Midsumma gets a Star partner

Melbourne’s largest LGBTI arts and cultural festival, Midsumma, and SSO Media – publisher of Southern Star Observer – will partner for the 2012 festival season.

Midsumma CEO Adam Lowe said LGBTI media played a vital part in the success of the annual festival, now in its 24th year.

“It is of great importance to Midsumma that we work together with as many members of our queer community as possible,” Lowe said.

“Contributions to Midsumma by all queer media agencies, and mainstream media agencies, do have a direct impact on our bottom line, this is important.

“We look forward to seeing what Southern Star Observer brings to the 2012 Midsumma Festival.”

The 2012 festival will focus on electronic communication with festival goers.

SSO Media CEO Scott Abrahams welcomed the partnership, saying the Star Observer’s popularity online has markedly jumped since the community-owned LGBTI media outlet launched its new website.

“We’re proud to partner with Midsumma and look forward to promoting what is one of the most diverse and successful LGBTI festivals in Australia,” he said.

Midsumma artistic producer Cara Dinley said Midsumma was looking to increase its focus on fostering emerging artists, also announcing a three-year partnership with Carlton theatre, La Mama.

“La Mama has been such an incredible advocate for the arts in Melbourne and has also been an ongoing Midsumma venue for well over a decade,” Dinley said.

La Mama artistic director Liz Jones used the opportunity to pledge support for same-sex marriage.

“We at La Mama are delighted to be announcing that we are in a permanent and ongoing relationship with Midsumma and hope that our country’s laws change to allow more such exciting relationships to be celebrated into the future,” she said.

This year saw one of the biggest Midsumma festival’s yet, with organisers estimating 100,000 people at Carnival Day at Birrarung Marr. Carnival and T-Dance will remain in the same location for 2012.

Organisers are so far tight-lipped about the 2012 line-up but said the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) will present a public symposium to celebrate academic Dennis Altman’s acclaimed book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation, first published in 1972.

The festival is still calling for stallholders to register for Carnival Day. The deadline is October 31.

Event registrations are open until September 19.

INFO: Midsumma will run January 15 – February 5 2012.

Visit www.midsumma.org.au