Midsumma Festival 2023
Premier LGBTIQ+ celebration Midsumma Festival is back with one of its biggest line-ups to date, spanning more than 200 queer arts and cultural events around Melbourne.
It kicked off with the iconic Midsumma Carnival on January 22, and there are still heaps of events to choose from – including the return of the Midsumma Pride March on February 5 and one-day street party Victoria’s Pride on February 12.
The Victorian Pride Centre, Australia’s first purpose-built LGBTIQ+ centre, is a new festival hub this year, with a night of queer comedy; drag performances and singalongs; a trans and gender diverse clothing swap; and a free exhibition that looks at queer history in Victoria from the last 100 years.
Other festival hubs this year include St Kilda’s Theatre Works, which is hosting seven shows (including Burgerz, billed as part-cooking show, “part-reclaiming an act of violence”) across three performance spaces; long-time southside Midsumma venue Gasworks Art Park, with an inclusive program that includes plays, outdoor circus, cabaret, visual art, comedy, live music and twilight markets; Abbotsford Convent, which acts as this year’s epicentre for learning and artistic creativity; kitschy CBD theatre The Butterfly Club; and the newly renovated Motley Bauhaus.
The festival has also collaborated with different councils in the west to bring the program out that way. There’s an art exhibition by Ngarigu artist Peter Waples-Crowe at The Substation, a queer history walk at Footscray Community Arts Centre, and two events – the First Nations Drag Festival and an All-Star Drag Bingo Party – at Pride of Our Footscray.
Plus, heaps more on the full program.
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