FAQs for Festival Managed Venues

The Festival hires, fits out and staffs a suite of customised venues within the Melbourne CBD for the Festival season, including Melbourne Town Hall, Max Watt’s, Trades Hall, The Victoria Hotel, The Westin, Chinese Museum, Swiss Club, Arts Centre Melbourne and ACMI. These are called Festival Managed Venues (FMVs). Artists can apply to be programmed in a Festival Managed Venue or find an Independent Venue.

For a short guide to FMV applications, please click here.

To browse our FMV database, please click here.

For general performer FAQs, please click here.

We keep a detailed database of our FMVs, including information on capacities, indicative costs, technical requirements, accessibility and more. The venues currently available are:

Arts Centre Melbourne:

• The Fairfax Studio - 375 Cap
• The Show Room - 150-164 Cap
• Member’s Lounge - 105 Cap
• The Pavilion - 350 Cap

ACMI:

• Gandel Lab - 87 Cap
• Swinburne studios - 130 Cap

Chinese Museum:

• Silk Room - 102 Cap
• Jade Room - 52 Cap
• Tea Room - 39 Cap

fortyfivedownstairs:

• fortyfivedownstairs - 164 Cap

Max Watt’s:

• Max Watts - 396 Cap

Melbourne Museum:

• The Museum - 214 Cap

Melbourne Town Hall:

• Main Hall  - 1434 Cap
• Lower Town Hall  - 318 Cap 
• Supper Room - 294 Cap
• Powder Room - 127 Cap
• Cloak Room - 114 Cap
• Portrait Room  - 161 Cap
• Lunch Room - 48 Cap
• Flag Room - 64 Cap
• Backstage Room - 58 Cap
• Paul’s Place - 50 Cap

The Swiss Club:

• Swiss Club - 154 Cap

The Victoria Hotel: 

• Banquet Room  - 232 Cap
• Acacia Room - 69 Cap
• Boardroom - 66 Cap

The Westin Hotel: 

• Westin One  - 139 Cap
• Westin Two - 84 Cap
• Westin Three - 102 Cap
• Westin Four - 44 Cap

Trades Hall:

• ETU Ballroom - 201 Cap
• Solidarity Hall - 181 Cap
• Common Room Bar - 120 Cap
• Meeting Room - 80 Cap
• Archive Room - 51 Cap
• Quilt Room - 89 Cap
• Music Room - 79 Cap

Please note that this list is subject to change.

Expressions of Interest for the 2027 Festival are now open.

You can apply by completing an expression of interest here.

If you’ve performed in an FMV in the last 2 years (2025 and 2026 Festivals), please use this form.

If you apply for and secure a Festival Managed Venue (FMV), the cost will vary depending on the venue and room size. Venue rental will either be a percentage net box office split, or a venue guarantee, whichever is higher. Your venue rental will cover sound, lighting, staging and seating as well as the necessary technical stage management, front of house and box office staff. You will be responsible for all creative aspects of your show as well as all marketing and publicity.

Expressions of Interest open in early August and close on Monday 5 October 2026. Applications are assessed on an ongoing basis. The Festival will endeavour to be in touch by late October/early November. If you are unsuccessful in your application, we will let you know as soon as possible, and well before registrations close in late November. Competition for FMVs is high, so we urge participants to apply for Independent Venues in addition to FMVs to keep your options open. If your EOI is successful, you will receive a venue offer with details of the room setup and venue rental.

You will need to include the following support documents with your EOI:

Marketing Plan
It’s important that you have a plan to sell tickets whether you are in an FMV or one of the many independent venues around Melbourne; ticket sales are how you pay your venue rental (and other costs). Your Marketing Plan should cover all aspects of your promotion, describing the audience you are trying to attract and how you plan to connect with them.

Marketing Budget
Your budget is a tool to help you assess the viability of your festival season, balancing your expenses against ticket sales income. If you are unfamiliar with creating a show budget please refer to our sample budget here. For your FMV application, you only need to provide a marketing budget.

Support Material
Please provide any additional material to support your EOI and give our programming team more background on you, your show, venue technical requirements and target audience, including but not limited to performer bios, videos, information about your show, reviews and articles, full tech specs and images.

First tip: make sure you answer every question in your EOI submission clearly and concisely. We might not be familiar with your work or show, so it's important to give us a clear picture of the show, along with accurate production requirements and a strong marketing plan.

The shows that are selected to perform in our Festival Managed Venues come from a wide range of comedic genres and levels of experience. Our venues cater for shows looking for smaller capacities (from 50 seaters) to larger seasons (up to 1,400 seaters). We understand that your show may still be in development, but the more detail you can provide about your show/experience, and a strong and sensible marketing plan for how you propose to attract audiences, the better. The Festival also looks to program shows in venues that are a good fit for the production requirements, so information regarding the number of cast members, technical requirements including AV, whether there is music in your show etc. may affect which venue is appropriate, so please make sure to include this in your application.

Competition for FMVs is high, so we urge participants to apply for Independent Venues in addition to FMVs to keep your options open.

If your EOI is unsuccessful you will be notified as soon as possible. Remember that you do not have to perform in a Festival Managed Venue to be part of Melbourne Comedy Festival. Many shows are performed in independent venues including theatres, council and community spaces and smaller venues such as bars, pubs and clubs. These all offer a variety of spaces and venue hire arrangements at different prices. The Festival maintains a database of venues that have previously hosted Melbourne Comedy Festival shows, as well as venues that have expressed an interest in doing so in the future. The database is a good start for your venue search, but it is not exhaustive. Any venue is a potential Melbourne Comedy Festival venue. It's a good idea to talk to comedy colleagues who have performed in the Festival before and who may be able to recommend venues to you.

The 2027 Venues database will be available prior to registrations opening.