Venue Registrations

All venues hosting Midsumma events receive:

• A listing in our Eventotron database. This is the first port of call for artists and producers hoping to put on an event for Midsumma.
• Promotion on our website, with links, maps, and venue details listed on each event page. Over 250,000 people visited midsumma.org.au throughout the 2024 festival.
• Events in your venue each get a listing in 35,000 printed Midsumma Festival guides, distributed across Melbourne, regional Victoria and Sydney.
• Support from the Midsumma Festival team, including operational ideas, ticketing and marketing advice.
• Access to Midsumma Festival branding.

Remember: you will have to have a registered event in the Midsumma Festival 2025 program to be considered an official festival venue.

Before you can start accepting Midsumma events, all venues must register on Eventotron, our registration software. It's totally free! It typically takes around 30 minutes to input your venue’s details in Eventotron if you have everything in the preparation checklist on hand.

People looking to put on events cannot complete their registration without a venue, so it is essential that you register your venue on Eventotron ASAP.

For inclusion in the 2025 Midsumma Festival, venues must be registered in Eventotron by Wednesday 31 July, 2024.

You may already have your venue listed on Eventotron. If so, please sign in to your account to confirm that all your details are up to date and then join Midsumma Festival 2025.

In order to register on Eventotron you will need:

• • Venue name
  • Address, council area
  • Venue contact details for patrons
  • Venue accessibility information
  • A brief description and image of your venue
  • Opening hours
  • Space name (if you have multiple spaces in your venue)
  • Space capacity
  • Space accessibility
  • Space image
  • Venue social media links

To host Midsumma Festival events, you’ll need to create a venue listing in Eventotron. (If you’re already registered with Eventotron, skip this section and instead go to Do you have an Existing Venue on Eventotron).

If this is your first time registering with Eventotron, here’s how to get started, in 3 easy steps:

1. Log-in to Eventotron
   • Sign in to your existing Eventotron account, or go to Creating a Venue to register as a new user.
2. Create a new venue
   • Select ‘VENUES’ in the top menu, and click ‘+create a new venue’. Fill out the required information.
   • Should you need further support, check out Eventotron’s Guide for Venue Managers under Creating a Venue.
3. Link your venue to ‘Midsumma Festival 2025’
   • Once you’ve created your venue listing, you’ll need to link it to the Midsumma Festival network.
   • To do so, click the ‘Join a festival’ tab at the top of the page.
   • Scroll down to find ‘Midsumma Festival 2025’ and apply.

Now that you’re set up, you can start to accept or reject any applications for events that come your way. A detailed guide to handling events interested in your venue can be found under Working with Events.

If so, great! Follow the 3 steps below to make sure you’re sorted for Midsumma Festival 2025. (If not, check out First Time Setting up a Venue in Eventotron above to create a new venue).

1. Log-in to Eventotron
   • Go to eventotron.com to sign in to your existing account.
2. Check that your venue details are up to date
   • Click ‘VENUES’ in the top menu, and select your space. Read through the details and check if anything needs to be updated.
3. Link your venue to ‘Midsumma Festival 2025’
   • Once your details are sorted, you’ll need to link your venue to the latest Midsumma Festival network.
   • To do so, click the ‘Join a festival’ tab at the top of the page.
   • Scroll down the list to find ‘Midsumma Festival 2025’ and click the ‘Apply to…’ button.

Now that you’re set up, you can start to accept or reject any applications for events that come your way. A detailed guide to handling events interested in your venue can be found under Working with Events.

All Midsumma events will need to be “Joined with a Venue” on Eventotron in order to proceed with their registration. You will need to manually accept event applications to your venue.

Remember, every event can only continue with their registration once they have been joined with a venue ...

• See Accepting Applications from Events under Working with Events for a detailed guide to accepting / rejecting events interested in your venue.

Make your venue searchable in Eventotron

Eventotron is a powerful tool for linking venues to prospective artists and event producers. You can choose to make your space searchable so people interested in your venue can reach out and start a conversation.

• We will also provide a Venue Finder web page on the Midsumma website. If you’d like to open your venue to expressions of interest from producers, be sure to answer 'YES' in Eventoron to the ‘Include in Venue Finder’ question.

