance performances, kirtan, yoga, meditation workshops and craft activities for children.
Explore the bustling bazaar, brimming with handcrafted treasures and glittering jewellery, and treat your tastebuds to mouth-watering Indian street food along Birrarung Marr Walk.
Don&#8217;t miss this beautiful festival renowned for its vibrant dance, music, multicultural performances – and spectacular evening fireworks.
Bring the whole family to join the festivities. All welcome!
For up-to-date program information visit: <a href="https://celebrateindia.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.celebrateindia.org.au </a>

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Victorian Festival of Diwali 2026

Celebrate Mexico’s Día de Muertos with a colourful day of music, dance, food and cultural traditions.
Día de Muertos returns to Fed Square for a free, family-friendly celebration of one of Mexico’s most meaningful and colourful traditions.
This annual event brings the community together to honour and remember loved ones who have passed away while celebrating the lives they lived. Through music, dance, food, art and cultural activities, the festival shares the Mexican tradition of keeping memories alive in a positive and heartfelt way.
Visitors can enjoy live entertainment, traditional Mexican dance, food trucks serving authentic Mexican food, cultural market stalls and face painting. The Jarritos Kids Corner will offer fun activities for younger visitors, while the Cuervo Bar will serve margaritas for those looking to enjoy a refreshing drink during the festivities.
A central feature of the celebration is La Ofrenda, the traditional Día de Muertos altar. Visitors are invited to bring photographs of loved ones who have passed away and contribute to this shared space of remembrance, reflection and connection. The ofrenda honours those who are no longer present while celebrating the memories and bonds that continue to connect families and communities.
One of the day’s biggest highlights is the Catrina Walk, returning for its fourth consecutive year. Participants are encouraged to dress in their most traditional, colourful and creative Catrina outfits, with face painters available to help complete their looks. The walk begins at 2pm at the State Library of Victoria, taking over Melbourne’s CBD streets before returning to Fed Square. Prizes will be awarded for standout Catrina costumes.
Whether discovering Mexican traditions for the first time, honouring loved ones or enjoying a day out with family and friends, everyone is welcome to experience this vibrant celebration of culture, community and remembrance.
Día de Muertos at Fed Square is a chance for Melbourne to come together to remember, celebrate and share the traditions of Mexico.
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dia-de-muertos- day-of-the-dead

Dia de Muertos - Day of the Dead

In collaboration between Fed Square and Koorie Heritage Trust, take inspiration from Deanne Gilson’s love of flowers and Indigenous flora. Using a black background, we’ll draw from life at the edge of the Test Garden, depicting the new blooms, fresh growth and other forms of life.
This event is held outdoors in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Please bring a hat and water bottle.

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Test Garden Open Day – November

An ecstatic meeting between two generations of electronic music. 
Five-time Grammy Award-nominated composer, electronic music pioneer and avant-classical recording artist Suzanne Ciani has released more than 20 solo albums, including Seven Waves and The Velocity of Love. A pioneering figure in Buchla modular synthesis, her landmark LIVE Quadraphonic recordings marked her return to performing with the instrument. Her influence extends from experimental electronic music into film, games and commercial sound, including the iconic Coca-Cola “pop and pour” sound and the sounds of Bally’s groundbreaking Xenon pinball machine. Ciani was inducted into Keyboard Magazine’s Hall of Fame alongside Bob Moog, Don Buchla and Dave Smith, and has received the Moog Innovation Award, Independent Icon Award, Golden Ear Award and SEAMUS Award. Suzanne Ciani will be presenting work featuring her Buchla synthesizer, sonified through a quadraphonic loudspeaker array.
Filipina-Australian electronic producer, performer and composer CORIN presents DIWA, a live audiovisual work created with VFX artist Tristan Jalleh. Drawing on Filipino creation mythologies, ancestral beliefs and Corin’s matrilineal connection to the volcanic landscape of Taal, DIWA takes audiences on a descent into an imagined underworld of lava, water, lightning and geological forces. With vast atmospheres of electronic sound, CORIN performs and incorporates music styles from the kulintang, a gong chime instrument rooted in the Southern Philippines. Pairing her electro-acoustic sound work with hyper-digital moving images, CORIN brings ancient forms into dialogue with contemporary practice.
Both artists are separated by generations but share an expansive approach to sound. Suzanne Ciani and CORIN reveal foundational and speculative visions of electronic music, each pushing sound beyond the conventions of compositional technique and the framework of the instruments themselves.

