Event Registrations

Midsumma Festival is Australia's premier queer arts and cultural festival, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.

Our festival program is made up of diverse art forms and genres, including:

• theatre
• visual arts
• comedy
• film
• live music
• cabaret
• dance
• creative workshops
• sport
• parties and social events
• kids and family events
• walking tours
• talks and panel discussions

Our most recent festival featured over 235 events! Our program includes work from over 5,000 culture-makers each year across 120 different venues throughout Naarm / Melbourne and Victoria. Audiences of over 306,000 snap up this explosion of queer culture.

If you want to get an idea of past Midsumma events, you can check out previous programs:

• 2024 Festival Guide
• 2023 Festival Guide,
• 2022 Festival Guide,
• and more in the Program Archives.

Registration Deadlines

• Event Registrations Open: Monday 3 June 2024
• Early Bird discount ends: Friday 28 June 2024
• Event Registrations close: Tuesday 3 September 2024
• Midsumma Festival Program Launch (event embargo lifts): Tuesday 26 November 2024

Festival Dates & Major Events

• Midsumma Festival runs: 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: Sunday 9 February 2025

By registering your event with Midsumma Festival you will receive the following:

A dedicated listing on Midsumma website
Your event will be listed on midsumma.org.au, which had over 400,000 visits during the 2024 festival period. Midsumma events will be accessible as top results via most search engines.

A dedicated listing in Midsumma Festival’s Printed Program Guide
Your event will feature in our official Midsumma Festival printed Program Guide, with over 20,000 copies distributed around Naarm/Melbourne, Victoria and interstate outlets in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. The guide is also available to view or download from midsumma.org.au.

PR & Media Campaign
Midsumma Festival works with Zilla&Brook, a well-established and influential PR firm focusing on the arts and festivals.

Zilla&Brook will consider every event registered at Midsumma as an integral part of Midsumma Festival’s tailor-made PR campaign, with targeted coverage opportunities to key local and national media outlets. The festival Program Guide and media releases will be shared with key industry journalists/critics. Your event could make the headlines!

Midsumma's Media Kit
Midsumma's media kit has a wealth of facts, figures and assets to give insight into Midsumma Festival and the Midsumma organisation, and for helping with promotion.
Download the Midsumma Media Kit (PDF 4.3 MB).

Midsumma Festival 2024 Total Media Evaluation:

• Total Media Hits: 1,504
• Total Reach: 39,758,589
• Total PR Value: $28,128,455

Ticket sales & administration
Midsumma Festival will handle your ticketing using the industry-leading ticketing system Red61. We do the customer service and administration so you can focus on the fun parts!

You will have the opportunity to take part in our popular ticketing promotions (Early Bird or Three Show Package), as well as flash sales to get more people through that door.

Artist Pass
This grants you several entitlements, including last-minute entry to eligible shows in our program (if seats are still available) and discounts on tickets to eligible performances.

An engaged audience
Tap into our audience of over 306,000 queer-culture lovers to expand your reach. Our network is keen to get involved and can build new audiences for your event.

Meet great people and venues
Join an expansive community of artists and over one hundred Melbourne venues. Receive an invitation to the Midsumma Festival Launch, where you can network with like-minded culture-makers working to create an explosion of LGBTQIA+ events across Melbourne and beyond.

Support from industry professionals
Our Ticketing and Presenter Services Manager will be on hand to answer any burning questions about event registration, the ticketing process, and any Midsumma marketing opportunities.

Between August and February, we’ll share helpful resources by adding you to our Producer Updates newsletter. This newsletter offers guidance, tips, and reminders about deadlines to help keep you on track.

If you want to be part of Midsumma Festival 2025, you must complete a festival registration by the deadline, providing all information requested. 

Midsumma Festival uses Eventotron for event registrations. All events require a confirmed venue in order to complete their registration for the festival. To have your event included, you need to:

1. Prepare your event marketing information (including copy, images, dates, prices and access information. A full checklist is provided below).
2. Complete your registration on Eventotron and pay your registration fee.

After you have completed your event registration, the Midsumma team will prepare your printed program guide listing, online listing and ticketing build.

Events are embargoed during this process until the official Midsumma Festival Program Launch on Tuesday 26 November 2024.

