MELT Festival unleashes its first wave of wild, witty and wonderfully queer programming
Brisbane is set to shine brighter than ever as MELT Festival makes its star-studded return this spring, transforming the city into a Queer-powered playground of boundary-pushing art, theatre, music and unfiltered joy. The first program drop is big, brilliant and bursting at the seams with goodness – from a floating pride parade and a 1000-person riverside choir to glitter-fuelled wrestle parties, daring new theatre and performances by Broadway royalty. Here’s a taste of what’s to come.
The curtain rises with cabaret superstar Reuben Kaye, who will bring the jaw-dropping, orchestra-fuelled spectacular enGORGEd to QPAC for its Queensland premiere. Making its MELT debut, the Miss First Nation drag pageant will also strut into Brisbane in dazzling style, with the country’s top First Nations queens battling it out in a grand finale packed with pride, power and performance. And in a participatory moment sure to stir hearts, 1000 Voices will gather queer and ally choirs and soloists for a monumental choral performance – a sonic celebration of courage, connection and community that promises pure goosebumps.
Theatre lovers can look forward to The Lucky Country, a razor-sharp new musical from Vidya Makan and Sonya Suares that dives headfirst into Australia’s cultural contradictions. Over at Queensland Theatre, Jordan Shea’s Malacañang Made Us explores family and Filipino identity under dictatorship, while Whitefella Yella Tree at La Boite stages a love story between two Aboriginal boys on the brink of invasion.
Further across the city, the festival dives deep into theatre, dance, nightlife and visual art. Hole-Mania 2.0 returns to The Tivoli with glitter-soaked queer wrestling hosted by party queen Shandy and the ever-chaotic Gogo Bumhole. For something truly unique, Still Lives: Brisbane will suspend instruments – and performers – in mid-air for a gravity-defying tribute to the city’s radical past.
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On the water, the iconic River Pride Parade sails again, with boats, beats and community spirit flowing from West End to Brisbane Powerhouse. Festival favourite Queer PowerPoint returns with its hilarious mix of niche obsessions and mundane presentation slides, while Scream Queen brings international drag royalty to The Princess Theatre for a blood-spattered night of glamour and gore.
In huge news for Broadway fans, icon Bernadette Peters returns to the Australian stage for the first time in over a decade. Performing live with Camerata, An Evening with Bernadette Peters is set to be a night of pure theatrical magic and a highlight of MELT’s stellar 2025 program.
We’ll have more MELT Festival announcements oh-so soon! Until then, sashay over to the festival website for more information.