On Opening Night, all are invited to assemble in the heart of the city for a three-part celebration of the Festival opening. The bells of the city's cathedrals, churches and schools will peal in succession, to herald in this spectacular occassion; before a glorious outdoor performance by Melbourne's very own Strange Fruit, followed by France's Transe Express who will take you on a magical journey, 130 feet in the air, with their aerial masterpiece.

Everyone is welcome to this free event!

Husband and wife team Dean & Britta have composed new music for Andy Warhol’s 13 most famous Screen Tests, which they accompany live with their band. Their wistful, 60s flavoured songs provide an ideal lyrical and musical complement to each of Warhol's intriguing subjects, shot between 1964 and 1966.

French artist Marie-Jeanne Hoffner and Melbourne-based artist Stephen Garrett bring a fresh approach to their collaboration with this ambitious and complex work which extends from Goldrush, an exhibition held at L’Espace Art Contemporain de la Ville de La Rochel, France.

Complementing the world premiere of Brett Dean's new work in the Festival's Seven Words concert series, The Australian String Quartet presents Dean's remarkably sculptured “Eclipse" – a moving and heartfelt piece of great profundity and solemn beauty.

This is an invitation. New lands are being created. Memory, now and in the future, is pouring onto the internet. Reality is splintering into shards of mirror and a casual, congenial bear is showing up at people’s houses...

The latest work from Melbourne’s award winning Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre explores the mythic structures that lie beneath the surface of domestic and suburban reality – magical, memorable and mighty real.

A feast of Bach, a feat of endurance and 32 feet of organ! This unique event sees acclaimed organist Calvin Bowman attempt to perform the complete organ works of JS Bach in one day. Part musical concert, part endurance feat, this will be performed on one of the world’s largest and most impressive instruments, the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wonderful world of Beans! A Molotov cocktail of chunky, psychedelic electrohop and avant-rap narratives, this Festival gig promises to be one of the most original and remarkable live performances around.

Palestine's Ramallah Underground combine music ranging from Arabic electronic music , hip hop, trip hop to downtempo with a deep sense of their local culture and imposing presence of Palestine in their lives.

Ro Sham Bo bring everything from Crunk from the Dirty South, Funk from the favelas of Brazil, the freshest Dancehall outta Jamaica, and whatever else they can find, it's crazy.

Singer, multi instrumentalist and DJ, Bishi fuses British pop with English and Eastern European folk in her own unique way.

Melbourne's KOKO~NUTS! will then transport you to the primitive future via the surrealistic sounds of fifties & early sixties Exotica, with a combination of DJ's and live all-star percussive force.

Peace Out is a duo comprised of Daina Fanning and Milo Kossowski who use vocals and synthesisers fed through endless phasing, looping and delay to create sweeping, epic atmospheres that conjure up images of the future.

Two of the brightest young stars of European dance team up with Melbourne’s choreographic powerhouse Chunky Move for this highly anticipated new work. In a place where civilisation has not quite arrived, or has ceased to exist long ago, Black Marrow explores extremes and opposite states, looking for the more undefined aspects of human identity.

Politics, parties and anarchy in the PRC as China's seminal punk band rocks the Forum with a hi - octane gig that will blow your mind!

The Go Set is a five-piece rock band with a punk ethos. Influences include The Pogues, Weddings Parties Anything, The Clash, and Radio Birdman.

Untether your inner rock animal when Goldie Lux delivers a shameless rock and roll assault, playing anything from grind to grunge and beyond ... just make sure you wear your dancing shoes!

Leave all expectations at the door as one of the world’s most exciting young musicians makes his anticipated Australian debut. Cameron Carpenter is known for his intensely personal, often flamboyant, performances. Dubbed “the Maverick Organist” by The New York Times, his organ playing is widely regarded as unmatched. His Festival repertoire spans his own compositions and influences by Patsy Cline, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

The opening of the 1970 Whitney Museum retrospective, an illuminating interview conducted with Larry Rivers and a party held at the Lennon/Ono residence are just some of the revealing moments in Warhol's public and private life captured by video diarist Michel Auder.

Clue To Kalo applies a lo-fi aesthetic to pristine computer-based production in which the technology is the means rather than the end.

French Rockets has created a unique live experience with an original lighting show that enhances the band's inimitable ‘moltenrock' sound.

