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Nightlife and entertainment
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Melbourne prides itself on being a cultural city with intellectual leanings, so there's a rich arts and music scene and always plenty to do in the evening. To find out
what's on
, check out
The Age
on Friday, when the newspaper publishes a comprehensive entertainment guide, "EG" - much better than the
Sun-Herald
's Thursday supplement.
Melbourne Events
is a handy, and surprisingly hip, free monthly guide to all sorts of happenings, published by Melbourne Council and available at tourist information outlets. Also check out the free street-press magazines
Beat
and
Inpress
, which you can pick up at most record shops, cinemas and cafAŠs.
Annual festivals further enliven the scene: the Melbourne International Festival ( www.melbournefestival.com.au ) in October concentrates on mainstream visual and performing arts, with a sprinkling of good concerts and opera. The much more experimental and innovative Melbourne Fringe Festival ( www.melbournefringe.org.au ) happens more or less at the same time, as does the Melbourne Writers' Festival ( www.mwf.com.au ). The heavily promoted Moomba Festival , held during the first half of March, has events including firework displays and dragon boat races on the banks of the Yarra River in Alexandra Gardens, but is actually rather drab and commercial. Three music festivals take place in the first half of the year: the Melbourne Jazz Festival in the last week of January, at venues in the city centre; the Melbourne Music Festival in February, one of the largest Australian festivals of contemporary music; and the Brunswick Music Festival in the third week of March, concentrating on folk and world music. The Next Wave Festival , held over two weeks in the second half of May, celebrates Victoria's young artists, writers and musicians.
Tickets
for most venues can be booked through Ticketmaster (tel 13 6166,
www.ticketmaster.com.au
) or Ticketek (tel 13 2849,
www.ticketek.com.au
); both take credit-card bookings only. You can buy tickets half-price on the day of performance from the Half Tix booth, on the Bourke Street Mall (Mon & Sat 10am-2pm, Tues-Thurs 11am-6pm, Fri 11am-6.30pm; cash only; tel 03/9654 9420). Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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