Midsumma Carnival highlights the opening weekend of the three-week-long Midsumma Festival each year.
Image: Life Without Barriers staff and foster carers dressed in pink at the Midsumma Carnival booth.
Life Without Barriers takes part in the Midsumma Festival each year and is proud to have a foster care stall at the Midsumma Carnival. We attend these events because we celebrate diversity, and we practice inclusion. We believe in the strength of a diverse community where the perspectives and life experiences of our people help us build strong relationships!
At the booth, we had friendly Life Without Barriers carer community staff and foster care ambassadors! They chatted with attendees about foster care, gave out some fun pink merch, and encouraged festival goers to leave a message for LGBTQIA+ children and young people in care on a large flag!
Life Without Barriers will also be at the Midsumma Festival 'Victoria's Pride Street Party' on Sunday 11 February 2024, on Gertrude Street and Smith Street (Fitzroy), and we are looking forward to connecting with even more of the LGBTQIA+ community to discuss foster care in Victoria. We will have the flag at the street party for people to read and to add to, so keep an eye out for it.
Image: Messages for LGBTQIA+ children and young people flag with messages written on it from Midsumma attendees.
Didn't make it to the day but wondering if you could be a carer?
Life Without Barriers welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex foster carers.
People of all genders and sexualities can be foster carers
No partner? No problem! Single people and people in a relationship can be foster carers.
It’s your ability to care for and nurture a child that matters. Not your sexuality or gender.
If you want to find out more about foster care at Life Without Barriers, you can join one of our upcoming webinars!
Image: Life Without Barriers staff wearing pink in a stall blowing bubbles at Midsumma 2024.
Whilst we attend these events to speak to potential foster carers, and to show our support for the LGBTQIA+ community, this year we were blown away by the efforts that organisers put into the festival to make sure it was an accessible event.
Midsumma Carnival has something for everybody and is designed with the varied needs of a diverse community in mind. Here are some of the inclusive steps we noticed.
Wheelchair Accessibility
The entire Midsumma Carnival precinct was wheelchair accessible. There were ramps and smooth pathways which were kept clear to maximise accessible routes across the park. Special attention was paid to grass areas which were cut low for wheelchair access through parklands, and low-hanging tree branches trimmed. Most of the food trucks were positioned on hard surfaces as well for easy access.
There were designated viewing areas close to the front of each stage for people with varying requirements and wheelchair-accessible and gender-neutral portable toilets across the carnival, which is not always the case at events and festivals.
Image: An Auslan interpreter and two speakers are on stage at Midsumma 2024.
Auslan Interpreters
The Main Stage and Picnic Stage had Auslan interpreters. This included the very popular Dog Show!
The Families Area also had Auslan interpreters and Liz Reed, Deaf artist from Naarm, shared Auslan Storytimes and there were also several short Auslan classes for festival goers throughout the day
Interpreters were available throughout the Stallholders Precinct for the Deaf community who wanted to communicate with stallholders and Caroline Bowditch, CEO of Arts Acess Victoria, was giving out special Gold VIP passes to the Deaf or disabled LGBTQIA+ community.
Image: Caroline Bowditch is sitting in a wheelchair under a tree. To her right is a person dressed in drag.
Midsumma also put out an Auslan video of the Midsumma Festival 2024 program ahead of the day.
Audio Description
Describer guides were on site to provide personal audio descriptions and guiding services to blind and low-vision communities.
It was a fantastic day and a great example of inclusion in practice!
Image: Midsumma 2024 crowd with a blow up rainbow and trees in the background.
