Overview
Melbourne's leading queer arts experience Midsumma Festival is back for another turn around the sun, descending on close to 100 venues across the city from Sunday, January 19 to Sunday, February 9, 2020. And, this year, it's set to deliver one of its heftiest programs yet, featuring a whopping 194 events across 22 days of festivities.
Unveiled last night, the supercharged Midsumma 2020 offering will dish up a diverse celebration of local and international LGBTQ+ communities, through a lineup of exhibitions, installations, talks, dazzling performances, captivating cultural events and more. Over 5000 movers, shakers and makers are involved, from both overseas and closer to home.
One of this year's highlights is major project Queer Unsettled, with its own program deep-diving into themes of colonisation. Unearth stories of queer Iranian life in The Sky After Rain, celebrate Indigenous femmes through Famili's mix of movement and music, and discover a Chinese New Year party complete with some very special Thai drag guests at Melbourne Museum's Nocturnal x Midsumma: Lunar New Year Disco.
Midsumma Carnival kicks the whole thing off on January 20 with over 110,000 revellers expected to head to Alexandra Gardens for the free party, while the famed Midsumma Pride March hits St Kilda on February 2, wrapping up with a rollicking after party on the foreshore of Catani Gardens.
Nocturnal at Melbourne Museum
Midsumma 2020 also features return appearances from a slew of fan favourites, including Midsumma Extravaganza — this time, showcasing legends like Kirsty Webeck, Tom Ballard, Bob Downe, Dolly Diamond and Drag Race Thailand's Pangina Heals — and the renowned Midsumma and Australia Post Art Award exhibition. The Queer Playwriting Award Showcase will feature works from four Aussie finalists and a two-night festival of queer music Power will take over Chapel on Chapel.
Such a big, wide-ranging program calls for more than just one festival hub and indeed, this year there are seven: Theatre Works, Hare Hole, Arts Centre Melbourne, Gasworks Arts Park and Chapel Off Chapel, with special family programs at The Melba Spiegeltent and Midsumma Westside.
Midsumma Festival will run at venues across the city from Sunday, January 19, to Sunday, February 9, 2020. You can check out the full program on the website.
Images: Midsumma Carnival by Jackson Grant