Global pop sensation Anastacia is making her long-awaited return to Australia in 2025, marking her first tour Down Under in more than 10 years. The iconic singer, who dominated the early 2000s with her powerhouse vocals and infectious hits, will headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as part of her Not That Kind 25 world tour. Her Melbourne show will be at The Forum on Wednesday 24 September. Fans will remember Anastacia’s meteoric rise—her debut smash I’m Outta Love topped the charts in Australia, while Not That Kind cemented her as a pop force. From touring the world to belting out Boom at the 2002 FIFA World…
Author: Melbourning
The crime-fighting canine is back in action! Dog Man: The Musical – the lively stage adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s wildly popular book series – is coming to Melbourne for a 10-show season from 30 September to 4 October 2025 at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse. Following sold-out runs across Australia and an off-Broadway season, this high-energy production brings Pilkey’s beloved characters to life. Audiences will follow Dog Man’s hilarious adventures as he battles the villainous Flippy the cyborg fish, outsmarts the scheming Petey the Cat, and tries to be a good boy despite his furniture-chewing habits. The show captures all the…
Australian pop-rock duo Lime Cordiale are gearing up for the tour of a lifetime, announcing yesterday the Lime Cordiale with the Symphony Orchestra tour—an electrifying live experience that will see their hits reimagined alongside some of Australia’s most prolific orchestras. Melbourne audiences will be able to see them at Hamer Hall, playing alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, on 11 and 12 September 2025. Teaming up with acclaimed conductor Vanessa Scammell (Birds of Tokyo, The Cat Empire) and orchestrator Alex Turley (Genesis Owusu, Dan Sultan), the brothers Oliver and Louis Leimbach will take the stage with an 80-piece orchestra, breathing new life into…
The Lume Melbourne, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest digital art gallery, has announced its permanent closure on 1 June 2025, coinciding with the end of its current Van Gogh exhibition. This brings the closing date forward by a year – it had previously been announced that it would wind up in 2026. Since it opened in 2021 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, The Lume has captivated more than 1.5 million visitors with immersive displays featuring renowned artists like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Leonardo da Vinci. In a statement on LinkedIn, The Lume’s General Manager, Joshua Ogilvie, said over the five-year run, the gallery has…
2025 marks a milestone for Australian music as Killing Heidi celebrates 25 years since the release of their groundbreaking debut album, Reflector. To commemorate the anniversary, the band is hitting the road on the 25 Years of Reflector Tour, performing the iconic album in its entirety alongside fan favourites. In Melbourne, they’ll be performing at the Northcote Theatre on 28 June. Reflector captured a magic moment in Aussie music history, becoming the fastest-selling Australian album and spawning hits like Weir, Mascara, and Live Without It. The album spent seven weeks at #1 on the ARIA Chart, went five times Platinum, and won four ARIA Awards, including…
The Werribee Open Range Zoo just got even better, with the official opening of the brand-new Elephant Trail – a 21 hectare world-class habitat for the zoo’s nine Asian elephants. The new habitat is the size of the entire Melbourne Zoo, giving the herd plenty of room to roam. It includes two mega pools to keep the elephants cool – connected to the Werribee Recycled Water Plant by a 2.5 kilometre pipeline that delivers 150 million litres of recycled water to the habitat. The elephants have spent the past few weeks settling into their new home after making the move…
Award-winning comedian, medical doctor, and mental health author Dr Jo Prendergast is set to light up the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with her hit show, Cancer and Cartwheels. Following a sold-out Australian premiere at the Adelaide Fringe, this heartfelt and hilarious comedy explores Prendergast’s journey of resilience through cancer, aging, and menopause, blending stand-up, sketches, songs, and video clips. “I wrote Cancer and Cartwheels during my treatment as a way of coping with what I was going through,” says Prendergast. “It’s my way of showing that even in the face of something as daunting as cancer, there’s still room for finding the funny…
Families are encouraged to enjoy the beauty of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, with kids under 16 admitted free and capped ticket prices for adults. Running from 26-30 March, this prestigious event—the largest horticultural show in the Southern Hemisphere—will showcase stunning Victorian-grown flowers and gardens in the heart of Melbourne. Adult tickets are priced at $40 for daily entry with afternoon tickets starting at $32. Families who have already purchased tickets for children will automatically receive a refund. “We recognise the cost-of-living increases are impacting Victorians, and this will help lower costs for families to visit the iconic Melbourne…
Victoria’s defence, aviation, and aerospace industries are set to soar at the 2025 Avalon Australian International Airshow. From 25-30 March, Avalon Airport will host the Southern Hemisphere’s largest aviation and defence exhibition, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and showcasing the latest innovations from around the globe. The event kicks off with an industry trade show (25-28 March), where local companies like SYPAQ, Corvus Technology Solutions, and Marand will exhibit alongside global giants such as Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. The Victorian Pavilion will highlight 70 small and medium-sized businesses, connecting them with international decision-makers and unlocking new opportunities. From…
The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has unveiled its full program for 2025, marking the first festival under new director Veronica Sullivan. Running from 8-11 May across venues in the Melbourne CBD and surrounds, this year’s theme, Magical Thinking, explores storytelling as a transformative force—a way to understand and change the world, one story at a time. The festival brings together an extraordinary lineup of local and international literary stars, including previously announced guests Asako Yuzuki, Colum McCann, Kaliane Bradley, and Yael van der Wouden, alongside new additions like Samantha Harvey, Colm Tóibín, Marian Keyes, and Mariana Enríquez. Speculative fiction fans will…
The NGV has announced extended opening hours for the final weeks of the blockbuster Yayoi Kusama exhibition, offering more opportunities to experience one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of the iconic artist’s career. Coinciding with Kusama’s 96th birthday and the Victorian school holidays, the exhibition will be open from 8am to 6pm from 5-16 April, and from 8am to midnight during the Easter Long Weekend (17-21 April). Since its opening, the Melbourne-exclusive exhibition has welcomed more than 376,000 visitors, showcasing Kusama’s near-nine-decade career. Highlights include the world premiere of Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light, the mesmerizing Love…