Midsumma Festival is Melbourne’s annual three-week celebration for the queer, intersex, transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay culture, and was held from 19th January to will go on till 10th February this year. This innovative festival is made up of visual arts, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, film, live music, parties, sport, social events and public forums that are largely produced by members of the community.

As part of the 2019 Midsumma Festival, we see ‘Gender Euphoria’, the first mainstage all transgender show in Australian history, staged for one night only at the Arts Centre. Through songs, stories, ballet and burlesque, the show explored the joys that can come with being transgender. Unfortunately, most of the stories we hear about are deemed as tragedies due to the rage and cruelty faced by the transgender community. In turn, this makes it easy to overlook the joy of being a transgender.

Midsumma Festival-2019

It is common that most transgender people tend to experience a combination of gender dysphoria and euphoria whilst undergoing the process of figuring themselves out. Although the dysphoria is crucial element in this journey to self-discovery, there is more to it, as being transgender is not about running away from something that doesn’t feel right. It is about discovering what feels right and accepting who you are by putting aside the feelings of distress and discomfort. The growing awareness reflects change as not identifying with the gender you were assigned to starts to play a significant role.

In addition to displaying the feeling of relief of having escaped something, the show focuses on the positive aspect of having found something. Gender Euphoria; the sense of fulfilment or joy that comes from living as the gender you feel comfortable with being and identifying yourself as. The highlight of the show was to display this radiant joy. For each of the cast members participating in the show, gender euphoria looked different. However, the rare sense of fulfilment and joy is what united them.

In 2018, the event as a whole featured approximately 170 events, with involvement by over 500 culture-makers in over 100 different venues across Melbourne and Victoria to audiences of over 200,000. As part of the Midsumma's visual arts program, exhibitions take place and are featured in and around Melbourne from local, national and international gay artists. Many of these exhibitions are held in Yarra Arts and Queer City.

All in all, the Midsumma Festival is Victoria’s premier LGBTQIA+ festival made for and by communities who live and share experiences about the diverse gender and sexuality.