Things To Do This Weekend in Melbourne — March 2026
Melbourne’s turning on one of those late-autumn weekends where the weather can’t decide if it’s summer’s last gasp or winter’s opening act. Good news: everything on this list works rain or shine. We’ve pulled together what’s actually worth your time this weekend (21–22 March), from a new film festival to rooftop drinks to the sort of lazy Sunday that starts with a croissant and ends at a pub with nowhere to be.
Last updated: 17 March 2026 | Melbourne Vibe Score: 81/100 🟢
1. Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Opens
The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival kicks off on 20 March and runs through 29 March. This is the one the whole hospitality industry clears its calendar for. The festival spreads across the city with events at restaurants, bars, and pop-up venues from the CBD to the outer suburbs. Some events are ticketed and sell out fast (the River Club long lunches at Southbank always go within hours), but the free programming — including the Queen Victoria Market night market and various chef demonstrations — is where the real value lives.
Address: Various locations across Melbourne When: 20–29 March Insider tip: Follow the festival’s Instagram for last-minute free event announcements. They often drop surprise pop-ups 24 hours before — last year a Collingwood warehouse turned into a seven-course Vietnamese feast with only 40 seats.
2. Melbourne Women in Film Festival at ACMI
Now in its 10th year, the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF) takes over ACMI at Federation Square from 19–23 March. Expect short films, features, panels, and industry events spotlighting women and non-binary filmmakers from Australia and beyond. It’s the sort of festival where you walk in expecting to watch a couple of shorts and walk out having discovered your new favourite director. ACMI’s screening rooms are genuinely comfortable — one of the few cinemas in Melbourne where the seats don’t feel like they were designed for someone half your size.
Address: ACMI, Federation Square, Flinders Street When: 19–23 March Tickets: From $15 via mwff.org.au Insider tip: The Friday night opening event usually has a DJ and drinks after the screening. Worth arriving early for the social side, not just the films.
3. Frankston Street Art Festival
If you’re up for a day trip, the Frankston Street Art Festival runs 16–22 March. Local and international muralists are painting large-scale works across the Frankston CBD, and you can watch them in progress. Frankston’s been doing this for a few years now and the cumulative effect is genuinely impressive — whole laneways have been transformed into open-air galleries. Grab fish and chips from the Frankston Pier while you’re down there. It’s one of those underrated day trips that Melburnians sleep on because they think “Frankston” and picture the train station, not the coastline.
Address: Frankston CBD and foreshore When: 16–22 March Cost: Free Getting there: Frankston line from Flinders Street, about 55 minutes.
4. Europa! Europa! Film Festival
The Europa! Europa! Film Festival is winding up its run on 19 March, so this weekend is your last chance. It screens European films that don’t usually get Australian theatrical releases — the sort of stuff you’d otherwise need a VPN and a dodgy streaming site to find. Recent screenings have included a Croatian dramedy about a family-run seafood restaurant and a Finnish thriller that had the audience at Dendy Cinema actually gasping out loud.
Address: Dendy Cinemas, Southbank Promenade (and other locations) When: Final screenings through 19 March Tickets: Around $20 via europafilmfestival.com.au
5. Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival (Final Day)
The Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival wraps up on 17 March. If you’ve got Monday arvo free, the final sessions include local authors reading from new work and a panel on publishing in the age of AI. It’s at the Sunshine Arts Hub — free entry, good coffee, and the kind of low-key community event that reminds you Melbourne’s cultural scene isn’t just inner-north.
Address: Sunshine Arts Hub, Sunshine When: Final day, 17 March Cost: Free
6. Melbourne Celtic Festival at Mission to Seafarers
The Melbourne Celtic Festival is on at the Mission to Seafarers in Docklands on 17 March. Live Celtic music, dancing, food, and a surprisingly good whisky tasting. The Mission to Seafarers building itself is one of Melbourne’s hidden architectural gems — a heritage-listed complex right on the Victoria Harbour waterfront that most Melburnians have walked past without ever stepping inside. The courtyard during a Celtic festival with live fiddle music is a genuinely lovely way to spend an arvo.
