Sarah Oliver
The LGBTQIA+ arts and cultural experience, Midsumma Festival, is returning this month to Melton and across the state with a diverse and creative line-up.
Festival goers can expect performances, exhibitions, visual arts, live music, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, film, parties, sport, social events, and public forums.
The festival is now in its 34th year and is created to showcase queer arts and cultural festivities, featuring national and local artists.
There will be 195 events over the three week festival that will span across 119 venues, with over 500 people involved in events around metro Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Celebrating LGBTQIA+, diverse journeys, culture makers and communities, Midsumma will present 161 open-access events made for, and by queer communities who live with shared experiences around diverse gender and sexuality.
There will also be a specifically curated program, Midsumma Presents, which will show 34 events highlighting the “unsung heroines and unheard voices of queer intersectional communities of this time”.
Chief executive Karen Bryant said Midsumma is a “program of works that are disability-led and from multiple perspectives ranging from unapologetic to vulnerable, celebratory to questioning, reflective to riotous.
“The artists in the program include leading companies and solo practitioners, emerging artists and iconic ensembles. There is so much variety to see within and beyond the broad umbrella labels of “queer” and “disabled.”
The Midsumma festivities will kick off with the Midsumma Carnival, a one day, 11-hour festival taking over Alexandra Gardens, on January 23.
Details: www.midsumma.org.au
