The Best Things to Do at Sydney Mardi Gras 2016
The parade is just the cherry on top.
The Best Things to Do at Sydney Mardi Gras 2016
The parade is just the cherry on top.
A celestial choir of sequin-bedecked seraphim appear, flanked by burly androgynous bikers, singing in unison.
Mardi Gras comes but once a year,
Now it's here, now it's here,
Bringing lots of joy and cheer,
Tra la la la la
That’s right people Mardi Gras is back for another glorious, glamorous, glittery year! Grab your rainbow flag, finish decorating that float, and start planning your costume because Australia’s largest pride event starts this week. That said, a mere week is not a lot of lead time to prepare for the southern hemisphere’s most fabulous fortnight, so we've taken it upon ourselves to handpick the best things to do at the 38th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
-
9
A Mardi Gras institution Fair Day is the educative, daytime, community-focused, counterpart to the seductive glitz and glamour of The Parade. Come on down and join more than 80,000 people who converge on leafy Victoria Park for a giant LGBTIQ love-in.
There’s always amazing food on offer, a multitude of wares from local community vendors for your perusal, and countless opportunities to engage with Sydney’s vibrant queer community.
Whether you’re out-and-proud, questioning, or just an ally, there’s something for everyone with educative stalls, stellar entertainment on the mainstage, everyone’s favourite Doggywood pet pageant and even an all-day dance tent. Think of Fair Day as a giant picnic in the park to celebrate all things queer. Now doesn’t that sound nice?
-
8
One of Mardi Gras’ most anticipated theatrical offerings, the Old Fitz Theatre’s production of Samuel D Hunter’s The Whale is an occasionally harrowing, fiercely funny, and ultimately touching tale of a man’s last chance at redemption.
Set deep in Mormon country in Idaho, Charlie, a six-hundred pound (three-hundred kilo) homosexual recluse, hides away in his apartment as he slowly eats himself to death. However, before he gives into gustatory suicide Charlie decides to reconnect with his estranged daughter and the play follows their fraught attempts to reconcile their past. Perhaps not one for the faint of heart this excellent production provides pathos in spades.
-
7
If you’re in the mood to dance why not take your gyrations on a perambulatory tour of Sydney while you’re at it? discoDtours, as the capitalisation of the ‘D’ might suggest, transform the streets of Sydney into your very own dancefloor.
Running tours during Fair Day, and through The Rocks and Surry Hills, discoDtours will provide you with your own headphones, some Hawaiian leis for good measure, and then, after a brief warm up, you will be unleashed on the unsuspecting city. The Mardi Gras Parade eve dress up drag queen tour sounds like a particular highlight.
-
6
While not an official Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras event it is no coincidence that camp icon Sophie Ellis Bextor will be performing a one-off headline show at Max Watt’s smackbang in the middle of gay Christmas. Read my lips: there will be murder on the dance floor but you better not kill the groove or else Ellis Bextor is gonna burn this goddamn house right down.
Now that her 2001 classic is playing in your head, let’s take a moment to consider if any other early-2000s song provided more potential for shimmying, sashaying, and general booty shaking than this? The answer: absolutely not. So we know, we know, we know, that there may be other events that you want to go to but don’t miss this and, most importantly, do not kill the groove.
-
5
Two consecutive 12-hour days of parties, lectures, performances, installations, and music from some of Australia’s and the world’s leading queer artists. If that doesn’t sound like an amazing way to spend a weekend then frankly we are no longer for this world.
Presented by perennial creative risk-takers Performance Space and Carriageworks this monumental offering of queer creativity will take place over Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 February. Running from midday to midnight the symposium will feature a highlight performance from legendary producers, DJs, and musicians Stereogamous aka Jonny Seymour and groundbreaking openly-gay electropop pioneer Paul Mac.
-
4
Continuing on a cultural bent, the Mardi Gras Film Festival presented by Queer Screen is back for its twenty-third year. One of the most exciting events on Sydney’s staid cinematic calendar this year’s film festival will feature 75 screenings across five venues, including a festival first outdoor screening on the harbour.
One of the festival highlights for this year will be a screening of Out to Win on Sunday, February 28, a documentary that follows the lives of aspiring and professional queer athletes. Following the screening a panel of prominent queer Australian athletes including Ian Thorpe, Matthew Mitcham, and Sally Shipard will discuss the challenges facing LGBTIQ equality in sport.
-
3
Mardi Gras isn’t just a month-long party it’s also a brilliant opportunity to showcase some of the most exciting queer cultural work from around the world. Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Olivier Award-winning play The Pride centres on the challenges facing homosexual relationships in the late fifties and the 2000s.
Flitting from 1958, where Oliver and Phillip must hide their love both from society and themselves, to the present day, where anonymous sex and empty style collide with the human heart, Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s production is a poignant and powerful exploration of our turbulent times, our restrictive society, and our troubled past.
-
2
Everyone wants to look their best for Mardi Gras. You’ve been hitting the gym, upping your cardio, and generally sculpting, toning, and tightening your little tushy off in preparation for being the hottest, buffest, most fabulous person on the Mardi Gras Party dance floor.
Want to put all that hard work to a philanthropic use while you’re at it? Why not take part in the annual Little Black Dress Run? Organised by Sydney Frontrunners the charity run raises much needed money for twenty10 to provide support to LGBTIQ youth and their families. Looking good and feeling good? Too good.
-
1
The Parade and Mardi Gras are synonymous: it’s impossible to imagine one without the other. The historic centrepiece, the jewel in the sparkly tiara, the very raison d’être of the festival is an important, entertaining, and uplifting celebration of all things LGBTIQ. Hundreds of beautiful floats, themselves testaments to the immense creative talents of the queer community, drawn from all walks of life glide down Oxford Street to the thunderous adulation of tens of thousands of revellers.
Unfortunately entries for this cavalcade of queerness have now closed however you can still get down and share the love. A word to the wise though, unless you’ve bought tickets to one of the many Parade events held by pubs and clubs with a view of the route or you know a friend with a balcony overlooking Oxford Street, get there early as spots will go fast.
- The 14 Best Hotels In Melbourne
- Ten of the Best Airbnb Stays You Can Book Around Australia
- The Best Indian Restaurants in Sydney
- Sixteen of the Best Private Accommodations You Can Book in Regional Victoria
- Fifteen of the Best Places to Stay in the Blue Mountains
- The Most Idyllic Island Accommodations You Can Book in Queensland