Markets on Public Holidays: Melbourne Cup, Easter and Anzac Day

A long weekend rarely stops a market. Saturday and Sunday markets trade as normal when the Monday is a holiday, and a few add an extra date because the town fills with visitors. The trouble is the holiday itself. Anzac Day mornings, Good Friday and Melbourne Cup Day close markets that would otherwise be open, and a Monday holiday almost never brings a market with it.

Almost never. A handful of markets in the directory only open on public holidays, and the next run of them is Melbourne Cup weekend. This guide covers those, then Easter and Anzac Day 2027, then every long weekend of 2027 state by state. For December and January, see markets open over Christmas and New Year.

The markets that wait for a holiday

Tarwin Village Market at the Tarwin Lower hall in South Gippsland trades on public holiday Mondays: Australia Day, Labour Day, Easter Monday, King's Birthday and the Monday of Melbourne Cup weekend, 8am to 1pm. It adds a twilight market on AFL Grand Final Eve and a summer market after Christmas. The Easter Monday one comes with a dog show. Locals know a long weekend means a market at the hall, and holidaymakers at Venus Bay find out.

Mt Martha South Beach Market works the same way on the Mornington Peninsula. It sets up on the lawn of Mount Martha House on Australia Day, Easter Monday, King's Birthday, Grand Final Eve and Cup Day, 10am to 2pm, selling gifts and handmade goods to people already down for the long weekend. It never shows up on a weekly listing because it has no weekday.

Whittlesea Monday Market is the opposite case: it trades every Monday, holidays included. It began as a stock sale at Mernda in 1888 and now has more than 120 stalls at the Whittlesea Showgrounds, and its listing says the numbers grow on long weekends. If you want a market on a Monday holiday anywhere near Melbourne, it is the reliable one.

Melbourne Cup weekend, 31 October to 3 November 2026

Cup Day is Tuesday 3 November, a public holiday across most of Victoria (some country areas hold it on a different day). Here is how the weekend looks in the listings:

• Sunday 1 November: Cohuna Farmers and Makers Market adds a Cup weekend market to its usual fourth Sunday.

• Monday 2 November: Tarwin Village Market, 8am to 1pm.

• Tuesday 3 November: Mt Martha South Beach Market, 10am to 2pm. Dandenong Market, normally open on Tuesdays, is closed.

Queen Victoria Market trades on Tuesdays, so Cup Day lands on one of its market days. It publishes holiday hours as each one comes up and has no standing rule we can point to, so check its website that week.

Easter 2027: 26 to 29 March

Good Friday hits the markets that trade on weekdays. Footscray Market closes on Good Friday and opens again on Easter Saturday. Check any hall or permanent market before you go on the Friday.

Easter Saturday brings a few extras. Murrabit Country Market, running since 1977, holds an Easter Saturday market on 27 March on top of its first Saturday. Goolwa Wharf Markets adds extra days at Easter as well, though the dates are not published yet.

Easter Sunday is 28 March, the fourth and last Sunday of the month. Every market that trades on a fourth or last Sunday therefore has its regular date on Easter Sunday. Cohuna advertises an Easter Sunday market every year, and in 2027 it is simply the usual one. The guide to how monthly markets work has more on which weekend is which.

Easter Monday is the day Tarwin and Mt Martha open, and Whittlesea trades as it does every Monday.

Anzac Day 2027 falls on a Sunday

Anzac Day is Sunday 25 April 2027, and that matters because Sunday is the busiest market day of the week. Several Sunday markets in the directory stand down for it:

• Oakleigh Rotary Sunday Market in Melbourne closes whenever Christmas Day or Anzac Day is a Sunday.

• Willows Rotary Markets in Townsville trades every Sunday except Anzac Day.

• Caboolture Country Markets closes on Anzac Day and Christmas Day when they fall on a Sunday.

Markets that do open on Anzac Day often wait until the morning services are over. Footscray opened from 1pm on Anzac Day 2026.

The Monday after is a public holiday in some states and not others. New South Wales and Western Australia add Monday 26 April as an extra day. Queensland, the Northern Territory and the ACT observe Anzac Day itself on the Monday, and the ACT keeps the Sunday as a holiday too. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania keep it on the Sunday with no Monday off.

Anzac Day is also the fourth and last Sunday of April, so every fourth or last Sunday market has its regular date that morning. Check the listing that week.

Long weekends that add a market

Some markets add dates when the visitors arrive. 1770 Markets normally trades on the second and fourth Sunday but adds long weekends and every Sunday in the school holidays. Kiama Seaside Markets adds public holiday dates to its third Sunday, which gave it a second October market in 2026 on the NSW Labour Day Monday. Goolwa adds extra January days as well as Easter.

Hours can change too. Malaga Markets in Perth runs 7am to 9pm on its normal days but 9am to 5pm on public holidays. Geelong Vintage Market trades 10am to 6pm every day of the year, holidays included, and only closes on Christmas Day.

Every long weekend in 2027

From the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2027 list. Only the Monday holidays and Easter are shown, since those make the long weekends, and regional holidays such as show days are left out.

Australia Day 2027 is a Tuesday, so it is a day off without a long weekend. Victoria's Grand Final Friday has no date until the AFL sets its 2027 fixture.

Before you set out

A market that changes its plans for a holiday says so on its own website or Facebook page. The closures and extra dates in this guide that have a day attached are recorded on each listing, and for the weekly and monthly markets among them, markets this weekend and markets on today already allow for them. For any other market, check its listing and its own page in the week before a long weekend.