2026 Midsumma Festival Theme - Time & Place
"As the world faces a rising tide of division and retreat from progress, the need to connect through shared humanity has never been more urgent."
We are living at a unique and pivotal moment in history, where globally we face a breakdown in community cohesion and a retreat from progress. Human rights and social connectivity are increasingly under threat, as nationalist values and individualism take precedence over well-being and inclusive dialogue.
This shift impacts all communities, including LGBTQIA+ communities, who face both external attacks and internal conflicts.
The 2026 Midsumma Festival theme, Time and Place, reflects these challenges while emphasising the power of connection—to land, culture, and each other. It invites exploration of our current moment in time and asks how we might move toward a future where everyone has a place, and every voice is valued when many powerful forces drive in opposite directions. Through this theme, we celebrate the diversity of intersectional queer identities, shaped by the unique confluence of global influences alongside local traditions and impacts within our region of the world.
This year’s theme – Time & Place – reflects the intersection of land, culture, and queer identity unique to this part of the world. It focuses on how issues like nationalism, migration, and global cultural influences impact queer communities today and into the future.
It is about the time and place we find ourselves in now – a time of shifting sands. It’s about the importance of connection to land over virtual and highlight the return to physical in-person gathering places as vital hubs for authentic arts and cultural expression.
Time
- “Time” - reflects both the urgency of the moment we find ourselves moving through ‘now’, and the historical context of queer rights and cultural evolution.
- inspiring bold visions for a more inclusive future.
Place
- "Place" not just as a physical concept but also as a metaphorical one—places of belonging, safety, and identity, for example, as well as exploration of connection to land, and location.
- Encourages reconnection with physical spaces as hubs for authentic cultural expression, balancing the rise of digital interactions.
Together, Time and Place ask us to confront the tension between the past and the future, the virtual and the physical, the local and the global.
How do we move from this ‘time’ to one where everyone has a ‘place’, everyone’s voices are truly ‘heard’ and acknowledged. Where we can celebrate the differences we all have and the unique attributes that different cultures, faiths, lived experiences and different geographical locations have and share and learn from these.
We are inviting artists, venues, and cultural organisations to join us in shaping a festival that reflects and responds to the complexities of our time and place. Submit proposals that:
Join us in shaping a future where art bridges divides, and every individual feels a sense of belonging.
Together, let’s create a festival that bridges divides, celebrates differences, and paves the way for a more connected and equitable future.
TIME & PLACE - Midsumma Presents
Anchored by our 2026 theme Time & Place, each project in our Midsumma Presents program is reclaiming space, while centring intersectional stories from across our LGBTQIA+ communities.
From a modern-day Corroboree by Joel Bray Dance to community engagement with Cairns-based performance group The Ironing Maidens, The Fantasy Ball by House of Furia, to supporting First Nations baby drag artists and new work by our Pathways Alumni, Midsumma Presents is a diverse program of shows, events, and exhibitions that reflect where our communities are at, in this time and place.
Building on Midsumma’s developmental focus, with our awards for art, playwrighting and music and showcasing the winners, this year we have an exciting suite of works by Pathways mentorship Alumni we are supporting within our festival, presenting new artistic voices, and cultural experiences. We continue to build our relationships with key arts organisations and partner with new venues for the 2026 program, with new hubs this year at Meat Market and Spiegel Haus, our artists’ bar.
Now is the time for us to congregate and come together, for movement, for support, for celebrations of Queer Joy to be the acts of resistance we need.
From interactive performances and late-night takeovers to multidisciplinary exhibitions, pop-up piano bars and world premieres, Midsumma Presents connects land, culture and community to create bold, inclusive, in-person experiences. You’ll encounter new voices alongside renowned artists; experimental formats beside crowd-pleasers, each inviting you to gather, feel, question and celebrate.
- Pieta Farell - Head of Programming, Midsumma
