Top kid-friendly activities in and around Melbourne next month
Our guide to children’s entertainment features all kinds of activities at a range of price points – many of them free. Think guided nature walks, live music performances, a plethora of festivals Melbourne is best known for, and educational exhibitions.
FREE EVENTS
Ron Barassi Senior Park West, Feb 28–Mar 1
The Hindu Festival of Colours, Love and Spring – otherwise known by its shorthand Holi – is a bold explosion of vibrant powders, song and dance, food and drinks, and multicultural performances. Partake in this year’s free, family-friendly festival and learn more about one of the most iconic cultural events on the South Asian calendar. Be sure to don something that you’re not afraid of getting stained, and rest assured, all colourful powders are plant-based and non-toxic.
ColdVoice
Arts Centre Melbourne, March 3–9 March
This interactive installation centres on icy musical instruments that reveal the sounds of glaciers through touch. A striking reminder of how transient, fragile and temporal our planet is, ColdVoice turns frozen landscapes into shifting soundscapes as the instruments morph, melt and eventually disappear – encouraging children of all ages to consider how they can safeguard the natural environment.
Our Wondrous Planet
Melbourne Museum, daily
This new permanent exhibition transports us across planet Earth and the 4 billion years of history that underpins it. Wander through a multisensory gallery comprising over 800 animals, hands-on interactive displays, large-scale immersive projections and stories from First Peoples around the world. Entry is free for children, who will be immersed in our incredible living systems while learning how they can help restore biodiversity in the natural world.
CULTURAL EVENTS
Live at the Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Mar 7
Acclaimed open-air concert series Live at the Gardens returns this year with an incredible lineup of international and local stars. In March, audiences can look forward to the dulcet tones of Thelma Plum, a proud Gamilaraay songwriter who sings about culture, heritage, love and pain; indie folk trio Sons of the East; and indie pop singer and proud Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung woman Jem Cassar-Daley. Suitable for older children, Live at the Gardens has a selection of food trucks and a small, dedicated area for picnic blankets.
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
All around Melbourne, Mar 20–29
Melbourne’s preeminent celebration of the finer things in life includes a range of family-friendly events. On the first Tuesday of the festival, 1000 free serves of Korean fried chicken will be dispensed as K-Pop dancers enliven Healeys Lane. On consecutive Saturdays, Family Yum Cha and Dumpling Classes at Spice Temple involve children learning the delicate art of dumpling folding before they rejoin their parents for a kid-friendly yum cha feast.
Vital funds are being raised for motor neurone disease in the Caretaker’s Cottage takeover of Wesley Place. Look forward to a Reed House barbecue, food trucks from Dingo Ate My Taco and Rocket Society, a Kariton Sorbetes gelato cart and live music. Entry is by gold coin donation. And on the final weekend of the festival, a free celebration of caking and baking at Fed Square – Baker’s Dozen – is being headlined by celebrated British author Helen Goh.
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
All around Melbourne, Mar 25–Apr 19
It’s a little-known fact that the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has a family-friendly program dedicated to children. Aboriginal Comedy Allstars for Kids brings together famed First Nations comedians like Andy Saunders and Janty Blair for a showcase of laughs, singalongs and dance. Circus Oz oscillates between mind-bending tricks, slapstick silliness and chaotic physical comedy in an all-ages show. Dr Hubble, Australia’s favourite bubble man, delights with contortions of all different shapes and sizes.
OUTDOOR EVENTS
Alexandra Gardens and Birrarung Marr, Mar 5–9
The Labour Day weekend is synonymous with the Moomba Festival takeover of Alexandra Gardens and Birrarung Marr. A new kids’ carnival precinct features family-friendly rides for the smallest daredevils, a range of food vendors and a giant inflatable maze. Don’t miss a jam-packed schedule of sand-sculpting workshops, kids’ comedy, puppetry magic shows, face painting, dance lessons and mini golf. And don’t forget to attend the much-loved community parade and the exhilarating 50-year Birdman Rally tradition, which sees fearless contenders test their homemade aircrafts over the Yarra River. Best part? Entry is free.
