The Melbourne Cup Carnival is the city’s original major event, distilling all that Melbourne does best into four unique race days at heritage-listed Flemington. And while the Carnival has for so long ‘stopped the nation’, it now showcases Melbourne to the world.
The Emirates Melbourne Cup, the world's richest handicap, draws the world's best horses – and global attention – to Melbourne. But is much more than a horse race; it is a 153-year-old institution that brings Australia to a standstill.
Now broadcast into 163 territories, it promotes Melbourne to hundreds of millions of viewers. In 2013 the Melbourne Cup Carnival attracted 56,424 event-motivated visitors to Victoria, injected $364.5 million into the state economy, and reached a cumulative audience of three billion in Australia and New Zealand alone through traditional and social media. Home-grown, authentic, and universal, the Melbourne Cup Carnival showcases Melbourne like no other event.