Midsumma Festival 2020

Overview

Midsumma Festival returns to Melbourne in the new year, bringing together the LGBTQI+ community and artists from across the state for its annual queer arts and cultural festival. It spans from January 19 through February 9, with 194 events taking place in venues all over Melbourne.

The massive program kicks off with a bang at the Midsumma Carnival, on Sunday, January 19, in Alexandra Gardens. There'll be 11 hours of live music and entertainment on the main stage, heaps of food stalls and bars, plus the return of the ever-popular Midsumma Dog Show. Once the sun starts to set, the park is transformed into one enormous dance floor, with DJs and artists performing well into the night. And it's 100 percent free.

The festival continues with a heap of talks, performances, installations, exhibitions and parties, all aimed at celebrating the diverse stories of the queer arts scene. In the 2020 major project, Queen Unsettled, unheard voices and marginalised communities are front and centre in a multidisciplinary attack on colonisation. Attend a Lunar New Year Disco with Drag Race Thailand stars after hours at Melbourne Museum; hear from Pacific womxn of colour and Indigenous femmes in BLOW and FAMILI; and be entranced by The Sky After Rain, a video installation exploring three queer Iranian diasporas.

Other Midsumma highlights include the Midsumma and Australia Post Art Award exhibition, a music festival of queer women and non-binary musicians, the Midsumma Extravaganza showcase at Hamer Hall, and the 25th annual Midsumma Pride March on Sunday, February 2.

Images: Midsumma Carnival, Jackson Grant/Suzanne Balding.