Mushroom Group Is Bringing Mattel’s Malibu Barbie Café to Melbourne

You’ve collected the toys, seen the movie. Now Barbie fans can glitter-up and head to the Malibu Barbie Café, a pop-up initiative of MG Live, an arm of Mushroom Group.

The Melbourne-based independent music giant partners with Mattel, Bucket Listers and Chadstone Shopping Centre, which hosts the limited-time venue from Friday, June 27th.

The activation is a two-storey, family-friendly spot with a roller rink, exclusive merchandise, creative cocktails, a “History of Beach” installation and “picture-perfect opportunities at every turn,” reads a statement from Mushroom Group.

Inspired by the popular doll and the hit movie franchise, the café will serve in The Social Quarter at Chadstone from June through Summer 2026.

Mattel’s enduring plaything exploded into a pop culture phenomenon in recent years.

The fuse, of course, was lit by Universal Pictures’ Barbie film, directed by Greta Gerwig, led by superstar Australian actor Margot Robbie in the titular role with Canadian Ryan Gosling as her thick-as-a-brick sidekick Ken, and featuring an all-star soundtrack.

Barbie sprinted past $1 billion at the global box office, for the biggest result for any film in 2023, and a record for a female director, and its soundtrack was a smash hit on charts around the globe, including Australia.

Although Mushroom Group is built on a foundation of rock and pop, the leadership, notes CEO Matt Gudinski, is “always exploring new immersive live experiences and working with the world’s biggest brands.” 

Among its music-and-live adjacent projects was the Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition, which Mushroom Group’s Frontier Touring division presented at Melbourne Museum from May to October 2010.

MG Live launched in 2023, claiming to be Australia’s largest independent touring and events collective, with a primary focus on developing branded events and experiences alongside its domestic and international headline touring.

MG Live consolidates a string of Mushroom’s leading events and touring businesses, from Illusive Presents to Roundhouse Entertainment, Good Life Presents, I OH YOU Touring, Arena Touring and Fridayz Live, which returns this October with four dates featuring a lineup headlined by Mariah Carey and Pitbull. 

Reservations are available at MalibuBarbieCafe.com.