Nominations Are Open For Melbourne’s Drag Excellence Awards, The MEDEAs
Image: Image: The MEDEAs 2024 - Agile Arts
The stage is set for another another night of drag and performance excellence as nominations open for The MEDEAs, the Melbourne Excellence In Drag And Entertainment Awards.
2025 marks the second year for the awards which were widely embraced and celebrated last year.
Now is your chance to nominate your favourite Melbourne performers.
Celebrate drag and performance excellence with The Medeas
There is much to be celebrated in the Melbourne LGBTQIA+ entertainment industry and the MEDEAs are the perfect opportunity to showcase the best of what Melbourne has to offer.
“The MEDEAs were created out of a need to celebrate and unify the Melbourne Drag, Dance and Burlesque artists who already work so harmoniously together and acknowledge excellence in our fields as well as pay homage to the venues, technical artists and heart and souls of our community in a night of unbridled glamour and festivity” reads their official website.
In 2024 the awards saw winners celebrated across twenty six different categories celebrating drag queens and kings, burlesque performers, productions and production staff.
One of the big winners on the night was drag darling Art Simone who took home the publicly voted award for “Melbourne’s Favourite Drag Queen” as well as Fountain Lakes In Lockdown: A Drag Parody Play which she stars in taking home the award for Best Drag Production.
Other winners on the night included Drag King Freddie Merkin who took home Melbourne’s Favourite Drag King and Bettie Bombshell who secured Melbourne’s Favourite Burlesque Performer and Burlesque Performer Of The Year. Meanwhile Melbourne star and Drag Race Down Under season four contestant Max Drag Queen took home the honour of Drag Performer Of The Year.
Speaking to the Star Observer founder and president of the awards Leasa Mann (real name Robert Hogarth) expressed her excitement at the return of the awards.
“We’re very excited to be back for our second year running The Melbourne Excellence in Drag and Entertainment Awards (The MEDEAs) after last years rousing success it was clear this was exactly what our incredibly talented community needs” she said.
“We’re committed to celebrating the diversity and excellence that the Melbourne queer community offers, and thus is represented in our categories and judging panels. It’s important to me that our judges reflect the current community here in Melbourne and that’s why we have performers on there who are in and amongst it all so that most, if not all, people feel represented. We’ve truly got some of Melbourne’s finest as part of the judges” she concluded before revealing the date of the awards ceremony.
“Our awards take place on Monday 16th June at Corner Hotel in Richmond, who last year were so accommodating and welcoming to our event and we can’t wait to return there” she concluded.
Nominations for the 2025 awards are now open with 30 awards up for grabs in a variety of categories that celebrate drag, dance and burlesque.
To nominate your favourite performers, businesses and venues simply head along to themedeas.com and submit your nominations.
Nominations will close on Monday April 7 and 12pm Midday EST.
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