Live at the Bowl Is the New COVID-Safe Summer Festival Coming to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl

When the warm weather rolls around each year, Melburnians usually have multiple reasons to head to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. For those feeling festive, it's where Carols by Candlelight is held. And for anyone keen on catching orchestral shows under the evening sky, it's where the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has held its free summer series for decades.

Come 2021, the iconic venue will also play host to a new event: Live at the Bowl. It's a response to this past chaotic year, with holding a COVID-safe summer festival its number-one aim. Well, that and giving the city's residents something fun to add to their calendars after 2020's struggles.

The lineup won't be announced until early December; however, Live at the Bowl will run from January–March and feature more than 40 performances. It'll be a socially distanced affair, obviously, which the renders of the event illustrate — including separate platforms that split the audience up into groups, as festivals overseas have already been using.

Render of Live at the Bowl

Live at the Bowl won't be the only Melbourne event tempting you out of the house this summer, of course. It's one of several to receive funding as part of a newly announced $17.2 million Victorian Government package — to "enable Victorians to reconnect with the cultural experiences they love in new and unique ways, while creating jobs for thousands of Victorians across the creative and event industries", according to a statement from Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson.

Accordingly, Melburnians can also look forward to the Melbourne Museum Summer Plaza series, which'll feature open-air experiences performances, movies, food and drinks; dining and music in the NGV Garden to coincide with the free NGV Triennial; and outdoor experiences at State Library Victoria, Melbourne Recital Centre, ACMI and Federation Square.

Sixteen individual Victorian arts companies and festivals will also receive funding to present outdoor programs across summer, including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Midsumma, Shepparton Arts Festival and Creative Clunes.

Live at the Bowl will run from January–March 2021 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, with the program releasing in early December — we'll update you with further details when they're announced.