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Suzanne Ciani (quadraphonic) + CORIN presents DIWA (live A/V)

What's On

The Koorie Heritage Trust (KHT) is proud to present Journey Among Men, a powerful new exhibition celebrating the enduring strength of First Peoples culture, creativity and connection across generations of First Peoples men.
Developed over two years on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Dhagung Wurrung, Taungurung, Gunai/Kurnai, Tati Tati, Barapa Barapa, Wamba Wamba and Yorta Yorta Country, the exhibition brings together newly created cultural belongings by eight First Peoples artists.
The exhibition features new works by Mick Harding, Brendan Kennedy, Kevin Williams, Earl Handy, Mitchil Harding, Cahill Kennedy, Iluka Sax-Williams and Lewis Wandin-Bursill.
Through carving, burning, incising and other cultural practices that bridge the old and the new, Journey Among Men celebrates the healing power of art, intergenerational knowledge sharing and the resilience of living culture.
For more information visit: <a href="https://kht.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/journey-among-men/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://kht.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/journey-among-men/</a>

journey-among-men-kht

First Peoples

Exhibitions

Journey Among Men at KHT

The art of Margaret Preston has shaped the cultural and aesthetic landscape of Australia. Born in Adelaide in 1875, Preston (nee McPherson) studied in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, before travelling extensively across England and Europe. Participating in the growing discourses surrounding modernism, Preston began to merge a variety of influences, such as Post-Impressionism, primitivism in European art, the Arts and Craft movement, and Japanese ukiyo-e.
Following Preston’s return from Europe to Sydney in 1919, she established herself as a central figure in the dissemination of modernist principles and pursued the development of a visual language that was uniquely Australian. To resolve her passion in defining a national art, Preston turned towards the cultural material of First Peoples, whose designs she perceived as untouched by European taste. Although Preston was progressive in recognising the aesthetic value of the objects and motifs she incorporated, her approach did not consider their significance to the communities from which she appropriated.
Today, Margaret Preston’s work continues to inspire and generate debate, emphasising her important contribution to Australian art of the twentieth century. This retrospective exhibition contextualises Preston alongside her peers, as well as contemporary artists who have responded to her legacy.
For more information and tickets visit: <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/margaret-preston/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/margaret-preston/</a>
Image credit: Phoebe Powell

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Margaret Preston at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

This November, Lifelike makes its world premiere at ACMI: a major new exhibition celebrating the magic of movie puppetry in all its forms.
Beloved, eerie and unforgettable characters, from Pinocchio and E.T. to the wild imagination of Jim Henson’s workshop, have shaped how we experience movies. These iconic hand-crafted creatures spark wonder, joy, nostalgia, fear and fascination.
Explore the craft, performance and invention that bring unforgettable screen characters to life, from ingenious handmade mechanisms and animatronics to contemporary digital wizardry.
Explore original puppets, concept art and behind-the-scenes materials from iconic films including Pinocchio, Anomalisa, Jurassic Park, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, plus Australian TV classics. Get up close to rarely seen sketches and uncover the craft and creative ingenuity behind some of cinema&#8217;s most memorable puppets and creatures.
Roll up your sleeves and try your hand at puppetry: recreate a Muppets-inspired sequence or bring an animatronic Alien Facehugger to life.
The bravest visitors can venture inside a nightmarish encounter with The Babadook, Annabelle and Chucky, where familiar figures twist into something darker and the line between screen and reality thrillingly blurs.
Joyful, surprising and deeply human, Lifelike invites you to rediscover the wonder of puppets and why you can’t help believing they’re alive.
For more information please visit: <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/lifelike/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/lifelike/</a>
Image credit: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), courtesy of Netflix

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Lifelike at ACMI

Experience a new sound and video installation, a poem to the river in woiwurrung, by Wurundjeri artist and language specialist Brooke Wandin.
Language comes from Country. Language is the expression of Country. Through sharing and revitalising woiwurrung, Brooke Wandin and her family tell the story of the river, its place names across Country, and the way it flows. In wurrung dhumbunganjinu, we can hear woiwurrung speaking to the river, the birrarung, in her language, one she remembers and understands.
wurrung dhumbunganjinu is a family recording of woiwurrung sharing. This sound work rejuvenates our ancient oral tradition and strengthens our undeniable connection to Country. 
Recorded at Coranderrk, a place of attempted assimilation, this is our resistance.
Language is carried along birrarung from Coranderrk downstream to Fed Square. 
I am in awe of Birrarung. She is powerful, durable, yet fragile and sensitive, the veins that pump through Country, the source of creation. She has flowed since the beginning and always will. 
&#8211; Brooke Wandin
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wurrung dhumbunganjinu (we speak language)

Welcome to Wurrdha Marra – meaning ‘Many Mobs’ in the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language. The name comes to the NGV from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and supports the purpose of this space in sharing the work of First Nations artists, from emerging to senior figures, and across time and place. For First Nations peoples around the world, art and design are part of a continuum where the past intersects with the present, different materials converge, and diverse perspectives come together. The central role of art in passing down important cultural knowledge is celebrated in this display through the diverse approaches that artists take to maintaining and regenerating customary cultural practices and iconography while also creating new forms of expression.
The works included in this inaugural hang are by emerging artists as well as senior figures across both time and place. Each of these artists has in their own way been at the forefront in creating new forms of expression, and in maintaining and regenerating customary cultural practices and iconography. Great individual artists, working in Aboriginal-owned art centres or independently after studying at art school, continue to shape and transform art in Australia, inspiring many others to follow their example.
For more information visit: <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/wurrdha-marra/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/wurrdha-marra/</a>
Image credit: Installation view of Wurrdha Marra at NGV Australia, 2025. Photo: Tim Carrafa

