Fringe Common Rooms
Carlton CBD · Heritage ballroom · Up to 250 guests · Licensed until 3am · Five minutes from Melbourne CBD
Weddings
Your wedding, your way. No packages, no nonsense, just a seriously good space: heritage bones, coloured lighting, room for 70-250 of your favourite people and a dancefloor that goes late.
Private Functions
Got something worth celebrating? Common Rooms does parties properly. BYO vision, we'll handle the rest.
Public Event Hire
Hire Melbourne's best heritage ballroom for your DJ night, gig, album launch or live show.
Rehearsal Space
A real stage. Touring-grade sound. A lighting rig that means business. For artists who need the actual thing, not a compromise.
Daytime Hire
Turns out a 164-year-old heritage ballroom is a pretty great place for a conference. Or a workshop, product launch or film screening. Most things look better in a room with this much character.
Located in Melbourne’s iconic Trades Hall, Fringe Common Rooms is Melbourne Fringe’s year-round home for independent artists, for workers and for people who like to party. It’s a meeting place for Melbourne’s creative community, housing a licensed performance space and a salon for regular events and parties, functions, creative developments and rehearsals.
We’re a cultural enterprise, which means that we use bar sales from commercial events to support local artists with opportunities to test their ideas and reach new audiences. We offer a vibrant year-round program of accessible performances and events at Trades Hall, ensuring everyone can discover the best emerging and independent artistic talent.
Fringe Common Rooms is a culturally and physically safe space for our community, including LGBTIQ+, First Nations, people who are d/Deaf or Disabled. We welcome all artists and creative people, as well as the residents of Trades Hall, workers and members of the union movement.
Fringe Common Rooms. All welcome, all year round.
Bring your next idea to life
Offering flexible spaces, a top-of-the-line bar and a state-of-the-art sound system in one of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings, Common Rooms is the Ideal location for your next activation, party, wedding, or corporate function (we’re flexible).
Fringe Common rooms consists of two (equally gorgeous) spaces: the Ballroom and the Lounge, with a combined capacity of up to 250 people.
Special occasion on the horizon? Itching to make it one to remember?
Check out our Venue Packages below and get in touch with us to see how Fringe can put the ‘fun’ in your ‘function.
Getting Here
Fringe Common Rooms is centrally located in Carlton, just 5 minutes from Melbourne CBD, in the heart of the city's vibrant arts and culture precinct. The venue is housed in the historic Victorian Trades Hall, situated near RMIT University, a short walk from Lygon Street cafés, restaurants, and shops, and close to Carlton Gardens and the Melbourne Museum. Fringe Common Rooms is easy to reach by tram, train, and bus, with multiple stops within a short walking distance. Celebrate with ease — see how simple it is for your guests to get to Fringe Common Rooms.
Address
Fringe Common Rooms
Trades Hall
Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts
Carlton VIC 3053
Accessibility
We've worked hard to make Fringe Common Rooms as genuinely accessible as possible. For more in-depth access information, visit Fringe Common Rooms Accessibility Information.
Step-free entry
Wheelchair lift at the main Lygon Street portico entrance, lift access from ground floor to first floor.
Stage access
The Ballroom stage can be made accessible via a temporary mobi-lift. If stair-free stage access is required, please discuss with the venue team before your event.
Gender-inclusive and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms on both the ground and first floors.
Bar access
Lowered section of the bar available.
Doorways
Wide doorways throughout. Please not the doorway from the Ballroom to the outdoor balcony has a small step of less than 10cm.
