Midsumma is Australia's premier queer arts and cultural organisation, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.
Our primary event, Midsumma Festival, usually runs over 22 days in Melbourne's summer (January-February) each year with an explosion of queer events that centre around hidden and mainstream queer culture, involving local, interstate, and international artists.
Midsumma Festival 2026 will open on Sunday 18 January and run to Sunday 8 February 2026.
The Midsumma Festival program comprises a curated Midsumma Presents line-up plus the community-driven Open-access stream, to share with you the lived experiences of those voices at the margins, the expression of queer history, and the celebration of new ideas and stories that come to life through world-class art and performance.
Our festival program is made up of diverse art forms and genres, including visual arts, live music, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, film, parties, sport, social events, and public forums. Featuring over 200 events in 2025 and 2023, over 250 events in 2024, 153 events in 2022, 163 events in 2021, and 194 events in 2020 (despite COVID-19 limitations in 2021 and 2022), with involvement by over 5,000 culture-makers in over 100 different venues across Melbourne and wider Victoria – to audiences averaging 255,202 attendees over the past four years.
Midsumma Festival was founded on the lands and waters of the Bunurong and Boon Wurrung, Taungurung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri (Woiwurrung) peoples of the Kulin Nation. Midsumma acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the First Peoples of these lands, and pays respect to First Nation Elders, past and present.