Melbourne Arts Festival

Generally speaking, most Melbourne theatre people will be involved in the Fringe, and not the MIAF (unless you're a techie). MIAF is pretty much all about bringing big international and national acts to Melbourne, not showing off local talent (local talent = pretty much everyone not on TV or on a three-year funding plan). It's also smack bang in the middle of the Fringe, which means that most of the smaller groups are busy either packing up from a show or resting from a show. I generally don't attend MIAF; there's never anything I particularly want to go see, and I've spent all my time/money on shows during the Fringe. I'd much rather see a fringe show anyway... But if you're going, the one thing you have to do is go to the Speigeltent. That's pretty much the done thing if you're attending MIAF. Other than that, no particular recommendations - haven't seen this year's program yet (unusual, I normally get two sent in the mail). Finger puppets now on sale at Puppets in Melbourne