Adelaide Fringe — LGBTQ+ Programming

Adelaide Fringe is not a queer festival. It is a huge open-access arts festival that runs for about a month every February and March, and anyone who registers a show and a venue can take part. The queer part is a slice of that program: drag, cabaret, LGBTQIA+ comedy line-ups and club nights scattered across hundreds of venues in the city and suburbs.

Finding that slice takes a little work. The Fringe's own site lets you search event tags such as "Queer" and "LGBTQIA+", which is the fastest route in. Recent examples include After Dark: Queers, Femmes and Thems, a comedy, cabaret and drag-king-and-queen showcase in 2025, and Queer Club's Fringe Edition, which took over the Ancient World venue on the closing weekend of 2026. Popular shows sell out, so book once the program drops. If you want a festival that is queer from start to finish, Adelaide's Feast Festival runs in November.

The 2026 Fringe ran from 20 February to 22 March with 1,648 shows across 562 venues, and the festival-wide ticket count passed a million again. Nobody publishes a separate count for the queer shows. The festival has announced its 2027 run as 19 February to 21 March 2027; individual queer shows are confirmed only when the program is released.