The registration fees remain the same as last year for the 2025 Midsumma Festival:

• *Independent Artist discount applies to independent artists earning < $80,000 per annum
• **Community Group discount applies to community groups with < $400,000 turnover per annum
• All prices are inclusive of GST
• An external surcharge of 1.5% applies to credit/debit card payments
• No refunds on registration fees
• The producer must provide proof of eligibility for Community Group and Independent Artist discounts via an annual report, tax return or similar.

All ticketed Midsumma Festival events (free and priced) must have 100% of their event capacity sold through the Midsumma Festival ticketing system. This is to ensure customers can book all their tickets for the festival in one place and have the best customer experience possible.

Midsumma Festival uses Red61, an industry-leading ticketing system, for event ticketing.

On Sale Date

After you register your event, the Midsumma team will prepare your event build and ask you to check that all information is correct.

Embargo: All events are embargoed and must be kept confidential until the official Midsumma Festival Program Launch on Tuesday 26 November. This embargo ensures that:

• Every event has an equal impact at the program announcement (meaning there are no unfair advantages based on when you registered)
• There’s time for our team to ensure all events have finalised correct details
• A coordinated announcement for maximum excitement and impact

Ticketed Free Events

These events are free but require attendees to reserve a spot in advance.

To ensure a streamlined experience for festival-goers, these events must be ticketed through Midsumma Festival's ticketing system. This centralises the booking process, allowing audiences to reserve spots for all Midsumma events in one place easily.

Importantly, ticketed-free events do not incur additional costs. Neither organisers nor attendees will incur booking fees or inside fees. 

Allocated Seating

By default, all events are set up as general admission.

If you wish to use allocated seating (where audience members are assigned a specific seat number), please contact us at [email protected] before event registrations close on 3 September 2024. Once tickets go on sale, seating maps cannot be added or modified.

Allocated seating is free. However, we will need to work with you to build a seating map in the ticketing system, which can take some time.

While allocated seating can be accommodated, we strongly recommend general admission as it is easier for you as the event producer to manage and for attendees to book.

Box Office and Door Sales

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

The only exception to the above ticketing policy 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 them at your venue.

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

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

Please keep a record of how many tickets you sell on the door. We request this information at the close of your event to assist with our reporting and to help you determine the number of people who attended your event.

If you need to discuss ticketing, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Complimentary Tickets

A complimentary ticket (aka ‘comp’) is a free ticket. It is usually offered to VIPs, cast, crew, etc. There are three types of complimentary tickets: Midsumma comps, Producer comps, and Companion Card tickets.

• Midsumma comps: Please note that 4% of your total capacity (or a minimum of 6 tickets, whichever is greater) must be allocated as complimentary tickets for the Midsumma Festival team. Staff, board members, producing partners, sponsors, and donors will use these tickets throughout your event's season.
• Producer comps: You can allocate up to 10% of your total ticket allocation as comps for your cast, crew, media reviewers and anyone else you want to attend your event. You may be charged additional fees for any amount over this 10%.
• Companion Card tickets. Companion Cards are for people with disabilities who need support from a carer to attend an event or participate in an activity. They provide carers with a complimentary ticket. All Midsumma events must accept Companion Cards. Companion Cardholders must present their card at the venue.

Midsumma charges two types of ticketing fees, an Inside Fee and a Booking fee.

Inside Fee

Each ticket purchased by audience members includes an Inside Fee. This internal charge is included in the advertised ticket price for your event. Customers see and pay only the total ticket price.

Midsumma retains the Inside Fee from each ticket sale before remitting proceeds to you.

In 2025, Midsumma will retain the following amounts per ticket:

*The minimum ticket price for paid events is $5 (inc. GST)

The prices you nominate during registration, and advertise to the general public, must include the Inside Fee.

When planning the income you require from ticket sales, remember that this fee scales. So when setting concession or variant prices, the Inside Fee will change. As an example:

• If your Full price ticket is $25.00, $22.00 will go to you and $3.00 to Midsumma
• If your Concession price is $15.00, $12.50 will go to you and $2.50 to Midsumma

Customer Booking Fee

A $5.25 Booking Fee applies per transaction, regardless of the number of tickets purchased, unless all tickets booked are free.

The customer pays this fee, which covers ticketing administration costs. Midsumma retains the booking fee.

For ticketed free events, there is no booking fee for the customer.

