Midsumma Festival

Melbourne’s annual celebration of gay and lesbian culture and art is also known as the Midsumma Festival. It is the largest cultural festival of its type, celebrated in the city since 1988.

During this celebration, you’ll find everything from performing arts to music, sports to film. The Midsumma Festival is held at various venues around the city and draws massive crowds every year.

Midsumma Festival Melbourne 2025, Pride March Dates & Location

The 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 Carnival

In 2025, the Midsumma Carnival will be held on Sunday, 19 January, running from 11am to 10pm in the Alexandra Gardens, beside the Yarra River in Melbourne’s CBD.

Midsumma Carnival highlights the opening weekend of the three-week festival each year, effectively opening the festival. It’s an iconic outdoor celebration that has become one of the biggest highlights in the LGBTIQA+ annual calendar. In itself, Carnival is a huge single-day event, usually running from 11am until 10pm in Alexandra Gardens in Melbourne’s CBD, with a massive set-up and overall coordination required for delivery each year.

Each year, Midsumma Carnival brings back the audience favourites (yes, and the dog show) plus adding a pinch of lip-syncing, drag dazzling, stellar acts, fine food and a pop-up bar. The stage performances give you a peek at the upcoming festival program with bite-sized performances. Relax in the chill-out zone, meet friends in the family domain, tackle the sports precinct or stay cool in the under-18s area. The full day of activities leads into the evening of T Dance, featuring a fantastic line-up of sassy sounds and DJs.

Precincts: Sports, Youth, Family, Tea Tent (for older audiences) and a Chill Out Zone.

Stages: Multiple stages are programmed throughout the day, with the T Dance line-ups presented in the evening on the Main and Picnic Stages. Carnival’s daytime programming focuses on performers registered within the Midsumma Festival program to provide maximum promotional opportunities for these artists/events. This is supplemented with guest artists and fun community events specifically devised for the day.

Midsumma Carnival Dog Show: The iconic Midsumma Dog Show is a crowd favourite. A fun day out in the park with your pooch where you and your pet can win prizes, judged by a panel and celebrated by the audiences. Categories include Cutest Bitch; Sexiest Stud; Best Trick; Best Dressed; Best Owner/Dog Combo; and then the ultimate Best Dog Overall.

Lip Sync Limelight: Following the Dog Show, the Lip Sync Limelight has become another iconic highlight. It gives audience members their chance to shine on stage. To perform, register at the Info Tents on the day.

Stalls: Over 180 stalls participate, allowing community groups and our sponsors to present their services and activities.

Midsumma Carnival After Dark

As the sun goes down, Midsumma Carnival stages will showcase DJs and an ostentatious fun dance party held across both the Main and Picnic stages. Thousands of people dance and party to a major lineup on each stage, including a major headliner or two.

Previously called TDance, tea dances were organised on Sunday afternoons in the US gay community. They originated in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. The original dances included tea service and were a place for singles to meet. The name alludes to traditional tea dances of the English countryside.

It was illegal until the mid-1960s for bars in New York to sell alcohol to people known to be gay, and New York City police would conduct raids on establishments catering to them. Hence, gay men in the area began to hold tea dances outside the city as an alternative meeting venue. In New York, these generally took place on Sunday afternoons on Fire Island, in Cherry Grove and the Pines. Serving tea rather than alcohol made them more acceptable and less law-defying. Because they were held in the afternoon, attendees could catch a ferry to return home and be ready to work on Monday morning.

Tea dances spread beyond New York and lasted into the 1990s and beyond, regularly taking place in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Provincetown, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. We commemorate this history with our modern-day version of T Dance.

Midsumma Pride March

Midsumma Pride March is one of the signature events. Over 7,400 marchers usually take to the streets down Fitzroy Street in St Kilda each year, and over 45,000 people line the streets and balconies along the march route to show their support.

Dykes on Bikes precede the marching contingent as per tradition, with the march itself led by Boon Wurrung Elders and a Rainbow Aboriginal Float along with the Premier of Victoria, Minister for Equality and the Creative Industries and Commissioner for Gender and Sexuality.

Hundreds of young people, often amongst the most vulnerable within our communities, are placed towards the front of the march as a positive and strong affirmation for LGBTIQA+ youth.

The Midsumma Pride March Awards encourage colourful and innovative contributions from March participants and are judged by selected community members.

After the march, attendees are led into Catani Gardens for celebrations and entertainment, including DJs and live performances.

Marchers’ Assembly: The Ian Johnson Oval on the corner of Lakeside Drive and Fitzroy Street
Vehicle Assembly: Lakeside Drive (next to the Ian Johnson Oval)
Marching Route: Proceeds down Fitzroy Street and ends in Catani Gardens, St Kilda
End of March: Marchers will turn right and enter Catani Gardens at the pedestrian crossing. Vehicles will turn right onto Beaconsfield Parade

Midsumma Pride March is a family-friendly event that appeals to individuals of all ages. Families are warmly welcome to participate in the March. However, parental or guardian discretion is advised: Pride March celebrates diverse genders and sexualities, so the march does contain references to sex, and you will see the odd bare bottom.

Victoria’s Pride

The iconic Gertrude and Smith Streets will once again be transformed into a free, all-day, jam-packed block party for all ages. Multiple live music stages and performances from local and international musicians and artists will celebrate Victoria’s diverse LGBTIQ+ communities.

Local businesses all down Gertrude and Smith Street will benefit from the party, serving food and drink to the thousands of people expected to attend across the day. Some will be incorporated into the party with shopfront activations and performances in venues.

Victoria’s Pride is an opportunity for LGBTQIA+ Victorians and the wider community to come together as one to celebrate the remarkable journey of equality through inspirational arts, community involvement, food, and culture.

So come on and support this fun event during Melbourne’s beautiful summer season! There is so much going on that it’s hard to capture it all on a single page. Please check out the official guide for full information on events, dates, times, locations, and prices.