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Wurrdha Marra at NGV Australia

A new video artwork by Kulin country-based Pibbulman Noongar artist Pierra Van Sparkes, commissioned by KHT and Fed Square for the Big Screen.
Throughout the year, Fed Square presents a program of video art on the Big Screen by emerging and established artists, in partnership with galleries, festivals and cultural organisations.
This work by Pierra Van Sparkes was commissioned in collaboration with the Koorie Heritage Trust (KHT), and will be screened each afternoon until 12 July 2026.
Artist Statement
baal ga (2026) 
balga is the grass tree to my Noongar family. 
balga was unearthed from boodja to the east. 
baal is she and he and it all at once; the sound that calls for me. 
A gift from mooditj moort; roots singing for release. 
balga will burn before they will grow. 
baal ga’s light touches all that I know.
Commissioned by KHT and Fed Square.

baal-ga

Video art commission: baal ga by Pierra Van Sparkes

Step into the rhythm of Country and discover the story of the seasons, through a new series of video artworks by emerging First Nations artists.
Each evening throughout the year, learn about the current Wurundjeri season by watching one of a series of video artworks on the Big Screen.
The Wurundjeri Seasons Video Art Commissions celebrates the living knowledge of the Wurundjeri People and the seven seasons of Naarm (Melbourne). Rather than being date or calendar-driven, these seasons change depending on what is going on in the environment. The seasons express the deep relationships between people, plants, animals and Country – a cultural calendar shaped by thousands of years of observation and care.
Throughout the year, each season is brought to life through contemporary First Nations art and the Woi Wurrung language. Created by emerging First Nations artists and mentored by artists from Little Projector Company, the works honour the enduring stories, practices and spirit of Country, transforming the city’s central gathering place into a site of cultural expression and connection with the living world.
Cultural direction for the program is provided by Wurundjeri woman Jacqui Wandin of the Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation at Coranderrk.
The Wurundjeri Seasons
“The seasons signify change. During Biderap (high summer), the sun is much hotter, snakes are about so be mindful where you step. Luk (late summer) is a time to rejuvenate, reflect, and learn. My favourite time of year is Guling (early spring), when the Silver Wattles are in full bloom, reminding us of Uncle Barak, our courageous civil rights hero.”
— Wurundjeri woman Jacqui Wandin
Unlike the four European seasons, the Wurundjeri seasonal calendar recognises seven distinct seasons, each marked by changes in the natural world. This cycle offers a deeper and more attentive way of understanding time — inviting us to notice the rhythms of plants, animals, weather, and Country, and our place within it.
The Seven Wurundjeri Seasons
Biderap (Dry season) 
Jan–Feb 
Amanda Wright (Palawa)
Iuk (Eel) season 
March 
Mya Wilson (Wiradjuri)
Waring (wombat) 
April–July 
SKNOW (Sarah Condon) (Wurundjeri) &amp; Rob Condon (Dja Dja Wurrung, Nguari Illum Wurrung)
Guling (orchid) 
August 
Sarah Wandin (Wurundjeri)
Poorneet (tadpole) 
Sept–Oct 
SKNOW (Sarah Condon)(Wurundjeri)
Buath Garru (Grass flowering) 
November 
Ky-ya Nicholson Ward (Wiradjuri)
Gunyang (Kangaroo-Apple Season) 
December 
Jacqui Wandin, Dave Wandin (Wurundjeri) and Lee Ramseyer Bache
The Wurundjeri Seasons Video Art Commissions is presented by Fed Square.

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The Wurundjeri Seasons Video Art Commissions

Exhibitions and art

Discover restaurants, bars and cafes serving up Melbourne&#8217;s best breakfast, coffee, lunch, drinks or dinner for any occasion and budget.

Discover All

Eat + Drink

Bringing the world’s great beers together with exciting locals from Australian craft breweries.

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Good Nature Hotel

An iconic Melbourne bar and cafe nestled in the historic Federation Wharf vaults

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Riverland Bar

Your late-night haunt for smooth jazz and classy cocktails

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Transit Rooftop Bar

Enjoy a range of refreshments, light meals and snacks supplied by local producers.

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NGV Cafe

Visit some of Australia's most significant cultural attractions, including ACMI, the Koorie Heritage Trust and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. 

Your museum of screen culture. Navigate the universe of film, TV, videogames and art.

What's On

Exhibitions and art

Eat + Drink

Good Nature Hotel

Riverland Bar

Transit Rooftop Bar

Riverland Bar

Transit Rooftop Bar

NGV Cafe

Museums + Galleries

ACMI

Koorie Heritage Trust

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia