Overview
Already home to the annual Midsumma Festival and Pride March, and soon to welcome Australia's First Pride Centre, Melbourne could also host a huge one-off pride celebration in 2021.
If Victoria's Labor government is re-elected next weekend, it has pledged to host an event on par with pride celebrations in London, New York and Berlin. Dubbed Melbourne Pride 2021, the festival would take place on and around Fitzroy's Smith Street and Gertrude Street — with the area's pubs, bars and restaurants all involved in a street party held both indoors and outdoors.
To be organised by tourism body Visit Victoria in consultation with LGBTQIA+ community leaders, just what else the festival will entail is yet to be revealed — although the timing is designed to mark 40 years since Victoria's state parliament decriminalised homosexuality.
"By backing Melbourne's very own pride event, we're sending a clear message: here in Victoria, equality is not negotiable," said Victorian Premiere Daniel Andrews.
Regional Victoria could also be set to host more LGBTQIA+ festivities, with $200,000 in funding also promised for rural pride events.
Image: Midsumma Carnival, Jackson Grant.