Treasure Island's catholic sets feature smoky, timeless cuts from every continent, both obscure and anthemic.

Following celebrated world premiere performances at Melbourne Festival with murundak in 2006 and Hidden Republic in 2008, The Black Arm Band returns with a musical journey to stir the soul in collaboration with Miles Franklin award winner Alexis Wright. dirtsong is a music performance from Aboriginal Australia mixing traditional and contemporary songs, existing repertoire with newly commissioned music and sung in many Australian languages.

Signal is an exciting new endeavour that provides an arts facility to Melbourne’s youth. Coinciding with the Festival are its inaugural screen and sound public art commissions.

South African artist James Webb has created a new public sound intervention for this project, titled Echoes.

Writer and performer Alicia Sometimes brings together poets, sound artists and video artists along with world renowned science writer John Gribbin to take the audience on an exploration of science, mind and the infinite universe at the Melbourne Planetarium under the spectacular dome theatre. With music, visuals and sound, they will show you the world of the most literary, dazzling and passionate stars.

Fischerspooner's live shows are renowned for their rich mix of art, dance, music and fashion. You never know what quite to expect from each performance, but it's safe to say that you have to be there!

With a mix of disco beats, shimmering synths and dubbed out vocal effects Melbourne lads The Emergency weave a web of heavy cosmic pop.

Brash and catchy, with hints of retro synthetics and icy Italo ambiance, Outrun's music ranges from tightly-wired and somnambulistic laments to straight-up, late-night party fuel.

Free World is a contemporary art installation that explores the rap poetry of six young people from Liberia, Sudan and Tanzania. Presented as a large scale, outdoor work at Federation Square, Free World brings the words, images and music of emerging artists from pan-African backgrounds to centre stage. Free World is poetry with a pulse.

Burning up the dance floors throughout the world with its unique brand of rock, Brazil's Garotas Suecas was touted THE must-see band of this year's SXSW music extravaganza.

Born of the loins of 70s Havana, nurtured on a diet of soulful, sexy tunes and inspired by Cuban historical fact and mythology, The Cuban Brothers' fresh approach to live entertainment whips up a frenzy at every gig.

And now, presenting, from way down soul-shimmy-shaking south, the ladies who put the cream in your coffee, the sass in your soda and the sugar in your pie, Clairy Baby Browne and the Bangin' Rackettes!

Melbourne Festival & VICE Films present a screening of Heavy Metal In Baghdad, a feature length documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day.

To celebrate this film and all that it has accomplished, Melbourne International Arts Festival and VICE Films will be throwing a party after the screening paying homage to all things METAL with Black Cobra (USA), Ruins and Manticle (DJ set).

Explore the notion of the interior in this survey of one of Australia’s leading photographic artists.

An engrossing film in which Greenaway investigates another of the world’s most famous paintings to unveil a thrilling murder mystery.

In partnership with regional centres, Melbourne Festival is providing a bus service over Opening Weekend, enabling free and easy access to and from Melbourne for everyone to join in the festivities!

In this extraordinary concert tribute to this legendary artist, Katie Noonan, Wendy Matthews, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra, Louise Perryman, Virna Sanzone and Rachel Gaudry, together with an outstanding 12-piece band bring their own musicality to much of the best-loved material from Mitchell’s diverse career.

Sure to please not only Joni fans but anyone who loves beautiful music, this concert will present the humanity of Joni’s art and the power of her ongoing relevance as a unique artist.

What is the body? How is it made? What are its limitations? What are its possibilities?

Sasha Waltz & Guests performs its dance masterpiece, Körper. Here is the human body, laid bare; the inner viscera and the outer shell, its fragility and its strength, its beauty and its ugliness; here is the body in history, in science, in architecture.

For one night only: experience the glorious sound of Vocalconsort Berlin as it performs works from the German Romantic period within the serene interior of BMW Edge. Vocalconsort Berlin is one of the most versatile vocal ensembles in Europe and is renowned for its inspiring and dynamic performances. This one off, a capella concert presents a selection of well loved German Romantic works from Hugo Wolff, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

To celebrate the arrival of Peter Greenaway's extraordinary Leonardo's Last Supper to North Melbourne, the Queen Victoria Market and Melbourne Festival are delighted to invite you to discover the Last Supper Foodies Tour.

Theatre, dance and song come together to extraordinary effect in this moving story of a family’s decline.