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, until Apr 5
Longstanding outdoor cinema event series, Moonlight Cinema, has plenty of family-friendly frivolity in this year’s program. Strap in for the antics of rabbit–fox duo Judy and Nick in Zootopia 2 or watch the travails of Will, a small goat with big dreams, in the preview screening of Goat. Older children can either acquaint themselves with the work of legendary Japanese animator Miyazaki’s work in Spirited Away or fall in love with Millennial favourite Bend It Like Beckham. View the full program here.
Go on a nature scavenger hunt at Royal Botanic Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and Cranbourne, daily
Set out from either garden’s visitor centre, collect your Seek and Find Nature Cards specially developed by artist Claire Mosley, and embark on an adventure exploring the scenery, plants and creatures of the gardens. Can you find something prickly? Can you spot lichen? Can you spy a bird in a tree? This free activity is self-guided.
TINY TOTS
Discover the natural world’s beauty at Melbourne Museum
Melbourne Museum, various times
The mecca for educational children’s entertainment, Melbourne Museum has a range of free and ticketed programming catering to tiny tots. Every Wednesday, Dino Days cultivates a new generation of dinosaur enthusiasts through dino discos, dress-ups, story-time and sensory soft play. The guided Tiny Tours: Rainforest to Reef takes children aged from three to five on an odyssey through the museum’s new permanent exhibition Our Wondrous Planet. Daily eel-feeding sessions are designed to educate children about the importance of these short-finned fish to First Nations peoples and our aquatic ecosystems.
Think big and problem-solve at Scienceworks
Scienceworks, various times
If you have tots up to the age of five, Scienceworks’ Ground Up: Building Big Ideas, Together immerses young children in an imaginative world of sensory discovery and construction-play. Babies can lounge on soft forms in the quiet zone, gaze at their mirrored reflections and gently turn wall-spinners, while toddlers are encouraged to experiment, construct and engineer manifold contraptions. Meanwhile, the 30-minute Mini Weather Show at 11.30am every day simulates the spectacle of clouds, rain, rainbows and lighting to teach children aged five and above the fascinating processes that underpin luminosity.
Come and Play
ACMI, until Jul 12
Celebrating 60 years of songs, stories, and learning, Play School: Come and Play! allows little ones a peek behind the scenes of Australia’s most-beloved children’s television show. Developed by ACMI in collaboration with the ABC, it’s a hands-on, playful experience where children and families can cavort their way through various stories and games.
OLDER KIDS
Mija: Collage Workshop
Melbourne Museum, Mar 8
Yo Soy Collective, a Melbourne-based arts platform for Latinx creatives, is facilitating a special autumnal workshop at the Melbourne Museum this International Women’s Day. Celebrate creative Latina women across the arts by making collages and reading selected works of literature – materials and handouts provided. The workshop is best suited to children over 12 years, with priority given to Latina women and extended community members.
Discover more about the forces that govern our lives at Scienceworks
Scienceworks, daily
Push beyond the limits of your imagination with Scienceworks’ free Think Ahead exhibition, featuring more than 200 objects from the past, present and speculative future and interactive activities. Meanwhile, teenagers will get a kick out of Scienceworks’ permanent, free Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen exhibition, which gives a tangible face to the imperceptible fields and forces that surround us – gravitational waves, invisible light, sound and aerodynamics.
Look up into the stars at Stellar Nights
Melbourne Observatory, until May 25
Delve into distant nebulae, lunar landscapes, and planetary wonders in two-hour nighttime tours facilitated by the Astronomical Society of Victoria’s passionate guides. As a bonus, you’ll learn how to use a telescope on the viewing lawn.
Witness a magic show at Melbourne’s newest boutique theatre
Piccolo Teatro: Magic Theatre, various times
Along a archetypal Melbourne alleyway, the boutique Piccolo Teatro – fitting a mere 32 people – is a cabaret club that provides a stage for the country’s best magicians and performers. Look forward to spectacular feats of illusion, mind-reading and inexplicable displays of magic from the theatre’s co-founders Sam Angelico (a magician with over 50 years of working experience) and Richard Vegas (one of Australia’s most sought-after close-up magicians) as well as a rotating roster of guest acts.
Sonia Nair is a contributor to The Age and Good Food.