Melbourne Comedy Festival

An annual event, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, which was launched in 1987, ranks in the top three largest comedy festivals in the world. The other two being the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival.

At this time of the year in Melbourne when the weather is turning colder and the days are getting shorter, the city comes alive to the sounds of stand-up comedy, cabaret, theatre, street performance, film, television, radio and visual arts.

The Melbourne Comedy Festival, which runs for three and a half weeks, showcases and celebrates the top Australian comic artists, encourages and develops new comedians and comedy works and aims to present the funniest overseas comedians to Australian audiences.