At the vanguard of Europe’s new physical theatre scene, the Belgian company Peeping Tom creates work that is a cross between dance and theatre, and the trivial and the mysterious. The company is known for stories steeped in misfortune that are told with grace and dark humour.

Visionary artist and filmmaker Peter Greenaway gives new life to one of the world’s most iconic and mystifying masterpieces, merging visual arts, cinema, music and cutting-edge technologies.

A master of cinematic magic, Greenaway has created an inspiring multimedia event in front of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. This is a perfect, three-dimensional sculptural clone of Milan's crumbling, 510-year-old chapel wall and painting, with live projections of images and light that are accompanied by a soundscape of voice, music and atmospherics.

Mixing airsoft, tuning, punk, hardcore and The Guinness Book of World Records, the work of French artists Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni lies at the boundary between art, pop culture and entertainment. Linking vernacular with mass consumption and folk with pop, their practice produces complex, often spectacular objects and events that question the possibility of contemporary subjectivity.

Agnes Varda's cool and loose ‘film within a film' features Warhol superstar Viva, Hair creators Gerome Ragni, James Rado and filmmaker Shirley Clarke, all portraying themselves in this ‘outsiders' vision of Hollywood and the sexual revolution.

One of the most prestigious international orchestras performs two distinct programs in what is surely Melbourne’s most significant classical music event in years.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has long been recognised as one of the best ensembles in the world, an assertion borne out by continued acclaim from audiences and critics alike. It has been a long time since Melburnians have enjoyed a visiting orchestra of this standing.

To mark the occasion, the Orchestra and Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski have programmed two concerts featuring a selection of pieces which have thrilled audiences and critics throughout the world, as well as a premiere of a renowned Australian work.

Contemporary artist Matt Stokes delves deep into unique moments of recent British and American cultural history and identity.

Vanessa Van Durme talks frankly about the long road she had to take to finally become herself: her sex change, the dark years that followed it, her return to theatre and her ongoing campaign to fight public prejudices. Tempered by her charm and robust sense of humour, this bravura performance is neither bleak nor preachy, but utterly engrossing and endlessly fascinating. Look Mummy, I’m Dancing is a courageous, deeply moving and unconventional story of one woman’s quest to find her real identity and her refusal to give up.

Mary and Max is a beautifully realised claymated feature of a pen-friendship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle, living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, living in the chaos of New York.

The blood-soaked myth of Medea, the original scorned woman, is given new life in this groundbreaking dance-opera that comes to Melbourne following a rapturous world premiere season in Europe. Sasha Waltz’s extraordinary production sees the role of Medea played by coloratura soprano Caroline Stein, who is supported by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the glorious voices of Vocalconsort Berlin and a cast of 17 versatile dancers who play various dramatic roles and, through beguiling formations, bring the rich symbolism of the myth to life.

A wild fusion of sound and energy, Melt Banana's music falls under what many call ‘noise rock' or ‘noisecore.' Both terms refer to music that blends rock, noise music and other genres.

With support from Minutes Vs Margins - two bands coming together to explore each other's songs and musical worlds specifically for the Festival - and Super Rydeen Machine.

High above Alexandra Gardens, with Melbourne's sparkling night time cityscape as a backdrop, a circus of the sky unfolds. Combining 21st century technology with the atmosphere of a carnival and a hint of medieval court spectacle, this extravaganza of mesmerising music, high-altitude hijinks and airborne architecture is simply dazzling. With torches ablaze and resplendent in sumptuous, jester-like costumes, Europe’s acclaimed Transe Express takes Melburnians on a magical journey, 130 feet in the air, with their signature masterpiece.

My Disco has toured extensively, nationally and globally and released two acclaimed LPs, including this year's minimal yet intricate album Paradise.

The music of Beaches swells. It ebbs. It is already swept away on the next high tide. Beaches swerves effortlessly between 1960s hit parades to 1970s psychedelia, shoegaze to prog, southern boogie to krautrock.

Your Animal's live performances are dark and brooding. With heated vocals and minimal rhythms, the music's packed to the rafters with emotion and heart.

Peter Greenaway's feature film Nightwatching is based around the painting of Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch. Nightwatching concentrates on the year 1642, and the evidence of a dangerous conspiracy contained in the painting of The Night Watch that mirrors Amsterdam society at the centre of the Golden Age.

