Police praise Melbourne festival crowds

Victoria Police say they were pleased with how crowds behaved during Melbourne's Moomba Festival over the long weekend, despite a few street brawls.

Participants are seen taking part in the Moomba parade.

Victoria Police say they were pleased with how crowds behaved during Melbourne's Moomba Festival. (AAP)

It's the Melbourne long weekend family event that's been marred by violence in recent years, but police say they are happy with the 65th Moomba festival.

Twenty people were arrested during the three-day festival for a range of offences including assault, drunkenness and drug-related crime.

Three brawls between warring youths at Federation Square and Flinders Street Station between 10pm on Saturday night and 2am the next day resulted in two of the arrests, but authorities said the fights were not linked to the festival.

Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen described the incident as a "rolling brawl" that happened to coincide with Moomba.

He said clashes involving groups from Melbourne's southeast and western suburbs attracted police attention most weekends and the groups were using social media to plan the street fights.

"We've been very successful in disrupting planned fights in the past, but on Saturday night there was nothing significant (in the intelligence) that indicated we would see a fight," he said.

During the weekend, police proactively removed certain youths from the Moomba precinct and took others off the street before the weekend kicked off.

Liberal-Nationals opposition police spokesman David Southwick said three brawls were "three too many" and the state government was not doing enough to tackle crime in Melbourne.

There were extra police on the beat to prevent a repeat of the 2016 brawls when the so-called Apex gang ran riot on the streets.

Thousands of families enjoyed the annual parade on Monday, watching on as giant, weird and colourful floats - including frogs, robots and llamas - went past.

This year's Moomba Monarchs ('king' and 'queen' of the festival) TV weather presenter Jane Bunn and former soccer player Archie Thompson were loudly excited by the excited crowds.

The festival's Birdman Rally on Sunday raised more than $70,000 for charities through the 19 entrants who competed in the leaping challenge into the Yarra River.

POLICE AT MOOMBA:

* 5 arrests for being drunk

* 8 arrests for assault

* 1 arrest for anti-social behaviour

* 1 arrest for weapons

* 5 arrests for other offences including drugs


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Source: AAP



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