Melbourne takes a bite of the Big Apple with MEL&NYC festival

Melbourne gets a dose of New York City this winter when it celebrates the link between the two creative cities through music, art, food, comedy, dance and film.

MEL&NYC runs between June and August.

Its music program includes secret laneway pop-up gigs celebrating their shared underground scene and a live RockWiz TV event paying homage to all things rock in New York.

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival curates performers, workshops and conversations with names such as Madeleine Peyroux, Gretchen Parlato, Christian McBride and The Others.

There are a number of tributes to Leonard Bernstein, one by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

There are also performances by Regina Spektor and Bang On A Can All-Stars, as well as EXO-TECH, a cutting-edge collective fronted by Kimbra and Sophia Brous, alongside New York artists.

Premier Daniel Andrews says, “New York City is the city that never sleeps - and where better to host a festival of all it has to offer in food, art and music, than right here in the vibrant, cultural capital of our nation?”

The festival will bring together local talent with New York’s finest, including comedian Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and guest chefs from acclaimed New York restaurant Momofuku.

Anchoring the festival, MoMA at NGV will take over the entire ground floor of NGV International, with over 200 works from art legends including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keefe and Roy Lichtenstein.

It will be the biggest collection of MoMA works to ever leave the prestigious NYC gallery.

Minister for creative industries Martin Foley points out, “More than a dozen of Melbourne’s best cultural organisations are collaborating with New York-based partners, to present this exciting and ambitious city-wide program.

“It demonstrates the global reach of our creative sector and will showcase local talent alongside NYC’s finest.”

Full program can be found here.