‘Bloodsuckers After Dark: Pride Night’ Bites Into Queer History At The Australian Museum

Have you ever wondered about the connection between mosquitoes, vampires, and the LGBTQIA+ community? I haven’t, but it sounds like I should have.

The Australian Museum will host a Pride Month after-hours event on Wednesday 24 June, featuring an evening program exploring queer history, identity, and vampire mythology in connection with its current exhibition Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires.

The event, titled Bloodsuckers After Dark: Pride Night, will run from 6pm to 9pm and is open to attendees aged 18 and over. It will include after-hours access to the exhibition, a bar service, and a scheduled panel discussion examining themes of blood, visibility, stigma, and belonging.

It will include the panel, Bloodlines: Horror, Desire and the Politics of Blood, which is facilitated by SBS News presenter and broadcaster Anton Enus. It will also feature former Australian Museum Director and 78er Frank Howarth, alongside Macquarie University Associate Professor Leigh Boucher, whose research focuses on the HIV/AIDS crisis in and around Darlinghurst.

The discussion will use vampire mythology as a framework to explore how ideas of blood and contagion have shaped cultural attitudes toward difference and identity. It will also examine the legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the evolution of queer visibility in Australia, and how cultural institutions document and interpret LGBTQIA+ histories.

The panel will consider how fear and stigma have influenced public perceptions of disease and community, and the role museums play in preserving and presenting histories that have been historically underrepresented. It will also reference the broader themes of the Bloodsuckers exhibition in examining cultural narratives around blood and survival.

Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires is a globally acclaimed exhibition developed by the Royal Ontario Museum. The immersive exhibition features more than 100 objects, specimens, large-scale models, digital interactives and installations, bringing science, pop culture and plain old curiosity together in one deliciously creepy package.

From vampire bats and black flies to oxpeckers, candiru catfish and medicinal leeches, Bloodsuckers doesn’t just lean into the gothic drama of it all. It digs into the biology of blood, the evolution of blood-feeding over millions of years, and how humans can live safely and confidently alongside these species.

Tickets for Bloodsuckers After Dark: Pride Night are priced between $17 and $24, and include entry to the Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires exhibition.