returns sat 21 october 2023
BillyCart race &
street party
QUEENSBERRY CUP
THE NORTH MELBOURNE BILLYCART CHALLENGE
Queensberry Cup reflects North and West Melbourne's rich automative history and our culturally diverse neighbourhood. In its inaugural year in 2022, 30 people designed, built and raced an unpowered vehicle and raced it down Queensberry St.
Congratulations to our winners! Can you beat them in 2023? Entries open 17 July 2023
GET INVOLVED in 2023
We want Queensberry Cup to be a celebration of our vibrant community.
The more people involved in it the better.
Please consider contributing in some way, whether as a billycart builder, volunteer, performer, stallholder or sponsor.
Queensberry Cup
More than just a race!
The Queensberry Cup is a street festival and a celebration of the diverse communities of North Melbourne and West Melbourne.
The festival reflects, celebrates and supports the local residents, businesses, students and workers of our dynamic inner city suburbs.
For one day, the main street is closed and turned over to a range of creative and cultural activities!
The Famous Village Dog Show
An old Spring Fling favourite! Local residents bring their dogs and participate in fun, light-hearted competition. Great prizes thanks to local pet shop Paw Principality, and supporting the stellar work of Lort Smith Animal Hospital.
Prizes awarded for:
Best dog outfit
Best dog-owner dress sense
Best trick
Longest drool
Food & Drinks
2023 Stallholder applications NOW OPEN
The local festival area is replete with diverse, quality food and beverage options. In 2022 we supported local traders and community groups, with tasty treats from Mr. Tucker, (pictured) snag a snag from North Melbourne Rotary, Halal delights from Horn of Africa with Somali Womens Development Association, plus everything Errol St. has to offer. And for those looking for a drink of the grown-up variety, local gin distillery, Here’s Looking at You Kid operated a bar and launching a brand new gin, Errol St. Blues.
Music & Performance Stages
2023 Performer applications NOW OPEN
Melbourne’s most exciting, eclectic, emerging and talented musicians, with grooves from across the globe. In 2022, Ethio-funksters Black Jesus Experience led 2022's line-up that also included hip-hop from L to R Dance, neo-soul brothers IZY, South African a capella with Makepisi (pictured), smooth Brazilian sounds from Alcides Neto, you-can't-resist dance with David Smile, anarchic BBQ punk with The Burnt Sausages, DJ Camillo and DJ General Feelings, Sing NoW! Community Choir, Vietnamese and Chinese dance groups, Sian Brook and Alana Shrives, kindie-rockers The Mudcakes and much more.
Cirque Culinaire Kitchen Stage
2022 Program Details
Find out what’s cooking in your local community. See the food get prepared, hear the stories behind the cook and taste what gets prepared. The 2022 Queensberry Cup menu included Vietnamese rice paper rolls with Trang, baklava with Panayiotis, Palestinian baba ganoush with Aheda (pictured) and delicious Somali sambousa.
For The Kids
As well as the thrill of watching billycarts careen down Queensberry St., there is plenty for kids to get involved with. 2022's event featured face-painting, plus the Games Alleyway features La Boca, a unique collaborative box-building game, City of Melbourne’s Library Van, a range of arts activities, hip-hop workshop with L to R Dance and juggling workshops with Circus Nexus. Plus lots of fun with The Mudcakes
North Melbourne on Show
Our community has lots of great community organisations. Meet some of them at our community marquee, such as River Nile Learning Centre (pictured), West Melbourne Baptist Community Centre, Hotham History Project, Lort Smith Animal Hospital and Hotham Mission.
If you are a community group and would like to connect with the broader community, please complete a Stallholder Application Form. Make sure you tell us you are a community group.
Message from the Lord Mayor of Melbourne
The Queensberry Cup demonstrates one of the great aspects of local communities – using your imagination and talents to come up with sensational ideas.
The City of Melbourne is proud to support the Queensberry Cup, a day that brings joy to many, with its billycart race, street party and many other shared activities.
On Queensberry Cup Day, North and West Melbourne are the places to be. As well as the billycart action, don’t miss the culinary temptations on the Cirque Culinaire stage, the Famous Village Dog Show, live music and much more.
I congratulate The Centre neighbourhood house for getting the wheels on the road, and I wish everyone a terrific day.
The Centre
Queensberry Cup is presented by The Centre: Connecting Community in North and West Melbourne Inc.
The Centre is a not-for-profit incorporated charity situated in Errol Street in the heart of North & West Melbourne.
The Centre has now been in operation for 40 years and is proudly run by a loyal and committed team of volunteers and paid staff. Our members and clientele cover a diverse range of individuals and organisations exemplifying the richness of the local community.
Would you like to be involved?
Click Here