To coincide with the presentation of Leonardo’s Last Supper, a very special Festival event as Greenaway discusses his exploration of some of the world’s greatest paintings.

For one night only the Forum Theatre will be transformed into Melbourne’s most exclusive speakeasy.

Join Richard Higgins (The List Operators/Last Tuesday Society), Alicia Sometimes (Elemental) plus a host of other partners in rhyme and a very special international guest for this not to be missed evening of word wizardry.

Experience the work of an artist ahead of his time – one whose commitment to sustainability and social contact appears increasingly vital today.

A fiery blend of traditional and Gypsy music from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Paprika Balkanicus are masters of great atmosphere.

Barons of Tang bastardise mainly traditional gypsy and tango feels to create what they call 'gypsy death-core'. The catchy tunes and punk ethos all tie together to mean one thing ... dancing is inevitable!

And to top off this wonderful night of dance, DJ & music performer Shags Chamberlain will play an eclectic mix of music from different eras, foreign lands and inner and outer space.

At 7pm on Opening Night, all are invited to assemble for a three-part celebration of the opening of your festival, as the bells of the city’s cathedrals, churches and schools peal in succession to herald this spectacular occasion.

It’s July 2005 and Britain is in the spotlight. Live 8, G8, 2012 Olympics for London: great events are happening and everyone is talking about them. The air is electric with possibility. In less than an hour, everything will change …

Melbourne’s internationally celebrated outdoor theatre company Strange Fruit returns with an exciting new work. Created in collaboration with renowned composer Graeme Leak, this world premiere sees the Strange Fruit performers, perched atop their unique five metre poles, swaying among the Federation Bells and playing a specially commissioned score.

The first part of the evening, Matt Stokes' Sacred Selections sees keys aficionados Ollie McGill from The Cat Empire and Melbourne-based musician Rowan Vince, treat the organ to a surprising repertoire of contemporary music from Aussie gems to Black Metal anthems.

Following Sacred Selections is Shall We? with Cameron Carpenter & Bishi - a coming together of the world’s most sensational singer/sitar player and the world’s most original organist!

Based on three sacred classical music works, this is the third program in a very special series of concerts brought together over three evenings which meditate on Christ’s seven last words on the cross.

The "Seven Last Words From the Cross" is Scottish composer James MacMillan's masterpiece, his beautiful lament powerfully evoking the inexorable sense of drama of the seven words.

Based on three sacred classical music works, this is the second program in the very special series of concerts brought together over three evenings which meditate on Christ’s seven last words on the cross.

Joseph Haydn's seven adagios for string quartet, here played by seven quartets, dispersed throughout the Cathedral, are interspersed with the world premieres of seven specially commissioned meditations by leading Australian composers.

Based on three sacred classical music works, this is the first program in a very special series of concerts brought together over three evenings which meditate on Christ’s seven last words on the cross.

Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina's astonishing music ranges in mood from wild, impassioned outbursts to fragile hushed silences.

RMIT Gallery brings together artists, architects, writers and thinkers to reflect on what qualities of environment and circumstance afford us shelter in a physical and metaphorical sense. Is shelter a sense of safe haven, a place to protect ourselves from the natural elements, from the unrelenting pressures of modern life or, perhaps, a place or space to reflect on our innermost thoughts?

ArtPlay is a creative arts studio for children and their families. ArtPlay brings professional artists together with children to create together. For the Festival ArtPlay is running a special program called Shelter: On Kindness.

Siren fuses musical performance with gallery installation: a whirling, spinning spectacle of mechanical movement, electronic sound and light. It explores the intersection of art installation and theatrical performance. The audience is free to move around the installation during the performance and experience different sonic and visual effects.

To coincide with the Festival presentation of Valhalla, Anna Schwartz Gallery presents an exhibition of Callum Morton’s latest work. Taking the form of the artist's more recent models of drive-in movie screens, Smokescreen literally explodes the scale so that it competes with the scale of the space itself.

Contemporary artists create a new body of work on a large scale specifically designed for The Margaret Lawrence Gallery.

Hold tight as the ordinary turns extraordinary in this vivid and exhilarating verse play by Irish playwright Mark O‘Rowe. Terminus was a roaring hit at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the Fringe First Award 2008. But be warned – it’s not for the faint hearted!

