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Things to do

What’s on in Melbourne and regional Victoria this week: 6-12 October 2025

MelbourningBy No Comments8 Mins Read
  • The Elmore Field Days are on 7-9 October.
  • Curated by The Australian Ballet, DanceX returns from 8-19 October showcasing eight leading dance companies from across Australia and New Zealand for two powerful weeks in Melbourne. Experience bold new works and extraordinary performances by some of our most visionary choreographers and artists.
  • The Swinburne Writers Festival on 8 October is a free one-day event featuring over 20 literary professionals, including novelists, screenwriters, journalists, producers, and publishers, who will share current industry insights. 
  • The Northside Vegan Veg Out is on at Welcome to Thornbury on 8 October
  • Fed Square will light up on 9 October as Big Games Night Out returns, bringing Australia’s largest free gaming festival back to the heart of Melbourne. The 2025 edition leans into nostalgia with a full-scale retro installation, Electric Arcadia.
  • The Bendigo Comedy Festival returns until 10 October.
  • The Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia is on 10-20 October.
  • Bendigo Wine Week from 10-19 October is a vibrant celebration of the region’s rich winemaking heritage.
  • The Finders Keepers Melbourne Design Market returns to the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton on 10-12 October.
  • PAX Aus is a celebration of gaming and gaming culture featuring thought-provoking panels, a massive expo hall filled with the best publishers and independent studios, game demos, musical performances, tournaments, and a community experience unlike any other. It’s back for 2025 at MCEC from 10-12 October
  • Join in a night of food trucks, dessert stalls, boutique retail stalls and music at Street Feast Wallan on 10 October
  • The Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia is on 10-20 October.
  • The Moondog Wild West record fair is on in Footscray on 10 October 
  • The Shepparton Show is on 10 October
  • The Bendigo Pop Culture Expo is on at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds on 11-12 October  
  • Venture beyond the ordinary and into a world of the strange and unusual at the Geelong Gaol Dark Arts Expo on 11 October– a one-day celebration of all things spooky, horror-ific and delightful.
  • Celebrate Victoria’s vibrant culture and rich diversity through movement, sound, arts and a tantalising selection of flavours from all around the world at the Zinda Festival in Bendigo on 11 October.
  • Join in a night of food trucks, dessert stalls, boutique retail stalls and music at Street Feast Traralgon on 11 October.
  • The Creativerse is a new childrens festival of art, tech and play for inquisitive little minds and playful hearts – transforming Bendigo into a playground of possibilities on 11 October 
  • The Wild Deer Hunting and Outdoors Expo is on in Lardner on 11 October 
  • The Merbein Rodeo is on 11 October 
  • The Bridge Road Brewers Oktoberfest in Beechworth is on 11 October.
  • Geelong’s creative heart will be transformed into a playground of art, music, and performance for one unforgettable day and night. On Saturday 11 October, ROAM Geelong will bring hundreds of artists into the streets from 4pm to 10pm, offering a multi-sensory journey through storytelling, sound and spectacle.
  • Join the Yarra Valley smaller wineries for Shedfest 2025 on 11-12 October – two days of wine tasting, live music, delicious bites and stunning scenery across 13 family-run wineries.
  • The Sunbury Agricultural Show is on 11 October
  • Celebrate the joy of Diwali at M-City Shopping Centre in Clayton on 11 October with a  free, family-friendly event open to all cultures.
  • Explore the new Wyndham Law Courts at an Open Day on 11 October before it opens to the public! This facility will be Victoria’s largest court and tribunal complex outside Melbourne’s CBD.
  • Celebrate the 20th Victorian Festival of Diwali at its traditional home, Fed Square on 11 October and immerse yourself in the vibrant and magical culture of India.
  • Melbourne’s largest Diwali celebration will light up Marvel Stadium Square on Saturday 11 October, with more than 25,000 people expected to attend the free, all-ages festival.
  • The Growing Friends are hosting a plant sale at Cranbourne Botanic Gardens on 11-12 October. Choose from a range of small and large plants including grasses, climbers, border-plants, ground-cover, bushes, trees and more, many of which you will find in the Australian Garden.
  • Monster Fest returns to Cinema Nova in Carlton until 11 October – a celebration of all that is weird and wonderful in the international cult cinema palette including horror, science fiction, fantasy, dark drama, black comedy, animation, and more.
