Cook, eat, dance, explore, play at Melbourne Fringe with more than 55 free events over 20 days of Fringe mayhem.
COOKED, presented by Melbourne Fringe and Fed Square, offers a major new series of free events at Fed Square. With the installation of an architect designed hot plate stage, the amphitheatre will transform into a public dining meets performance space. With culinary mavericks Long Prawn at the pass throughout, audiences can gather and grill around the working barbecue where artists add heat to conversations and spice things up with pop-up performances. The COOKED program runs for the entirety of the festival with many free, fun and fiery events.
COOKED begins 1 October with the free event Seasoning the Grill, a First Nations grill up and smoke out as the oldest continuously grilling culture lights up the BBQ for a night of smoke, dance, DJs, art and mad feeds. A deadly combination of traditional and contemporary First Nations-led saucy performance art and food.
During Open Grill days for COOKED, everyone is welcome to join around the public BBQ for free grilling and hourly drops of sausages and veg sticks. Engage with the performers during the Open Grill sessions for the chance to receive a free DIY grill pack to make your own meal on the COOKED BBQs, or purchase your own pack on the day. Heady in the air, onions, conversation amongst the clacks of tongs. 3 – 14 October.
Democracy Sausage is a unique one-off responsive performance from these answers and surrounding conversations at this Hot Nights performance. Artists and audiences will collectively reflect upon the psychic and embodied experience of democracy right here and now. Threading together the voices of ordinary citizens, elected representatives, karaoke outbursts and polling booth sausage sizzles, Democracy Sausage will be by turns ridiculous, slightly terrifying, thoughtful and damned tasty. 14 October.
Evenings will transform into COOKED: Hot Nights into a series of artists and chefs take over the BBQ. Highlights include Indecisive Cinema – STEAK & Sausages with underground South Korean film and culture artist collective STEAK featuring Dudo Wook serving up cinema and snacks with Long Prawn. 9 October.
Amongst the sizzling grills, join Deep Soulful Sweats for a night of experimental performance and dance. A BBQ occasion where the sweats are not (necessarily) meat-related – a contemporary collision of new and old, the raw and the well-done. 10 October.
Ari Angkasa’s Suspicious Fish is a live TV soap and variety show, steamed with heady, hilarious, familiar and iconic flavours. The show brings together Angkasa’s influences from dinners spent in the glow of Indonesian soap operas and the chatter of ever entertaining variety shows. 3 and 17 October.
Other free highlights include:
Free Fairy Floss is a one-off, outdoor event featuring aerial performance, live music and, of course, fairy floss. Created especially for Maddern Square in Footscray, this beautiful and surreal new family-friendly work celebrates finding beauty in the everyday and brings the community together in a joyful and wondrous moment of the sublime for one night only. 13 October, 7:45pm – 8:30pm, Maddern Square
In a festival-first commission, The Huxleys presents The Winner Takes It All, a participatory grand slam queer takeover of the sporting world. With The Huxleys leading the charge and dressed to impress in high-camp regalia, anyone who has ever felt excluded from sport – whether because of gender, sexuality, culture, background or disability – will get to live out epic sport fantasies, captured in a series of photographs. 6 and 12 October, Prahran Aquatic Centre, Princess Gardens Tennis Courts, Malvern Cricket Ground.
Fringe Flavours Night Market is the lovechild of Melbourne Fringe and the Queen Victoria Market precinct. Compared by Tash York, and with an array of street food offerings at arm’s length, the Fringe Flavours Night Market is set to showcase festival favourites including Catch Throw Collective, Darby James and Noah Szto.
18 September to 16 October, 5 to 10pm.
Annually presented by Melbourne Fringe and Linden New Art, Design Fringe is the cutting-edge design show that showcases unconventional and exceptional designs that shape our interactions around the table with family and friends. 7 September to 20 October, Linden New Art.
RAIN (pictured left) is a 30-minute intimate and immersive installation, designed to build connection between parents and their little ones. Since its 2013 debut at ArtPlay, RAIN has captivated audiences globally, offering a unique exploration of weather and relationships through interactive art. 3-20 October, ArtPlay.
Melbourne Fringe Festival 2024
1 – 20 October
For 20 days each year, the Melbourne Fringe Festival invites audiences to discover the unexpected with a bold and ambitious program of art and performance across the city in theatres, galleries, venues, public spaces, homes, studios and everywhere in between. Featuring a curated program of large-scale public events and risk taking art, and an open access program with over 400 events, it is one of the largest multi-arts festivals in the country.
The open access framework means that anyone can register to be part of the Festival, bringing voices from the margins and amplifying them across the city. Melbourne Fringe keeps access and inclusion at its heart, actively working to remove barriers to participation and develop artists skills through First Nations commissioning program Deadly Fringe, Deaf and Disability arts programs, mentorships, workshops, residencies, forums, awards and touring support.
