Your Guide to Moomba Festival

words by niall roeder

With the longevity of Madonna and the popularity of #SaltBae, Moomba Festival returns to Melbourne for the 63^rd time in 2017.

Just like the material girl, Australia’s largest community festival was born in the 50s and has been going hard ever since. However, much unlike a Madge gig, the something-for-everyone Moomba Festival is free and with an eclectic mix of live music, food, activities and events has rightly earned a reputation for having something for everyone.

We look at the five best things to do at Moomba Festival…

Birdman Rally
The Birdman Rally is like something out of Round the Twist – a combination of bravado, absurdity and physics, competitors don hare-brained homemade flying devices and hurl themselves across the Yarra. It’s a very entertaining flying competition all in the name of charity. Charity and glory.

Moomba Parade
Starting near the Shrine of Remembrance and gallivanting down St Kilda Road, the meandering Melbourne institution has been colourfully parading since day dot. This year, the parade will feature the designs of seven winning kids from last year’s Design a Float workshop, so keep an eye out for 6-year-old Wilfred’s “Robot Invasion”, a float dedicated to his beloved machine men; 11-year-old Loretta’s “Chicken”, a nod to the Year of the Rooster; and 11-year-old Adelaide’s epic “Spaghetti on a Float”, a shout out to spag bol, complete with pepper men and cheese hats. Bloody outstanding!

Roller Disco
Whether you can skate or not, this is a good laugh. Boogie, skate and stack to disco tunes spun by MzRizk, JNETT and Jimmy James.

Sand Sculptures
Get your sandcastle game up to scratch. The Michael Jordans of sand sculpting, Dennis Massoud and Etual Ojeda, will be fashioning works of art out of beach dirt and running workshops so you can learn the tricks of the sandy trade.

Food
What would, well anything worthwhile be without food? Luckily for greedy gutses around Melbourne, Moomba boasts a long list of stomach rumble-inducing food stalls – from Vietnamese street food to traditional Greek doughnuts, buttermilk marinated grilled chicken burgers and Brazilian charcoal bbq. Get in my belly.

Moomba Festival runs March 10 – 13 at Alexandra Gardens and Birrarung Marr.