  • The Greater Dandenong’s Children’s Festival is back again to celebrate children aged 0-12 years old until Saturday 11 October.
  • The Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival is on 12 October
  • The Great Pet-Together in Frankston on 12 October is an event dedicated to our ‘best friends’, bringing together the community, by providing a fun pet-friendly day out with activities, specialty market stalls, interactive demonstrations, and education and awareness seminars.
  • Feel Great Greensy is a free, family-friendly day celebrating physical, emotional and social wellbeing, in the heart of Greensborough on 12 October.
  • Celebrate Diwali in Tarneit on Sunday 12 October.
  • The annual display of blooms is back at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival in Silvan until 12 October. 
  • A groundbreaking international exhibition that explores the connection between society, art, and design through the lens of play is coming to the Incinerator Gallery in Melbourne’s west. The Playground Project is making its much-anticipated southern hemisphere debut until 12 October 2025, bringing a bold new vision of playground design to Australian audiences.
  • Melbourne International Games Week is back in 2025, running until Sunday 12 October.
  • The Melbourne Fringe Festival returns until 19 October.
  • Until 19 October, the Grampians Fine Wine Festival returns with a program that’s as diverse and distinctive as the region itself. Across Great Western, Ararat, Pomonal and beyond, more than a dozen events will celebrate the vineyards, flavours and stories that have made the Grampians/Gariwerd one of Australia’s most exciting wine regions.
  • The Ballarat International Foto Biennale returns with a blend of curated exhibitions, city-wide pop-ups, workshops, talks, and more — all under the festival’s central theme, Lifeforce, until 19 October 2025.
  • The Victorian Seniors Festival runs until 31 October with thousands of opportunities for senior Victorians to take part in free and low-cost events.
  • The Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious portraiture award, will make a much-anticipated return to the Geelong Gallery until 9 November 2025.
  • The 2025 AFLW season is here, spanning 12 rounds over 12 weeks for the first time, followed by four weeks of finals and culminating with the NAB AFLW Grand Final on Saturday, 29 November.
  • From the runways of Paris to the NGV … Australian fashion legend Martin Grant returns home to Melbourne with the biggest exhibition of his career. Studded with his signature silhouettes and timeless tailoring, this glittering retrospective is not to be missed. Catch it until 26 January 2025 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square.
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Exhibition is making its galaxy-first debut at Melbourne Museum until 26 January 2026. This world-first exhibition brings two of the world’s most beloved brands together with renowned LEGO Certified Professional Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught at the controls.
  • A thousand years of mystery, craftsmanship, and cultural connection come to life this winter as Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard  at Melbourne Museum until 26 January.
  • Get ready to tinker, build, and innovate! Scienceworks is launching its newest hands-on exhibition, Tinkertown, until 7 February 2026, promising to inspire the next generation of engineers, designers, and creators.
  • Camouflage is an exhibition running at The Shrine until March 2026. See how nature has inspired military disguise—from animal patterns to clever tricks of deception. Explore real camouflage uniforms, historical objects, and rotating artworks by well-known artists. Follow the evolution of camouflage from the First World War to today and learn how it reflects changing military strategies, culture, and creativity.
  • Where does creativity come from? It’s a question as elusive as it is compelling – and one that State Library Victoria explores with profound insight in its captivating new exhibition, Creative Acts: Artists and their inspirations,  running until 31 May 2026.
  • Melbourne’s love affair with gaming is set to reach new heights as ACMI prepares to launch Game Worlds – a massive interactive exhibition that plunges visitors into 30 iconic videogame universes, with 20 fully playable experiences. Running until 3 July 2026, this deep dive into gaming culture promises to be a must-see for casual players and hardcore fans alike.
  • Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Eucalypts of Hodogaya at the Shrine explores the remarkable collaboration that created the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Yokohama where more than 1,500 Commonwealth soldiers, including Australians, are buried in a garden blending Western and Japanese traditions. It runs until August 2026.

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