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
Midsumma Carnival is an iconic full-day outdoor extravaganza dedicated to kicking off our three-week-long festival! Located in Alexandra Gardens in Melbourne’s bustling CBD, Midsumma Carnival features many LGBTQIA+ acts that will grace the three carnival stages. This popular annual day event attracts over 120,000 people, and entry is free!
With over 180 stalls, including pop-up bars, two large food zones, free giveaways, and multiple queer-friendly community groups and business stalls for you to visit, there’s bound to be something for everyone. There’s even a parade for your dog, with fabulous prizes up for grabs! Or you can try your hand at Auslan beside the Rainbow Expression stall or enjoy Auslan Storytime with the kids in the Families Tent.
Midsumma Carnival offers a variety of fun, safe spaces accessible to everybody, including Sports activities, a Youth area, and Family-areas that are open to everyone from dawn to dusk.
Fancy a picnic? Bring your friends and family to one of the grass pavilions surrounding the stages to enjoy Carnival’s entertainment! The talented artists will leave you in awe with a variety of singers, drag artists, DJs, performers, and even an opportunity to show off your own talents with our Lip Sync Limelight competition!
As the night approaches, Midsumma Carnival begins to wake up with an extravagant dance party held across both the Main and Picnic stages. You’ll join thousands of people dancing the night away and party to a massive line-up on each stage, including a handful of major headliners.
Midsumma Pride March
Parade, pride and party unite annually in Melbourne’s iconic march celebrating solidarity in gender and sexuality diversity. A chance to tie up your bootlaces or throw on your heels and join the spectacular act of unity that is the Midsumma Pride March. Whether you join the fanfare by foot or by wheel, with workmates or with family, with friends or with lovers, as an ally or as queer, Midsumma Pride March is for you.
Join over 53,000 people to celebrate Midsumma Pride March! Bring your friends, family, and loved ones to celebrate our diversity in this day-long event as we strut down Fitzroy Street with ferocity, uniqueness, and diversity with the ones we love.
Grab your friends, family, and loved ones to flaunt your pride at Midsumma Pride March this year! Whether you join the parade by foot or wheel, with workmates or with family, with friends or with loved ones, as an ally or as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, the Midsumma Pride March is the place to celebrate all gender expressions, sexualities, experiences, and personalities with colours, sparkle and style.
March with ferocity, uniqueness, and pride down Fitzroy Street in a kilometre-long parade route to Catani Gardens. The march begins with the roaring motors of the Dykes on Bikes as per tradition. The march itself is led by the Boon Wurrung Elders, Rainbow Aboriginal Float, LGBTQIA+ youth and followed by the Premiere of Victoria, Minister for Equality, and the Creative Industries & Commissioner for Gender and Sexuality.
At the end of the march, you’ll be greeted with free entertainment and festivities, including DJs and live performances by the iconic St Kilda beachside.
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, with multiple live music stages and performances from local and international musicians and artists to 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, while 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 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, 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.
Do You Have a Question to Ask?