For its sophomore year, Qtopia’s Pride Fest is hosting more than 150 events across the city of Sydney in a month-long celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. From drag and cabaret to exhibitions and workshops, Pride Fest 2025 is championing the best and brightest in queer arts, culture and entertainment.
In anticipation for the jam-packed June, Not Safe For Queers speaks with performer Jens Radda (AKA Skank Sinatra) about headlining Pride Fest, what to expect at a Skank Sinatra show, and what this monumental festival means to the performers involved.
A self-described “jazzy cabaret queen”, Jens Radda is gracing audiences this year with two separate shows: her award-winning one hour, one woman show, Skank Sinatra, and her intoxicating late-night, adults only variety show, Skank Sinatra’s Dirty Martini.
“I’m doing two shows: Skank Sinatra, the one-hour, quick-witted, bang, bang, bang story of immigration, travelling around the world, and dating a fellow drag queen—all mashed together with reimagined Sinatra songs,” Radda tells Not Safe For Queers.
“It’s a story of immigration. It’s a story of queer acceptance. It’s a story of doing things ones own way. A lot of it will make you fall off your seat with laughter, and some of it will just make you smile and tap your toes so much that your ankles will bleed.”
Their second show, Skank Sinatra’s Dirty Martini, “is my late night show where I have some naughty guests who reveal their cocktail confessions across some delicious variety performances,” they tease. “From burlesque to comedy to more drag to dance to singing to cabaret, it’s just a celebration of art and a very, very cheeky and feel good hour of variety.”
These performances, however, are more than just a sing and dance. Hosted by Qtopia, the 150 events that span the month of June are both a poignant reminder of the queers who came before us, and a renewed effort to breathe life into Sydney’s volatile queer scene.
“Its an absolute honour to be headlining for Qtopia,” they begin. “This is a very cool place. It’s so important. It’s a real amazing balance between cultural history, queer survival, and queer renaissance. It celebrates campery (with its Kylie exhibition), but also some of our more painful history, and the connection to our 78ers.”
“And with their Pride Fest, Qtopia are giving a platform to people who maybe haven’t been able to present their own work to a wider audience. They’re bringing in a much wider audience from around town who wouldn’t necessarily come see a drag show at midnight on Oxford Street, but who might come see a drag show at 4pm on a Sunday. And that’s why I love festivals,” they explain.
Moreover, for Radda, Pride Fest 2025 provides the perfect opportunity to support their fellow artists, with the following four at the very top of their hit list: “Gogo Bumhole’s Gogo Bumtime, they’re an incredible drag artists from Sydney and they’re just doing one night; Jacqui Randa, an absolute icon who lives in a very similar world to me (a piano playing cabaret artiste); icons from Melboune, Mel & Sam’s Platonic Human Centipede; and finally A Friend of Dorothy who are great friends of mine and fantastic performers.”
Qtopia’s Pride Fest runs throughout the month of June at various locations in Sydney. Tickets on sale now. More information at Qtopia Sydney.