Midsumma Festival

Midsumma is Melbourne’s premier gay and lesbian arts and cultural festival. With Over 175 unique events programmed, the 2008 Festival will be a mind-blowing and ever-eclectic showcase of queer culture.

Featuring the finest performing arts, visual arts, cabaret, live bands, spoken word, film, forums, fashion, community, sporting, and family events, the 2008 program will be presented over five municipalities and located in over 80 different venues across Melbourne and greater Victoria.

In 2008, Midsumma Festival celebrates its twentieth year with the theme of ARRIVAL. An opportunity for our community to ask; where have we ARRIVED, how did we get here and where to from here? Through performance, exhibition, interaction and participation, the 2008 program will seek to both ask and answer these questions.

As part of the 2008 Festival, Melbourne will also play host to the 1st Asia Pacific Outgames; an international gay and lesbian multisport event including a human rights conference and cultural program.

As Host City Cultural Partner to the Outgames, our 2008 program is bursting at the seams. An amazing and diverse presentation of vibrant, inspiring, confronting and emotive works that showcase the finest local, interstate and international queer artists.

Presented across five Festival Hubs and a plethora of other locations in and around Melbourne, Midsumma is more accessible than ever before. No matter who you are, what you wear, who you sleep with or who you vote for, the 2008 program offers the most extensive and diverse showcase of queer culture ever presented in Melbourne.