A Heap of Sydney Venues and Oxford Street Events Are Being Immortalised in a Sydney WorldPride Mural
Artist Amy Blue calls the colourful mural the "GAY-B-C" of Oxford Street.
In the lead up to Sydney WorldPride 2023, the City of Sydney has commissioned artist Amy Blue to create a bright and colourful mural celebrating the history of Oxford Street and Sydney's LGBTQIA+ community. Current and former sites of queer joy and acts of resistance like Q Bar, The Unicorn Hotel, Universal and Exiles Bookshop will all feature on the mural alongside a range of figures and iconography tied to the history of the community across Sydney.
"I wanted this collection of illustrations to capture a snippet of some of the people and events that have illuminated Oxford Street throughout its brilliant and colourful history. It's an illustrative representation capturing the 'A-Z of Oxford Street', a sort of 'GAY-B-C' if you like," said Blue.
"As a community, we've experienced moments that call for triumph and celebration, but we have also faced some extremely challenging moments of adversity. This collection is a nod to some of the defining moments in that history."
The Oxford Street mural will be present throughout WorldPride, an event which City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has billed as "the largest event in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics".
"The City is committed to making sure Oxford Street is as attractive as possible and operating at its maximum potential through this important event," says Moore.
"In 2019 we secured a significant redevelopment of City-owned Oxford Street properties, which will help ensure the strip's long-term success. That work is well underway, so to beautify the strip in the short-term we're turning construction hoardings into a massive canvas with which to tell the incredibly diverse and colourful story of Oxford Street's rainbow community."
Accompanying the mural will be a range of changes to Oxford Street, assisted by $1.7 million in funding that the City of Sydney is allocating towards its development. Vacant shopfronts will be activated, pride-themed lighting will be installed at the Taylor Square fountain, the longstanding rainbow crossing is being refreshed and a host of aesthetic changes will be made across the already rainbow-filled thoroughfare.
Sydney WorldPride 2023 will also feature a massive program of over 300 different events headlined by the return of the Mardi Gras parade to Oxford Street, an opening concert featuring Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX, and a monumental pride march with 50,000-plus people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. German pop sensation Kim Petras has also just been added to the Rainbow Republic closing concert, performing alongside the likes of MUNA, G Flip, Keiynan Lonsdale and Peach PRC.
Sydney WorldPride will run from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, 2023. For more information on the mural, head to the City of Sydney's website — and to view the full program of events, head to the WorldPride website.
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