Moomba Festival
Moomba is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labour Day long weekend, from Friday to the second Monday in March. Moomba is culturally important to Melbourne, having been celebrated since 1955, and regularly attracts up to a million people, with a record attendance of 3.8 million set in 2018.
In 2003, the event was renamed Melbourne Moomba Waterfest.
Traditional events include the Moomba parade, crowning of Moomba monarchs, fireworks displays, carnivals in the gardens along the river, river activities including watersports, water floats and the Birdman Rally, as well as live music and bands.
In 2021, the usual Moomba was cancelled by Melbourne City Council, for the first time ever, due to events and issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. However "Moomba 2.0" events were held on 5–8 March. In 2024, a forecast of extremely hot weather caused the Moomba Parade to be cancelled.
Origins
In 1951, Australia celebrated fifty years of Federation with a parade and the staging of the theatre production An Aboriginal Moomba: Out of the Dark. In 1954, Elizabeth II of [the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II] visited the city for the first time as reigning monarch, and the City Development Association and the Melbourne City Council proposed an autumn carnival to be called "Moomba".A committee was formed in July 1954 to organise and fund the event, successfully allocating £10,000 to its inaugural running. Before the event's first year, controversy was created when Labor Councillor Frank Williams resigned from the committee, branding the planned carnival as a "Bourke street joke for the benefit of shopkeepers". A promotional theme song "Come to Melbourne for the Moomba" was written by Jack O'Hagan.
Etymology
The festival was originally named Moomba by organisers in the belief it was a native word meaning 'let's get together and have fun.' Credit is usually given to Bill Onus, a unionist and member of the Australian Aborigines' League for proposing the term, which he used in a play, Aboriginal Moomba in 1951. In 1969 Luise Hercus glossed the word mum as meaning 'bottom, rump', and suggested mum-ba meant something like 'bottom and..', and had been introduced from Healesville usage as a joke. In 1981 Barry Blake analysed the word as combining as mum and –ba, a locative suffix meaning 'at, in, on'. This would give the sense of 'up your bum/arse'.Onus himself, according to his daughter-in-law, who said she had heard the story from Onus's wife Mary, had picked up the word from a word list of indigenous terms. Some say he did it to get back at the city council for having deliberately upstaged the traditional Labour Day march with a popular carnival. Lin Onus, his son, stated that indeed his father had intended to play a prank in passing on the word with this sense.
Event history
The first Moomba was a 15-day festival officially opened on 12 March 1955 by the State Governor, Sir Dallas Brooks. The inaugural programme included a fireworks display, parade, vintage car display, Henley rowing regatta, river floats including a "Lord Mayor's houseboat", cycling race, tennis at Kooyong, concerts including performances by the Victorian Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic choir, crowning of the Queen of Moomba and riverside carnival. 25,000 turned out to watch the inaugural Moomba parade down Swanston Street. The first Moomba was heavily criticised by Melbourne's conservative establishment, including the Anglican Church, which at the time claimed it was hedonistic and embodying social decay. Council responded to the criticism citing that Moomba was intended to be a festival for families and as such is reinforcing family values in society.One of the popular events associated with Moomba was the Herald Sun Outdoor Art Show in the Treasury Gardens.
After the 2016 Moomba festival fireworks there was a large-scale brawl in and around Federation Square in Melbourne's Central Business District, in which young people and the police fought each other. The violence was blamed in the press on the supposed Apex, and became a trigger for the African gangs moral panic in the lead up to the Victorian state election of 2018.
2021 – Moomba 2.0
In 2021, the usual Moomba events were cancelled by Melbourne City Council, for the first time ever, due to COVID-19 restrictions and Victoria's third lockdown in February. The Moomba Parade and the Birdman Rally were already cancelled.Instead of the normal festival attractions, Lord Mayor Sally Capp said Moomba 2.0 will be: "... a series of fun, family friendly events and attractions across the city that will help bring the buzz back to Melbourne." There was ticketing and COVID-safe marshals at all sites. Moomba 2.0 was a COVID-safe event.
Events
Parade and floats
A parade and floats through the streets of Melbourne have been a key part of the Moomba festival since its beginning. Each year it attracts over 100,000 people to Melbourne's city centre as well as being shown on free-to-air television in Melbourne.The first Moomba procession was held in 1955. It was first televised in 1957, the year after the Melbourne 1956 Olympics.
The floats have an annual theme, usually an elaboration on "Let's get together and have fun", the avowed mission and vision statement of Moomba and are usually from sister cities, schools and community groups. They also promote some aspect of the arts, like singing, dancing, or design. Swanston Street is the traditional home of the floats and spine of the city and horse- or tractor-drawn floats use the tram tracks. Decorated trams are sometimes also featured.
In 2001, the parade came under media controversy when a French Troupe and Melbourne's Snuff Puppets had floats with naked people covered in body paint.
In 2024, the parade, in its 70th year, was cancelled due to a heatwave with forecast temperatures from the high 30s to low 40s°C.
Moomba monarchy
The Moomba monarchy has been one of the most celebrated and controversial components of the festival over the years.Queens of Moomba (1955–1987)
The first Moomba monarchs were the Queens of Moomba, awarded from the inaugural festival in 1955. The role was decided by a beauty pageant competition. It was awarded for the last time in 1987, as a new gender-neutral monarch position was established and the beauty pageant was abolished.Notably, 1966 Moomba Queen Erica McMillan was killed in a car accident seven weeks after the festival, in the car which she had received as a prize for being voted Queen.
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Kings of Moomba (1967–1987)
Kings of Moomba were named beginning in 1967. The role was awarded to male celebrities. It too was abolished following the 1987 festival as the gender-neutral monarch was introduced.Occasionally, a "court jester" was also named to accompany the king.
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| Year | King | Nationality | Notability | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1967 |  United Kingdomsortname|Alfred|MarksMoomba Monarchs (1988–1998, 2010–present)In 1988, a gender-neutral Moomba Monarch position was established. Winners are typically celebrities and may be any gender. The first was television presenter Jo Pearson. In 1999, the tradition ended when clowns Zig and Zag were appointed. After it was revealed that, years before, Zig had pleaded guilty to child molestation, they were dethroned. In 2010, the tradition was restored, with Molly Meldrum and Kate Ceberano being named King and Queen of Moomba.On some occasions, non-celebrities have been named for various reasons.
Queens of the Pacific (1967–1977)The Queen of the Pacific was a title contested by representatives from various countries and administrations from the Pacific and South-East Asian regions. It was decided by a beauty contest. The title was awarded from 1967 to 1977.
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