GST

All Midsumma booking fees, transaction fees and tickets sold include GST unless stated otherwise.

Ticketing Remittance

Your event's ticketing will be remitted within fifteen working days of the festival's completion. 

Looking for more help? Check out our Producer Resources for assistance with budgeting, marketing and accessibility.

Your event will be listed in the Official Festival Program Guide and midsumma.org.au. To ensure your event stands out from the crowd, we’ve provided a few pointers on how to make your event title, image, and description work.

Event Title

You can call your event almost anything you like, but we recommend you consider the following:

• Keep your event title snappy, the longer the title the more it will eat into your opportunity to describe the show in your copy.
• Coarse language in titles or copy may reduce your chances of getting approval for social media-boosted promotion. In addition, Midsumma Festival collateral (including the guide) will have coarse language censored (i.e. F*ck, Sh*t, etc.).
• You can't use "Midsumma" in the title of your event. Only events produced by Midsumma can use this, as it indicates to the general public that Midsumma produced the event in-house. However, we do encourage you to use the words 'As part of Midsumma Festival' and include the Midsumma logo on your own promotional material.

Event Copy

You will need to provide two versions of the event copy, one for the official Midsumma Festival Program Guide (approx. 40 words) and a slightly longer version for the website (approx. 200 - 300 words).

We have set out some tips below for writing compelling copy:

• Think simple and clear: Remember that the primary purpose of your event copy is to get audiences to your show. Your show may be edgy and complex, but the copy needs to get the audiences there to experience it, so try not to alienate audiences. As a starting point, check out Midsumma Program Guides from previous years and see how other events have sold their show and find what resonates with you.
• Which tense is best? Midsumma will use first person tense in all general information pages. For instance, 'We hope you enjoy your experience with us in 2024'. For this reason, we highly recommend that your event copy is written from a third person perspective. For example, 'Goddess Grooves celebrates and showcases local female musicians', rather than 'Come celebrate local female musicians with us at Goddess Grooves'.
• Get someone else to proof your copy. It's best to get feedback from trusted family or friends who you think might enjoy the event, but who are not familiar with the content. After they have read your copy, can they work out what they would expect to experience at your event? This is a good marker of whether you need to edit what you have or start over.
• It's a free Program Guide, available to all. That includes children and young people so even if your event is pitched as Adult Only, your copy should not be.

Image

In today’s market, your promotional image is vital in attracting audience attention. It should be striking, represent your event truthfully, and ideally be taken by a skilled photographer to optimise your chances of promoting it.

There are some guidelines that you will need to follow (otherwise, we may request an alternative image). Please:

• Avoid including any words/text (not even the title) on your image.
• Avoid including any logos on your image.
• Avoid providing a low-resolution image or screenshots. We recommend getting your image professionally taken.
• Avoid providing a highly detailed image with lots of content. The program guide images are small, so simplicity works best.
• Avoid adding a border to your image.
• Avoid nudity and content that may be considered explicit for general audiences.

Promotional Video

Your event listing can include a Promotional Video. This is a great way to give audiences a visual taste of your show.

Midsumma Festival also creates a promo reel video each year, and your event can be included in this reel (if you select to be so in your registration), which is an excellent additional promotion option.

A 30 second promo clip can quickly engage your audience. Keep these things in mind: Keep it snappy, make sure the footage is reasonable quality, include key information about the event, and be creative.

You will need to confirm a venue (and the venue must be registered on Eventotron) in order to complete your registration.

Only after you have joined with a venue on Eventotron will you be able to add dates, times and prices and continue to finalise your registration.

If you want to get an idea of past Midsumma venues, you can check out previous programs to see where others have held events that might be similar to yours:

• 2024 Festival Guide,
• 2023 Festival Guide,
• 2022 Festival Guide,
• and more in the Program Archives. 

You can also request venue advice by emailing [email protected].

Digital Events

Adding a digital session or hosting a completely digital event? No problem! Midsumma supports both on-demand and streamed events. Midsumma's ticketing platform Red61 has digital integrations with BrightCove, Vidlex, Vimeo and YouTube. After purchasing a ticket, customers can access your digital content through their Midsumma website account, either on demand or live at the time of the event. Please email [email protected] if you want to know more about digital events. 

