How to Watch Melbourne Cup Day 2023 in Australia.
Melbourne Cup Day is Australia’s most famous horse racing event held on the first Tuesday in November each year. It is an annual public holiday in the state of Victoria. This event is popularly dubbed the “ride that stops the ride”.
Is Melbourne Cup Day a Public Holiday?
Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday in Victoria, where it is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed.
Celebrate Melbourne Cup Day
Melbourne Cup Day is one of Australia’s most popular racing and social events. The premier racing event is held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria. Flemington Racecourse is usually attended by over 100,000 people.
Local races are held across the country on this day and are shown on track screens across Australia when the main race of the day is at Flemington Racecourse. The race is televised live to an audience of approximately 650 million people worldwide. Many people stop what they are doing before 3.00 pm on Melbourne Cup Day to watch or listen to the main race via television, internet, or radio.
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At the races, people dress up: many women put on their best or most colorful hats and dresses, and some participate in field fashion shows. The marquees are set up for VIP guests including local, national, and international celebrities attending the festival. Champagne, wine, and gourmet nibbles are usually served on this day.
Many offices across Australia shut down during the main rush to celebrate the event. Activities include office parties with hat and dress competitions, staff lunches in restaurants, and afternoon teas where television is available for staff to watch the main competition. Betting takes place on this day – even those who don’t normally bet try their luck with a small bet or a lottery, a lottery in which each ticket holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse. There are some Australians who consider horse racing a cruel sport and have expressed their protest over the years.
AL QAREEM for the Melbourne Cup? 🏆@karl_burke says it's a possibility! 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/cCrCHr7j24
— World Horse Racing (@WHR) March 21, 2023
Public Life
Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday in Melbourne, so many people have the day off work. Other cities and towns in Victoria may have public holidays or 2 half-day public holidays instead of Melbourne Cup Day. For example, the Northern Victoria city of Wodonga celebrates Wodonga Gold Cup Day on the last Friday in November.
Although it is a legal public holiday in Victoria only, it is observed in many cities, so traffic can be congested near the runway in urban areas and parking in these areas can be difficult to find.
About Melbourne Cup Day
Melbourne Cup Day has been celebrated in Australia since the first race which was held at Flemington Racecourse in Victoria in 1861. The race was won by Archer, who won it again the following year.
The event features races including handicap races run by around 20 spectators for several million Australian dollars. The story of Far Lap, a legendary New Zealand thoroughbred who won the Melbourne Cup in 1930 and was nicknamed “Australia’s Wonder Horse”, has been made into a film. Some believe he was poisoned when he died.
The first Tuesday in November, Melbourne Cup Day, was officially declared a public holiday in Melbourne in 1877. All 31 of Melbourne’s metropolitan councils celebrated on the first Tuesday in November, with an interval where some regional councils did not elect an 11th-day holiday.
Therefore, in 2008 the Parliament of Victoria passed a new law making Melbourne Cup Day a public holiday for all municipal areas of the state where other holidays have been designated. This means that Melbourne Cup Day is now an official public holiday across the state. There are similar races all over Australia, because the races are popular, but Melbourne Cup Day is still the number one horse racing event in the country.
Melbourne Cup Day Observances
| Year | Weekday | Date | Name | Holiday Type | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Tue | 6 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2019 | Tue | 5 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2020 | Tue | 3 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2021 | Tue | 2 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2022 | Tue | 1 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2023 | Tue | 7 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2024 | Tue | 5 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2025 | Tue | 4 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2026 | Tue | 3 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2027 | Tue | 2 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
| 2028 | Tue | 7 Nov | Melbourne Cup Day | State Holiday | Victoria |
People also ask Why is Melbourne Cup day celebrated? What is the Australian Cup? Where is the 2023 Australian Cup? What day is Melbourne Cup public holiday? What day and date is the Melbourne Cup this year?
