Festival season is over, but you can still get your techno fix this winter

The completion of the Australian festival season has left festival-goers on the hunt for more music and dancing during the colder months.

From bush doofs to immaculately planned stages and immersive art, Australian festivals are a showcase of the community’s love for music.

Peaking from November to March, Victoria holds some of the most expansive and renowned festivals, from Beyond the Valley, Strawberry Fields and Golden Plains to national touring festivals such as Laneway and Spilt Milk. These events are highlights for crowds drawn in by amazing acts that set a high-energy atmosphere.

Music-goers have fewer events during the colder months, but there are still so many great ways to engage with Melbourne’s techno scene.

Melbourne has a unique techno scene, where clubs and venues sell out events with international and local DJs and artists. 

If you’re into techno music or love an occasional doof-doof, here are some ways to stay on top of the scene and not miss out on your favourite artists outside the festival season.

Melbourne Lines and Resident Advisor are online platforms that highlight exciting events to help people plan their weekend nights out. By streamlining exciting events, users can discover emerging acts and DJs across Melbourne.

These sites showcase a range of music events from techno to house and UK garage and even include details about speculated pop-up shows for fan-favourite artists. 

If you're looking for a unique backdrop for a fun day of raving, Intercell is an Amsterdam based music platform, which hosts events around the globe.

Intercell "Under the Bridge" has occurred five times in Naarm/Melbourne, hosting international artists such as Fjaak, 999999999 and Partiboi69 across its instalments. Intercell has just announced its return to Melbourne on June 7 in a new warehouse location.

These events promise attendees an immersive music experience.  

Luke Browne (@leuk.music) is a Melbourne DJ who currently plays hypnotic and bouncy sets across some of Melbourne's most renowned venues, such as Dangerous Goods and Nerve, and also featured in last year’s Beyond the Valley lineup. 

“In the summer [music] is always pumping in the city, nonstop, but then once it gets to winter, it dives down, it's a little bit harder to get that flow going,” Browne said. 

“Melbourne is definitely on the cards for its music. It's definitely got a lot of big groups like Untitled [Group], which fly over massive artists, like spending a fortune to bring them here, which is awesome at the moment.”

Browne is also the founder and co-owner of Nocturn, an event brand that aims to elevate local music culture to bring together community and creativity.

Created on the Mornington Peninsula, Nocturn spotlights emerging talent and curates music events that help to grow Melbourne’s techno music scene.

Browne began Nocturn when he was 17 with friends as a way to create an under-18 event, and the platform has developed and grown with time.

“As soon as I was 18, I got a bigger love for events and liked that side of things,” Browne said.

“That developed to running bigger events and we had our first one in July last year, with 1,200 through the door, like an awesome night with international DJs in.”

Nocturn hosted its previous event on May 2, with all proceeds going to charity. The night featured more than 35 artists, including those who have performed at Beyond the Valley, Teletech and Ultra, such as Lola Voss, Pleasant Michelle, and Browne himself. This event spread across three rooms, filling the space with hard house, techno, groove and more. 

DJ James Mepstead (@m_e_p___) sees the Melbourne music scene in a similar way to Browne. A resident artist at Mornington’s Club53, he likes to showcase the sound of percussive groove funk within his sets.

Mepstead is slowly making his way into the festival scene, having made his interstate debut at Petting Zoo fest in January 2026.

A consistent festival-goer, with Strawberry Fields as his top pick, Mepstead has seen the Melbourne techno scene develop over time and how trends form.

Defining Melbourne's techno music right now as a “UKG grind”, he said that “house is currently starting to grow” as “hard techno is on its way out”. 

“I would think Melbourne is second or third to Amsterdam [and] Berlin in the sense of accepting new genres. I think we're very receptive. People talk about our crowds all over the world,” he said. 

“A lot of artists really love Australia because they get their answers here, they try new tracks, and see how it works, which is great.”

Both Browne and Mepstead have their eyes set on DJing in Europe in the years to come, but across winter they will be found in some of their favourite Melbourne hotspots such as New Guernica, Her Bar, Section 8 and Stamina.

Exciting events and new artist discoveries will keep you engaged in the techno and dance scene until the festival season begins again. The doof sticks will begin to defrost and you’ll be equipped with the training to tackle the four-day festivals again.