Shows in cars and on beaches, shows performed by the audience, shows from around the world – Melbourne Fringe Festival’s open program is brimming with the city’s most fearless independent art. From intimate one-on-one encounters to large-scale outdoor spectacles, the 2025 Melbourne Fringe Festival delivers unforgettable experiences that can only happen at Fringe.
Bursting with 500+ events taking over theatres, laneways, living rooms, beaches and carparks the Festival sees thousands of artists turning every corner of the city into a stage from 30 September–19 October 2025.
“Melbourne Fringe Festival is the city’s creative playground, a place where anyone can share their art, from first-time makers to some of Australia’s most celebrated artists,” said Melbourne Fringe Creative Director and CEO, Simon Abrahams. “It’s democracy in action: no invitation needed, no permission required. This is Melbourne’s independent arts scene in all its bold, brilliant, messy glory.”
A bold beginning to the city’s most fearless Festival. Beneath the glowing arches of Melbourne’s iconic Capitol Theatre, Melbourne Fringe’s Opening Night Gala pulses with life. A genre-defying premonition of what’s to come this Festival. A 90-minute spectacle of everything Fringe does best: bold ideas, high-voltage performances, and independent art that hits you differently.
In The Lucky Country, Sonya Suares and star of Six and Hamilton Vidya Makan, are bringing their critically acclaimed original musical interrogating what it means to be Australian to Melbourne, blending powerful storytelling with a soaring score.
The legendary New York basement piano bar Marie’s Crisis, beloved by Broadway stars and locals alike, pops-up in Melbourne for three nights only. Broadway favourites Adam and Kenney lead a group showtune sing-along at full gusto.
Written and performed by Michael Louis Kennedy, The Balloon Dog Bites is a one-act, one-man comedy unfit for the whole family. It’s Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap meets Children of the Corn. It’s the Wicker Man as directed by John Waters. And above all else, it’s an angry gay clown in a life-or-death battle with an innocent child. How much sorrow can a clown car hold?
Join multiple award-winning comedian Andy Balloch for a queer, absurd, character sketch show about love, and all the things that get in its way in The Wedding. Dave and Tony just want to have the perfect day. Unfortunately, they’ve invited their family. From the well meaning best man to the judgemental aunt. Terrible bridesmaids to creepy uncles. They’re all here. It’s the wedding reception you never wanted, but always wanted to go to.
The Festival is brimming with unique works that remind us that the most surprising stories often come from close to home. Controversial queer comedian Tom Ballard’s JKS: A Comedy? – Tom Ballard takes audiences backstage at a stand-up gig in a sharp new comic play based on his real-life experience when news broke that a comedy legend died. What follows is an irreverent, razor-edged war of words over to ask – what is comedy even for?
Following stints in Vegas and in London’s West End, Lilikoi Kaos returns home to Melbourne to share Too Much. It’s a one-woman cabaret blending circus, comedy and storytelling about her life growing up in the circus with her Hawaiian performer mother, carving her own path, embracing her Pasifika heritage, and navigating the contradictions of being told she’s never ‘enough’ yet always a little ‘too much’.
The camp darlings of world-famous cabaret YUMMY are ready to celebrate 10 years of excellence with you! Join this beloved ensemble in a wild night out of transformative drag, circus, and burlesque in a life-affirming, sexy, and joyful celebration in Decadence: 10 Years of YUMMY.
Welcome to the ultimate improvised variety game show! Tash York’s Chaos Cabaret is a wild mix of drag, cabaret, circus, & burlesque, turned on its head with surprises no one sees coming… not even the performers! Hosted by the grand dame of drag & cabaret, Tash York, each night pits three incredible artists against each other across 3 improvised rounds; from surprise interruptions to hilarious audience prompts and a lip-sync with a twist.
From cars to beaches to carparks, the Festival embraces the unexpected, transforming unlikely spaces into unforgettable stages. Boundary pushing circus outfit Oozing Future brings Strange Chaos to the Fringe as a punk-clown show is performed in the glow of car headlights. It transforms a Northcote car park into a fierce, funny, and poetic site-specific circus spectacle.
Requiem for a Cuddle – in this bold performance by Harrison Ritchie-Jones, audiences enter a space without their phones and encounter a surreal world of live choral music, movement, and dreamlike imagery. Featuring an 80-person masked choir and a trumpet-playing swan, Requiem for a Cuddle blends elements of ceremony and rave to explore intimacy, grief and connection.
Manes, meltdowns and masculinity collide in Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – an unhinged equestrian brom-com road trip from award-winning playwright Adam Fawcett. This chaotic new comedy is for anyone who’s ever found themselves dumped, disappointed, or dangerously close to a breakdown in a paddock.
A wild wet story about coming out, coming clean & coming around the world, Stephanie Dogfoot presents Gold Star Bisexual. Growing up in Singapore in the 90s, Steph first realised they were different when they were when they were 12 and developed crushes on an altar boy and a netball captain at the same time. This is the story of what happened next…
Jen McAuliffe’s Chip On Her Shoulder is brutally honest, cheeky, and often uncomfortable one-woman show (performed by Vanessa Buckley) that drags you through the weird rituals of coping: crying in hospital toilets, spiralling mid-therapy, surviving a string of disastrous dates that feel like emotional minefields, wrestling with grief, and wondering if you should download that dating app one last time … just in case!
The three-time Edinburgh Fringe season sell-out finally returns to Melbourne in all its disrespectful glory. Steven Dawson’s outrageous tour-de-farce, The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck, sees three talent-deprived thespians attempt the impossible in staging Mr Wilde’s classic in a frantic 50-minute lovey fest. Good taste and political correctness fly out the window as they take on the uber-theatricals in an all-out assault on those more talented.
Melbourne Fringe’s major public artwork and 2025 Civic Commission, Power Move by Quiet Riot, is a free, kinetic dancefloor that captures and stores energy generated by Melburnians’ movement. Every day of the festival, Fed Square will see cutting-edge technology embedded in a public dancefloor, celebrating the potential of human-powered energy through a program of daily dance activities, live music, DJs, cultural performances, and interactive arts.
The 2025 Melbourne Fringe Festival takes place across the city from 30 September–19 October. For more information and full program, visit: www.melbournefringe.com.au for details.
Images: Power Move by Quiet Riot – photo by Max Roux | The Lucky Country – photo by Phil Erbacher | Tom Ballard’s JKS: A Comedy? (supplied) | Mitch Jones in Strange Chaos – photo by Georgia Moloney | Stephanie Dogfoot stars in Gold Star Bisexual (supplied)