Midsumma Festival is an annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ arts and cultures, held annually for 22 days across January and February in Melbourne, Australia. The festival began as a one-week celebration of LGBTQ+ pride in 1989. The festival has expanded over the years to a three-week event that attracts over 280,000 people each year. The festival is now one of the top five gay and lesbian arts and cultural celebrations, along with New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Sydney. Although the primary festival is held in summer each year, Midsumma works year-round to provide artists, social changers, and cultural makers with support and tools to create, present, and promote their work. Midsumma is an open-access festival. Each year over 5000 culture makers, artists and performers present their shows or works in over 100 Melbourne venues over the 22-day Festival. The two main categories are Performing Arts and Visual Arts. Midsumma's visual arts program features exhibitions in and around Melbourne from local, national and international gay artists. Yarra Arts and Queer City play home to many of the exhibitions. The festival's performing arts program includes musicals, theatre, cabaret, film, spoken word, music events and dance parties. These performing arts events are largely produced by the community. Midsumma Carnival Midsumma Carnival is held during the event's opening weekend and is traditionally held in Alexandra Gardens with stalls, food, and entertainment from 11am to 11pm. The main stage includes entertainment from the coming festival program to showcase and promote the coming events. Stages: Main Stage and Picnic Stage Precincts: Sports, Youth, Family, Tea Tent (for older audiences) and a Chill Out Zone T Dance The day is brought to a close with the T Dance, Midsumma's dance party under the stars. Artists who have performed at T Dance include Slinkee Minx, Trevor Ashley, Ricki-Lee, Paul Heron, Inaya Day, and the Divine Knights. Queer City Queer City was a collaboration between City of Melbourne, Arts Victoria, Midsumma, and local galleries and artists from the gay community. In 2012 the Queer City was focused around 1000 Pound Bend Gallery and performance venue, in Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne along with City Library and a new exhibition space known as Mailbox 141, which is the old glass and wooden mailboxes of 141 Flinders Lane, that have been converted into a small art exhibition space. There is an exhibition of Vivien St James' work, a celebration of fluid or