The Moomba Festival in 2025 is scheduled from Thursday, 6th March to Monday, 10th March.
Moomba Festival
The Moomba Festival, celebrated annually in Melbourne, is Australia’s largest free community festival, deeply ingrained in the city’s cultural fabric since its inception in 1955. It spans over four days, typically aligning with the long weekend of Labour Day in March.
The Moomba festival is renowned for its vibrant parade, featuring a procession of elaborate floats that traverse through Melbourne’s city center, drawing crowds exceeding 100,000 spectators.
This parade has been a staple of Moomba since its first edition and continues to be a highlight. It showcases themes of communal fun and artistic expression.
Another signature event of the Moomba Festival is the Birdman Rally. In this quirky and entertaining competition, participants construct homemade flying devices and launch themselves over the Yarra River, aiming to cover the greatest distance or raise funds for charitable causes.
Throughout its history, Moomba has also celebrated monarchs, a tradition that started with the crowning of Moomba Queens based on beauty pageant competitions from 1955 to 1987.
This evolved into a gender-neutral Moomba Monarch role, which recognised celebrities and notable figures who contributed to the festival’s spirit.
For its 70th anniversary, the Moomba festival featured a range of activities beyond the traditional events, including tribute performances, many rides, food and drink options, fireworks, and more, catering to over a million visitors.
The Moomba Monarchs for this special anniversary were comedian Pete Helliar and children’s entertainer Emma Memma, adding a contemporary touch to the festival’s royal tradition.