Be proactive when seeking events

When it comes to booking artists and events, the most important thing to do is be proactive!

We encourage you to advertise that you’re on the hunt for Midsumma Festival events through any available channels. Post on your Facebook and Instagram, send out an eNewsletter, or even pop up a poster in your venue.

When you create promotions seeking expressions of interest for Midsumma Festival events for your venue, please send them our way too. We can often re-share posts via our social media channels or our mailing lists for artists and producers.

Another great starting point is to talk with artists that you think would be a great fit in your venue. Chat to anyone who already performs or exhibits at your venue. Get creative and start reaching out.

Give recurring events a Midsumma spin

Another option to be involved in Midsumma is to register a show that you already run in your venue as a Midsumma event. If you run a weekly trivia night or a monthly open mic night, you can register it as a Midsumma Festival event as a way of increasing your audience.

Be clear about the style of events you would like to program. Having a strong curatorial vision attracts artists who are looking for the venue that suits them.

Let event producers know about any marketing opportunities your venue might offer. These could include social media, subscriber lists, or notice boards.

Why not offer Midsumma Festival attendees a food or drink deal?

To make your events more accessible, it might also be worth considering what live-streaming or online ability your venue might have.

All ticketed Midsumma Festival events (free and priced) must have 100% of their event capacity sold through the Midsumma Festival ticketing system.

Please email [email protected] if you would like to discuss ticketing.

The only exception to the above policy about ticketing is door sales. Tickets will go off-sale through the Midsumma Festival website one hour before your event start time, ready for you to start selling tickets at your venue.

You'll need to work with the event producer to arrange a box office at the venue for door sales.

If you need to change this arrangement, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Unless otherwise notified, all events are built as general admission.

• There is no charge if your venue has allocated seating. However, we will need to work with you to build a seating map in our ticketing system and have this in place as early as possible.
• To discuss building a seating map, please email [email protected] before the separate event registration deadline on 1 September.
• General admission is always easier for you to manage and for audiences to book, so we would only recommend allocated seating if you have to.

Inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of Midsumma Festival. As such, we're dedicated to making the festival accessible to d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse audiences.

Gender and Sexuality Inclusivity

Accessibility isn’t just about wheelchair ramps and Auslan interpreters — although they are important. It’s also about attitude and language.

Nowadays, discussions on the use of (non)gendered language often take centre stage in cultural debates, sometimes even overshadowing more substantial efforts toward LGBTQIA+ inclusion. While we acknowledge that language is just one part of facilitating genuine inclusivity, there are some practical steps you can take to signify a respectful environment.

To explore these strategies for your venue, check out our Inclusive Language Guide. That document provides definitions, explanations, and tips to help avoid assumptions about individuals' gender or sexual orientation, as well as ways to use language that is inclusive. 
Download the Inclusive Language Guide >>

Accessible Bathrooms
What's on the bathroom door? We encourage you to use gender neutral signage on bathrooms to help trans and gender non-binary people feel more comfortable at your venue. Signs that advertise the facilities available, rather than describing the attendees, work best. You are free to download and use our signs: toilet, urinal or gender neutral and accessible toilet.

Wheelchair Access

Whether or not this icon will be listed for an event is determined by you when you register your venue in Eventotron. Not all venues are wheelchair accessible. Read through the information below to ensure your venue is truly accessible to people using wheelchairs.

Access: Can a wheelchair user get into your venue? Entry should be 1.2m wide or more, and there shouldn't be steps.
Toilets: Is there an accessible bathroom? Make sure it isn't being used as a storage cupboard and doesn't require a key from venue staff.
Parking: Is there accessible parking or a wheelchair friendly drop-off point?
Free Movement: Does the venue have good internal movement circulation? Could someone in a wheelchair 1.2m wide easily manoeuvre inside? Are there steps inside the venue that would prevent a wheelchair user from fully participating in your event?
Signage: If your accessible entrance is not the main entrance, has the venue established good signage and way-finding for wheelchair users? 

Hearing Loop Services

Does your venue provide a hearing loop service? A hearing loop service is a hearing device that amplifies all on-stage audio for people who are hard-of-hearing.

