Coming home: Melbourne Cabaret Festival returns to Port Phillip

Melbourne Cabaret Festival returns with new energy and a wide range of acts after a bruising three years.

‘We’re bringing back the dazzle: it’s all about a new venue, new innovations and new acts – we’re a revitalised festival returning after a bruising three years,’ says Melbourne Cabaret Festival producer Neville Sice.

Sice and his partner David Read also program cabaret shows at festivals outside of Melbourne, such as Perth’s Fringe World, where their productions have also been heavily impacted in recent years due to border closures, lockdowns and the like.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts