In his Comedy Festival gig Noodlemeister, British funnyman Ross Noble impersonates Lord Mayor John So announcing Melbourne's latest event - a festival for people who wear their hats tilted slightly to the right.
"I just think people are mad for festivals in Melbourne," Noble says. "It's almost like whatever you do, Melbourne people turn it into a festival.
"I'm just going out to have a few drinks - let's have a beer festival. I'm taking my dog for a walk - it's the international pet show expo . . . it's just festival crazy."
Noble has a point. March and April - traditionally festival prime time in Melbourne because of the mild weather - are jammed with a blur of events. The Grand Prix, Moomba, the Queer Film Festival, the International Dragon Boat Festival, the L'Oreal Fashion Festival, the Antipodes Festival, the International Comedy Festival, the Food and Wine Festival, the AFL season launch and the International Flower and Garden Show jostle for space.
Cr So cheerfully spruiks festivals, insisting the more the better. "Melbourne is the events and festival capital," he says. "There is a surge of people coming back to live in the city because there is always something happening."
But some fear Melbourne's relentless partying is taking its toll. They question whether the hordes of tourists, the road closures, the noise, the traffic snarls and the rubbish are jeopardising what makes Melbourne the world's most liveable city.
This week conservation and residents' groups warned that the World-Heritage listed Carlton Gardens risked long-term damage as a result of the annual International Flower and Garden Show.
"We seem to be stuck in an events mentality which clouds judgement," Carlton Gardens Group spokeswoman Margaret O'Brien says.
Ron Butters, from local group Eastenders, also complains that the four-day event this month is a dramatic imposition for city residents, for whom the Carlton Gardens are a de facto backyard.
Mr Butters says festivals like Moomba are fantastic and part of the attraction of living in the city. But he objects to some commercial events, such as the Grand Prix city parade - "high-powered cars burning lots of fossil fuels" - which shut down the city centre for a day.
The Save Albert Park group has been for battling for 11 years to get rid of the Grand Prix. It claims the annual race destroys the ambience of the public park for up to 17 weeks every year, affects sporting groups that use the park and has driven away birds.
The East Melbourne Group also raises concerns about the impact of events on the suburb's 19th-century gardens. President Margaret Wood says the Red Bull Billycart Grand Prix in November attracts up to 15,000 people to Lansdowne Street, between Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens.
"It's smack-bang in the middle of two premier gardens. I think it's totally unnecessary," she says. "The City of Melbourne has allowed things to run away with them."
Ms Wood says the East Melbourne Group would prefer events in the gardens - including the Summer Fun in the Parks concert series - to be held elsewhere.
The founder of the St Kilda Festival, Mary Lou Jelbart, ruefully admits that the local festival she began 26 years ago has become a nightmare for many residents.
The modest event that began in 1979 to showcase local talent and perk up residents in St Kilda - then considered a "declasse place to live" - has morphed into the biggest free street festival in Australia. It is listed in Lonely Planet and this year 400,000 people - 10 per cent of the Victorian population - swarmed to the foreshore.
"I feel like I created a monster," Ms Jelbart says. "People can't get out of their homes because the driveway is blocked. I can't understand why the council persists with it. St Kilda is enough of a festival every day on its own as it is."
But Port Phillip Mayor Darren Ray says this year's festival went without a hitch, with fewer complaints from residents than ever.
He says the number of festivals has shrunk since the September 11 terrorist attacks forced up public liability insurance and security costs.
"This has seen the loss of the Fringe Festival Parade and Chapel Street Festival and the Brunswick Street Festival is no longer on the scale it used to be,"Cr Ray says.
"Melbourne is known for its cultural and community celebrations, I suggest we don't have enough."
Professor of psychology at Deakin University Bob Cummins says festivals bring people together. "My opinion is that the Romans were right and you can't have too many of these things," he says. "I think a deeper meaning of these festivals is in terms of community connection.
"These events without a doubt go some way to ameliorating loneliness and isolation. Sure, they make grass in the gardens go brown for a few weeks, but gee whiz, people are more important than grass."