As The Den, the Arts Centre’s Fairfax Studio becomes the Festival’s cosy home of thought provoking and informal discussion. Come and listen to your favourite Festival artists discuss their practice, their passions and more.

Don’t believe everything you hear, even if it is true. The Dictionary of Imaginary Places captures the complexity of urban life as it hurtles down the track, celebrating the intersection of mundanity and passion. Over 18 months, Director Anna Tregloan and Sound Designer David Franzke rode on trains, travelling from the bustling centre to the lonely ends of the lines and back again. The conversations and tirades they overheard were recorded and transcribed.

The Dwelling evokes the ghostly inhabitations of the ‘house’ in a series of works that explore surreal events, acoustic hauntings and psychological and sociological evolutions. Included in this major survey are projects by internationally acclaimed visual artists, Chantal Akerman, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Sofia Hultén, Michaela Melián, Callum Morton, David Noonan & Simon Trevaks, and Calum Stirling.

This fictionalised account of an artist's life in review brings Michel Auder's revelatory archive of four decades of prolific video recordings to the fore. Memoirs, travelogues and portraits of his contemporaries from the art and pop worlds including Andy Warhol, Alice Neel, Louis Waldon, Harry Smith plus Auder's two wives, Viva and Cindy Sherman, interweave with hyper-cinematic scenes to re-imagine Auder's fascinating life. Australian premiere!

The Forum is a panel discussion which brings together three of the world's most eminent minds to challenge each other on their latest ideas. Co-presented by the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall and ABC Radio National.

The Knitting Factory turns the Forum Theatre upside down and outside in by creating an afternoon picnic of tea, cakes and swing dancing in one of Melbourne’s favourite venues. Featuring the sights and sounds of Audrey Jeane’s Travelling Slideshow, a selection of kitsch and charming memories in magnificent sound and technicolour!

In 2009 the Festival nurtures the importance of home with a series of exhibitions and installations based around themes of dwellings, interiors and spaces we occupy. The Living Room is a large-scale video work that offers a tantalising peek into the city’s private spaces. It comprises a diverse selection of photographs sent in to the Festival by Melburnians of their own living rooms and favourite spaces.

Warhol's classic 1966 music documentary has been described by critics as "eternally chic" and, according to writer and biographer Victor Bockris, it "remains the single best visual record of the Velvet Underground".

An afternoon film and music program features local bands reinterpreting the landmark album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses and a specially commissioned interview with Rogerio Duarte. This will be followed by free screenings of a documentary on the movement and a Brazilian feature film from the period.

Tropicália is a Brazilian artistic movement that arose in the late 1960s. It fused elements of western pop culture and the avant garde with traditional Brazilian art forms and musical styles, creating an original expression of Brazilian culture. Forming the centrepiece of this program is a comprehensive exhibition at The Narrows of art and design works produced by Rogério Duarte, one of Tropicália’s key protagonists.

Signal is an exciting new endeavour that provides an arts facility to Melbourne’s youth. Coinciding with the Festival are its inaugural screen and sound public art commissions.

This four screen graphic animation was conceived as the inaugural screen based Signal artwork. Active at night, the work marks and transforms the site by presenting a poetic and elegiac panorama of youth portraiture.

Brenton Broadstock and Julian Yu, two of Melbourne’s great composers, come together with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for a very special evening that showcases the scope of contemporary orchestral music in Australia.

Two exhilarating works from the fastest rising star of the international dance scene.

Originally commissioned as part of the Australian presentation at the 2007 Venice Biennale, Callum Morton’s Valhalla is now to be seen in Australia for the first time.

When you really want to know a place, to be privy to a city’s secrets and its unexpected gems, wouldn’t it be great to have a map designed by locals, complete with hand drawn directions to the places that matter to them?

Walk This Way unveils eight very diverse personal experiences of Melbourne from a selection of Melburnian artists and icons including Matt Preston, Rob Adams, Kate Ceberano, Julia de Ville, Bert Newton, Alan Brough, Neil Mitchell and Kaz Cooke.

Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling is powerful storytelling in which the voices of our past echo into our future. Through four generations of interconnected stories, from the claustrophobia of a small 1950s London flat to the windswept coast of Southern Australia and into the heart of the Australian desert, this contemporary family saga delves into the past and reaches into the future, bringing to light the enduring impact of collective and individual action.