Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Festival: The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is another attraction of the already packed calendar of Melbourne. This festival is widely popular and is counted as a very important film festival. It is regarded to be the third largest amongst other comedy film festivals. Many noted comedians are a part of this festival coming from all over the world. Some of the regular names to have featured in the festival are those of Paul McDermott, Will Anderson, Henry Rollins amongst other notable ones! The festival arranges many related events for comedians and amateurs to participate in.

Events in the festival: The festival organizes many events which are as follows:

- Raw Comedy: An event meant for only amateurs to participate and display their comic skills. The performance of the finalists find place on ABC broadcaster. The winner then gets attractive offers as awards.
- Class Clowns: This event aims at producing the funniest student.
- Great Debate: This is a televised program in the form of a debate.
- Up Front: This is an event featuring only female comedians.
- The main event, which is the Comedy Festival Gala, is the main draw of the event drawing people in hordes to witness award-winning performances by the best Comedians.
- The Comedy Lock in for 20hours: This is another special event dedicated to the - MICF on their 20th anniversary. However it was reduced to a much shorter duration.
- The Road Show a special addition to the existing programs enables people to visit the various centers around the regions if unable to visit the main festival giving access to many to be a part of the event.

The Comedy Festival Gala:
This event is one of the chief attractions of the Festival as it displays the comic skills of the best in the business! The event hosts mainly performances, short ones, of the accomplished comedians .The event is also held at Town Hall right at the beginning of the festival. The show is broadcast on Channel Ten. The program is done by performers who voluntarily do the show and the money raised is then sent to Oxfam.

Venue of the Festival: Held in a number of venues across Melbourne, Victoria and Australia. However the main center for all the activity is the Town Hall (Melbourne) on Swanston Streets. Other venues are at Central Business District

Time of the Festival: The festival this year has been scheduled from 4-29th April 2007.
Address: Melbourne Town Hall and other venues
90 Swanston Street.
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone Number: 03 9417 7711
1300 660 013
Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday (10am-11pm)
Property Facilities: Bar
Public telephone
Toilet
Information center

Accommodations: In order to be a part of the event one can put up at various hotels in and around Melbourne. The hotels are as follows

Grand Hotel Weisler
Mercure Graz City
Mercure Graz Messe
Das Weitzer
Schlossberghotel

All these hotels are within the proximity of the center and centrally located .The hotels are all reasonably priced. Booking of rooms can also be done online.
Tickets: The tickets for the show can be collected from the ticket master outlets or from the venue on the night of the events. Purchase your tickets now!
So, all of you who really need a serious laugh can go and visit the event as this is a must for all comedy lovers!

Hotels in Melbourne
Medina Grand Hotel	Oaks On Market Hotel
Best Western The Tudor Hotel	Rydges Hotel
Vibe Savoy Hotel	Highlander Apartments