Address: Mission to Seafarers, 717 Flinders Street, Docklands When: 17 March Tickets: Via trybooking.com
7. A Long Lunch That Turns Into Arvo Drinks
Melbourne’s late-March weather is unpredictable enough that outdoor dining is a gamble. But the covered courtyards and heated terraces are in their element right now. If you want a weekend lunch that naturally flows into drinks, head to the stretch of Lygon Street in Carlton where the Italian restaurants have been doing this since before the word “hospitality” existed. Grab a table at Tiamo — it’s been on Lygon Street since the 1960s and the parmigiana hasn’t changed because it doesn’t need to. Or for something with more polish, Al Dente Enoteca on Faraday Street does a tortellini cacio e pepe that Kate Reid (of Lune croissant fame) calls one of the best date-night dishes in Melbourne.
Where: Lygon Street, Carlton Cost: $25–$55 per person depending on how many courses and wines you commit to Insider tip: If Tiamo is packed (it will be), walk two blocks to DOC Dolomites on Drummond Street. Same Italian soul, smaller crowds, better wine list.
8. The Melbourne Museum + Carlton Gardens Combo
Sometimes the best weekend plan is the simplest one. Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens is running its usual weekend programming — the kids’ sections are brilliant if you’re with family, and the permanent exhibitions on Victorian natural history and the Bunjilaka Indigenous Cultural Centre are genuinely worth revisiting even if you went on a school excursion in 2004. Afterward, walk through the Carlton Gardens, which are looking lush in the autumn light. Grab a coffee at one of the cafés on Rathdowne Street and just… exist for a while.
Address: 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton Cost: Adults $15, children free Insider tip: The museum is free on the first Sunday of each month, but even at $15 it’s Melbourne’s best-value rainy-day option.
What We Skipped and Why
The AFL: The season’s underway and the MCG will be heaving, but we don’t do match-day guides in a things-to-do roundup because you either already have tickets or you don’t. If you’re after footy atmosphere without the ticket hassle, the pubs on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and Lygon Street in Carlton will be packed with fans and big screens.
Queen Victoria Market night market: It’s part of the Food & Wine Festival this weekend but doesn’t kick off until the festival officially opens on Thursday 20 March. We’ll cover it in next week’s weekend guide when it’s actually running.
Southbank Promenade tourist stuff: The Southbank coin tossers and face painters are always there. We’re not going to pretend they’re a “thing to do.”
The Grampians Harmony Festival: It’s on this weekend in Stawell and it’s free and genuinely lovely — but it’s a three-hour drive from Melbourne. If you’re already heading west, go for it. Otherwise, save it for a long weekend.
The Bottom Line
Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is the headline act this weekend. But honestly, the best weekends in this city aren’t about the big events — they’re about the accidental ones. A Sunday arvo that starts at the market, wanders through Carlton Gardens, and ends at a table with a bowl of pasta and a glass of something red. That’s Melbourne doing what Melbourne does.
Your Melbourne Vibe Score this week: 81/100 — Festival season is ramping up, the weather’s playing nice enough, and autumn Melbourne is quietly the best version of the city.
Getting home safe: If you’re out late this weekend, Night Network buses run across the city from midnight to 5am. Check PTV for routes. Uber surge pricing on Saturday nights in the CBD is brutal after 11pm — walk a few blocks south toward South Melbourne or east toward Richmond before requesting, and you’ll save yourself $15–$20.
Know a weekend plan we missed? Let us know.
MELBZ — We Know Your Suburb Better Than You Do.
📊 Quick Widgets
→ Best Cheap Eats in Melbourne Under $20 — because weekend plans always start with food → Date Night in Melbourne — Where to Actually Take Someone — the restaurants, the bars, the walking routes → New Openings in Melbourne — March 2026 — the venues that just opened their doors → Carlton Guide 2026 — Everything You Need to Know — Lygon Street, the gardens, and where the locals actually eat
Explore more suburbs: South Melbourne · South Yarra · Carlton
