DreamHack Melbourne, the three-day gaming lifestyle festival presented by ESL FACEIT Group and partner Transport Accident Commission (TAC), is set to open its doors on Friday 26 April, bringing the world famous gaming lifestyle festival to Australian shores for a third time. Fans can expect a packed weekend of everything they love about gaming, including incredible cosplay, a levelled up Artist Alley, panels and live podcasts, Counter-Strike 2 & League of Legends tournaments played live on stage, and more content creators than ever before.

DreamHack Melbourne 2024 will mark the first hololive Production 3D concert in Australia, taking place at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday April 27. Entrance is accessible to those who have a 3-day or Saturday pass, with tickets selling fast. The ‘hololive Premium Upgrade’ has already sold out, with only a limited quantity of ‘hololive Standard Upgrade’ tickets remaining. The internationally famous Trash Taste Podcast will also be hosting a live podcast session on Friday April 26 and Saturday April 27.

“DreamHack Melbourne 2024 is Australia’s biggest DreamHack yet, with more things to do and more fans raring to attend the festival than ever before,” said Ben Green, Senior Product Manager, DreamHack, at ESL FACEIT Group. “We’ve doubled the number of artists in the Artist Alley, tripled the size of our tabletop area & added new activities, and dotted a bunch more free-play games all around the festival. The team has doubled down on what made last year’s event so special, making DreamHack Melbourne amazing value for attendees, whether you grab a one day pass for $45 or spend the whole three days with us for just $99.” 

Artists Alley returns to DreamHack Melbourne this year, with even more Australian, New Zealand, and international artists showing off their work. Artist Alley celebrates self-authored art, offering the perfect opportunity for attendees to immerse themselves in the world of gaming & pop culture art, while supporting over 100 local artists that will be participating.

Fans of cosplay can look forward to an expanded offering at this year’s festival. A share of $30,000 AUD worth of prizes is up for grabs across all cosplay competitions over the weekend. This year for the first time, DreamHack Melbourne will include a new Extreme Cosplay Gathering Qualifier pathway to the international Extreme Cosplay Gathering competition hosted in Europe. Canadian cosplay star and popular cosplay tutorial author, Kinpatsu Cosplay, will also attend the festival as an official cosplay judge, and will be hosting a cosplay panel on Friday April 26.

Esports fans can enjoy the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne, with international and local Counter-Strike 2 teams battling it out across the weekend for a share of $100,000 USD in Margaret Court Arena. Local League of Legends teams Ground Zero Gaming and Antic ESC will also go head-to-head at the League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) Split 1 2024 Grand Final, which will take place on Sunday April 28. Counter-Strike 2 fans can grab early access to the arena and an ESL Challenger Goodie Bag with the ESL Challenger ‘Row F’ Upgrade.

Tickets to the Bring-Your-Own Computer (BYOC) LAN are also available — a great opportunity for gamers to test their mettle over three days of competitive gaming across fourteen fan-favourite games, including Rocket League, Counter-Strike 2, Halo, and Fall Guys.

Legendary Aussies Anything4views & Maxmoefoe from the much loved Cold Ones podcast will be appearing on the main stage of DreamHack Melbourne. The pair will host a live Q&A in Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, April 27, bringing their unique brand of comedic content to DreamHack.

This year’s DreamHack is Australia’s biggest creator-focused festival, featuring the Creator Summit on the morning of Friday, April 26. This special event will be packed with useful information about levelling up content creation skills, with some of Australia’s favourite creators including Pestily and Robcdee hosting panels & more. In addition, DreamHack Melbourne will bring more content creators together than ever before, with over 500 content creators confirmed as part of Creator Hub this year.

The festival will also feature a medieval village occupied by a variety of LARP organisations from around Victoria who will be promoting both new and existing role-play experiences. Presented by House of War, the largest tabletop gaming store in the Southern Hemisphere, ‘Worlds of LARP!’ is here to show off what Live-Action Role Play has to offer those in search of their next exciting adventure.

Yet to purchase your DreamHack Melbourne pass? ‘Dream Big’ is our way to give back to important causes, and for 2024, we’ve partnered with Barnardos to support their ‘League of Champions’ campaign, to raise money for Aussie kids who are doing it tough. Proceeds from every ticket sold using the discount code “BARNARDOS” will be donated to the League of Champions fundraiser.

Last-minute tickets are still available at dreamhack.com/melbourne/tickets. Check out the full schedule for the weekend and more on the festival at dreamhack.com/melbourne/schedule.