2025 Midsumma Carnival Artists

After hosting the Midsumma 2025 Program Launch, we are so excited to bring back Adam Noviello as a headliner performer for Midsumma Carnival! Adam is a nonbinary singer-songwriter and actor, described by Mama Alto as “The long lost love child of Troye Sivan and Lady Gaga”, and was recently named by Triple J as 1 of 10 Queer Artists To Discover Before They Blow Up.

You can catch current reigning Miss First Nations Supreme Queen, Cerulean, in an intimate but upbeat evening of First Nations performance and discussion in Blak & Fabulous at Pride of Our Footscray Community Bar on 31 January.

Image: Joseph Mayers 

DJ ENN is a regular of the Australian queer club scene calling Naarm/Melbourne home. Covering a multitude of genres; from hands-in-the-air disco campery to filthy tech & intimate progressive dark rooms – his sophisticated musicality distills down to an infectious taste in groove no matter the intensity or genre.

In 2024, he supported Fedde le Grand at the Finale Mardi Gras party as well as opened for Client Liaison on their national Club Liaison tour in Brisbane. He also opened for Trixie Mattel on the debut of her Solid Pink Disco party in Australia in 2022.

The Demon Twink of Smith Street. Green Room Award Nominee. Drag cabaret artist. Transgender man. Highschool teacher. Florian Wild is the MONSTER! Playing at Chapel Off Chapel 29 Jan - 2 Feb.

Hosting the Sports Precinct throughout the day, then dashing to the Picnic Stage to host Lip Sync Limelight, Frock Hudson is our hostess with the mostest! Catch Frock Hudson during Midsumma at Frock's Melodic Mondays at Grouse, and Frock Hudson's Storytime Sing-a-long at the Victorian Pride Centre 23 & 25 Jan.

Gogo Bumhole is the drag gremlin that excites, entices and frightens audience. Gogo was birthed into this reality in 2020, and has slammed themselves onto every queer stage they can find including The Tivoli (QLD), Brunswick Picture House (NSW) and Woodford Folk Festival. They've returned from a 2024 Europe tour performing at All Together Now and Electric Picnic (Ireland), Same Heads (Berlin) and NACHTLICKER (London). You may also know them as their other performance persona and show SEWER RAT GIRL, and from their recent smash-hit wrestling club night HOLE-MANIA in Magandjin/Brisbane. Get ready to shake some ass with them this Midsumma Carnival. 

Greg Gould is one of Australia’s most exciting rising stars, captivating audiences worldwide with his electrifying performances, incredible vocal prowess,  and infectious charisma. Fresh from headlining prestigious events like AAMI Park Stadium Pride Cup, Chill Out Festival, Darwin Pride, and Sydney World Pride, Greg is not just setting trends — he’s reshaping modern soulful pop music.

Two-time Icelandic Eurovision star, Hera Björk, embarks on her first Australian tour. This vocal powerhouse shares her candid stories of life in the crazy Eurovision bubble. Join Hera for a not-to-be-missed intimate evening of camp comedy and cabaret, plus a Euro disco to follow the show, in Hera Björk - The Queen of Effing Everything.

Hollywould Star from Rupauls Drag Race Down Under S3 Top 4.  Classically trained singer accepted into the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. She’s been seen touring in Voss’s WERQ The World the world, major stage productions like The Book of Mormon and Porgy and Bess throughout Europe as well as slaying the floors of nightclubs around Australia. They most recently were seen performing as a Destiny Child Member with the Grammy Award winning Kelly Rowland at the 2023 Domain Dance Party for Sydney World Pride to an audience of 20,000 people. The first and only contestant to receive model management from the Drag Race Down Under franchise formally with IMG and now with CHIC. Hollywould shows off her skills as an accomplished performer, recording artist and DJ, into the hearts of people around the world. HollywouldStar.com

You can catch Home Grown Musicals Australia at Chapel Off Chapel on 31 January in a special concert that will showcase the immense talent within the LGBTQIA+ community, offering heartfelt performances that delve into stories of love, identity, struggle, and triumph. Each song is a testament to the diverse narratives that make up the vibrant fabric of queer life in Australia.

Hailing from her small country town of Tambo in central Queensland.
She’s in the big smoke now and is on a mission to become a big star, sing with her idol Tina Arena and is a hopeless romantic that suffers from being enduringly delusional. Who can relate?! See her in Jacqui Randa Full Bloom Cabaret Show at The Motley Bauhause 24 to 26 January.

Melbourne Fringe Best Cabaret Award winning star Jens Radda: Skank Sinatra comes to Carnival to host the Picnic Stage. Jens Radda is an actor, singer, drag artist, and producer based primarily in Melbourne/Naarm, Australia, and tours both nationally and internationally. Skank Sinatra picked up a Cabaret weekly award at Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2024 and their show Madame Martha's Hush Cabaret, with Meg Hickey and Iva Rosebud, recently won the best cabaret award at Melbourne Fringe.

Photo by Aubrey Haive.

An immersive dive into the musical journey inspired by the Cotton Club Era. Get dressed to the nines and experience the electrifying rhythm with smooth velvety vocals accompanied by a myriad of emotions heightened by Band Orchestrator, Adrian Szondy. You can catch Joti in Blacknificense - The Cotton Club Experience at Chapel off Chapel on 24 or 25 January.

A high-femme kaleidoscopic cyclone of extroversion and light perversion, Ruby Slippers lives by the motto that you’re either Dorothy, or you’re the twister. She's campy yet vampy, a clown-in-a-gown, burlesque supervillain and drag disruptor. A serial name-dropper, she’s shared the stage with Amanda Lepore, Melanie C, Brooke Candy, Pabllo Vittar, The Boulet Brothers and Boy George, and Michelle Visage has called her work “incredible”.

Ruby will be hosting the Main Stage at Midsumma Carnival.

You can see The Huxleys' exhibition, Gender Fluids, The Huxleys, at the Victorian Pride Centre from 20 January to 8 February (with a talk at 6pm on 23 January), or in Library Up Late x Midsumma at State Library Victoria on 6 February. 

With a comedic wit that could shred brie and a voice as smooth as honey, Tina Del Twist's talents have toured the globe to wild acclaim and applause, garnishing her iconic. Winner - Comics' Choice Award Melbourne Comedy Festival 2022.
Accompanied by Cameron Thomas. You can catch Tina in Tina Lets Loose at Grouse Melbourne from 30 January to 1 February.

You can catch the Women's Circus in Small Acts of Resistance at Gasworks Arts Park from 5 to 8 February. Created by a female and gender-diverse ensemble from Women’s Circus, with members in their 50s, 60s and 70s, Small Acts of Resistance explores the need for hope in a world where protest and the voices of the disenfranchised are continually ignored. Blending inspiring circus and the soulful energy of live music and spoken word, they question why the lessons of the past are seemingly forgotten and how small acts of kindness, resistance, and hope can promote change.