Whether or not the Hearing Loop icon will be listed for an event is determined by you when you register your venue in Eventotron.

Accessible Sessions

Would you like to encourage or support event producers to put on accessible sessions of their event, but are not sure where to start? We have provided some resources below to help you get started.

Accessible sessions provide services for a variety of access needs for events at your venue.

Auslan Interpreted Sessions

Having an Auslan interpreter at events at your venue increases access for Deaf audience members. 

It's a great idea to book an Auslan Interpreter early - if the event is still in development, producers can send over information and scripts closer to the event date (usually around 2 weeks prior to the event). 

AUSLAN RESOURCES

Arts Access Australia

• Further information

Auslan Stage Left 

• Further information
• Book an interpreter

Captioned Sessions

Captions help make your event or venue more accessible for Deaf and Hard of hearing audiences. 

There are two types of captioning - open caption and closed. Open captions are available all the time, such as on a video projection in an art gallery or surtitles at an opera. Closed captions are able to be switched on and off by the viewer, such as subtitles on online streaming services. 

Some services offer AI captioning, which auto-captions live as you speak, such as on Zoom or subtitles on live television. Alternatively, if you can provide a script ahead of time (even a loose one), you can book live captioning for your event using a captioning service. This works well for comedy, theatre and musicals.

CAPTIONING RESOURCES

Arts Access Australia

• Further information

AI Live

• Further information

AI Media

• Further information

Relaxed Sessions

Relaxed sessions are designed to benefit people with a range of access requirements, such as autism, sensory sensitivities, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, anxiety and dementia.

Adjustments to the event are made to provide a more relaxed environment, such as avoiding using strobe or bright lights, no loud or sudden sounds (such as gun shots) and allowing talking and moving around during the performance.

RELAXED SESSION RESOURCES

Arts Centre Melbourne

• Relaxed Performances Guide

Touch Tours

Touch tours provide blind or low-vision audience members with the opportunity to interact with and experience the physical elements of the event. This might be interacting with physical elements of the stage or venue, such as the set or costumes, and usually takes place before the event. 

TOUCH TOUR RESOURCES

Arts Access Australia

• Further information

Vitae Veritas

• Further information and contact

Audio Described Sessions

Audio description provides blind or low-vision audience members with descriptions and narrations of the visual elements and movements of the event and venue. 

This can be provided live through a service provider (such as Vitae Veritas) or via a pre-recorded file to be played before an event or visit to a venue. 

It can also be provided by ensuring your website and images are readable by screen-readers.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION RESOURCES

Arts Access Australia

• Further information on Audio Description

Vitae Veritas

• Further information and contact

Digital Sessions

If your venue has the facilities to record or live-stream events, this is a great way to offer an accessible event. 

Live-streams and on-demand videos are available to view at home, and can also be captioned. This means that you can offer an alternative format for someone who cannot attend the event in person, or cannot access the event if the venue is not step-free.  

You can upload on-demand or live-stream performances straight to YouTube, which audiences will be able to access after purchasing a ticket and at a specific date and time. 

Please email [email protected] if you'd like to know more about digital events. 

DIGITAL SESSION RESOURCES

Arts Access Australia

• How to get your art online

Registration deadlines and other key dates for Midsumma Festival 2025

• Wednesday 15 May 2024: Venue Registrations open
• Monday 3 June 2024: Event Registrations open
• Wednesday 31 July: Venue Registrations close
• Monday 2 September 2024: Event Registrations close 
• Monday 14 October 2024: Venue Hire Agreement due in Eventotron
• End of November 2024 (date TBA): Midsumma Festival Program Launch

Midsumma's Major Events

• Midsumma Festival 2025: Sunday 19 January - Sunday 9 February 2025
• Midsumma Carnival: Sunday 19 January 2025
• Midsumma Pride March: Sunday 2 February 2025
• Victoria's Pride Street Party: Date TBA by the Victorian Government

Please get in contact if you are having difficulty reaching any of these timelines and we will work with you to find a solution.

If you have any questions or require assistance to complete the registration of your venue or to find out about artists and event opportunities, please email us at [email protected], phone 03 9296 6600 or fill out the Contact Us form, and one of our friendly staff members will help.