Venue Relationships

• Please remember that any relationship with a venue is strictly between you and the venue and not with Midsumma Festival. 
• You will need to provide Midsumma Festival with a copy of your Venue Hire Agreement.
• Download an example venue agreement. 

Other Venue Considerations

There are many things to consider when choosing a venue. We've made a list of prompters for you to consider when looking at venues:

• Is the venue sensitive to queer communities and identities? Does it have non-gendered bathrooms etc.
• How accessible is the venue? (Wheelchair access, bathrooms, hearing loops)
• What is the venue's cancellation policy?
• Can you afford it? Will the income you are expecting from the project be enough to pay for the venue?
• Does the venue provide technical crew and Front of House? Or will you need to provide these yourself?
• What additional support does the venue provide? Will they help with marketing or provide rehearsal space?
• What is the location of the venue? Is this a good location for your target audience/demographic?
• What's the vibe? 
• Are there any technical restrictions at the venue? Such as restrictions due to sound bleed, liquor licences, capacity and the type of electricity connections provided.
• What are your venue's licensing regulations? Does your venue allow under 18s into the event? 
• Check the conditions of venue hire

Inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of Midsumma Festival. As such, we're dedicated to making the festival accessible to all audiences. Remember - access isn't just about making sure your venue is wheelchair accessible. It's about making your event inclusive to those with a range of requirements, some of which may not be visible.

It's important to start thinking about access early on - if you want certain access provisions for your event, research the accessibility of the venues you are engaging with. Plan ahead if you're going to add access services to your event such as Auslan interpretation, captioning or audio description.

You can find our Accessibility resource on the Producer Resources page if you would like to know more or are looking for a list of access service providers.

Here's a handy checklist of what you'll need to prepare for registering your event:

1. Contact details: Primary and secondary contact
2. Event details: Name and description, main image, event copy, access info, social media info, any extra images or video for your online listing
3. Venue confirmed: Your venue will need to be registered in Eventotron and have accepted your event in order to proceed
4. Complete registration: Add dates/times, prices and finalise all event details
5. Ticketing details and bank account for settlement (if applicable)
6. Payment for your event registration

1. Your Midsumma contract (e-sign)
2. Your Venue Contract or Letter of Agreement
3. Your media release 
4. Festival Pass requirements
5. Public Liability Insurance Certificate 
6. Reviews of your event (upload them as soon as they are published and let our Ticketing and Producer Services Manager know)

To register your event through Midsumma Festival’s event registration system, go to eventotron.com.

1. Sign up for Eventotron or log in to an existing account.
   Need help? Read the Signing Up help article. 

2. Create an event.
   Need help? Read the Create an Event help article. 

3. Add your event to Midsumma Festival 2025.
   Need help? Read the Applying to a Festival help article. 

4. Complete Steps 1 to 16 in Midsumma's Eventotron form. 

5. Pay your registration fee to confirm your registration.

1. Log in to Eventotron
2. Go to Step 10: Add a Venue of your event registration.
3. Once you find a venue that you like, select "More Info" and then "Apply to...". You'll then be prompted to provide a brief introductory note. 
4. We strongly advise that you then contact the venue directly to discuss your event in more detail.
5. Only once the venue accepts your application, will the dates, times and prices section appear. You will then be able to input this information, along with event duration, capacity and ticketing categories. 

Registering a Digital Event

Registering a digital event is the same as registering any other kind of event. At Step 9, select Digital when asked "Is your event in-person, digital or both?", then follow the prompts to add on-demand or live-streamed sessions.

• Complete the Eventotron form and pay registration fees by the deadline (3 September 2024).
• Secure and liaise with your venue. The venue relationship is strictly between the event producer and venue, and not with Midsumma Festival. 
• Market and promote your event. We can provide guidance, resources and occasionally, we may be able to arrange a media or promotional opportunity for you, but the primary responsibility lies with you
• Organise crew and volunteers for your event
• Manage production schedules and budgets
• Secure financial support for your event
• Liaise with Midsumma Festival about ticketing and event listing changes
• Organise Public Liability Insurance for your event
• Deliver your event!
• Provide final attendance numbers after your event

• There are no refunds on registration fees.
• All registered events are publicly embargoed until the Midsumma Festival Program Launch in November 2024 (date to be confirmed).
• All tickets must be sold through Midsumma Festival.
• "Midsumma" is a registered trademark and cannot be used in event titles without express permission.