Eight Unmissable Events to Add to Your Schedule for Mardi Gras 2024

If you’re looking for more dance parties and more free events to hit up this Mardi Gras, look no further than the Absolut X takeover of the House of Music and Booze. Absolut is taking over the House of Music and Booze with three of Sydney’s most boundary-pushing queer party crews — Heaps Gay, Xaddy’s Door List and Angels Only.

On Friday, February 23, the Heaps Gay: Hot Mess party will transform the space into a hot nightclub with legendary London crew Pxssy Palace and Jessey club superstar Cookie Kawaii on headlining duties. The next night it’s Angels Only’s turn. Billed as ‘Haven‘ this event promises eight hours of joyous dance floors celebrating community, house, techno and vision. Then Sunday will host Xander Khoury, House of Silky founder, and his renowned Xaddy’s Door List party series with Xaddy’s Day 2 Night. Basically, it’ll be a weekend of debaucherous DJ sets and dancing — all for free.

DJ, gonna burn this goddamn beach right down! Although not literally, of course. But 15,000 partygoers will indeed be murdering the dance floor at an iconic coastal spot thanks to a headliner that’s having a helluva moment right now: Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

She’s topping the bill at the massive Bondi Beach Party right as everyone is rediscovering their love for 2001’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ thanks to Saltburn. Ellis-Bextor’s discography of dancefloor-friendly disco will be rolled out at the eastern suburbs rager alongside sets from Slayyyter, Jay Jay Revlon, Lagoon Femshaymer, Corey Craig, Tyoow, Mama de Leche and Beth Yen.

The Burdekin Hotel is throwing a parade viewing party up on its rooftop to make the most of its prized location right by the start of the parade. Tickets aren’t cheap ($295 to be exact), but you’ll get to bypass the crowds below and enjoy a two-hour drinks package of beer, wine and spirits to accompany the killer view. Roaming canapes, DJs, drag performers and free entry to the venue’s multi-level Dirty Disco party are all also included in your ticket.

Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival returns with 161 titles showing both in picture palaces and via nationwide small-screen sessions. The IRL component will cover screens including Ritz Cinemas Randwick, Dendy Newtown, the Bearded Tit, Hayden Orpheum Cremorne, the Sydney Opera House and Westpac OpenAir Cinema.

In-person highlights include a night at the Sydney Opera House dedicated to music from queer flicks, spanning tunes from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Moonlight and Portrait of a Lady on Fire; the Billy Porter- and Luke Evans-starring Our Son about a long-term marriage disintegrating; and the premieres of Australian feature In the Room Where He Waits and Argentina’s Blue Lights.

You’ve been to the parade, you’ve kicked on to Arq, and now it’s Sunday. This is when you ask yourself: is it time to throw in the towel or shall I rally like a champion? Of course, the answer is the latter. That’s where Mardi Gras’ Laneway comes in, taking over The Beresford and the adjoining Hill Street on Sunday, March 3.

A bustling outdoor stage will host a bunch of local favourites on the DJ decks, including Atomic Kiss, Dan Azzo and Charlie Villas, and beloved Brisbane pop group Cub Sport will also be travelling down to Sydney to close out the party with a set of heartfelt dance floor anthems. The party will kick off at 2pm, giving you enough time for a post-parade sleep-in, and will wrap up at 10pm. An appropriate time for a Sunday.

One of the Mardi Gras program’s yearly highlights is Queer Art After Hours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Going down on Wednesday, February 28, the annual extravaganza is keeping the gallery up late with an all-out celebration of Sydney’s LGBTQIA+ community. Best of all, it’s free!

You can catch a hand-voguing workshop with Davina Chor, leather-making and bootblacking stations at the Dyke vignettes activation, and a heap more hands-on fun. There will also be DJ sets and performances popping up across the gallery spaces, tarot readings, a Rainbow Youth Hub hosted by the Youth Collective and Queerleaders, and a charity lap dance auction from Lap Dance For Your Rights.

Image: Anna Hay

Taking over Sydney Town Hall on Saturday, February 24, Sissy Ball will transport you to a dance floor inspired by NYC’s legendary ballroom scenes. Spend the night making shapes to a ‘disco-house-bounce-pop’ soundtrack and watching an epic vogue championship, which will see entrants compete across nine categories.

Godmother of Australian Ballroom, Kilia, is returning this year as curator, with a lineup of beloved ballroom figures coming together to judge, alongside Jack Mizrahi and Jamaica Moana who will be delivering high voltage rapid-fire commentary. In charge of the tunes is MikeQ, a legendary producer and DJ within the ballroom community who was even sampled on Beyonce’s Renaissance, plus Brisbane-based superstar Neesha Alexander.

Two Queers Walk Into a Bar, the project of Brendan Hancock and Jenna Suffern, is back with its biggest edition yet, rolling out the Two Queers Comedy Festival across two weeks for 2024’s Mardi Gras. The packed program of laughs and performances is throwing up a little bit of everything, with new and exciting shows from beloved and fast-rising comedians all popping up at Kinselas Hotel.

Zoe Coombs Marr is hitting the festival with her new set, A Perpetual Work in Progress on Saturday, February 24. Also on the program are Frankie Fearce, Annaliese Constable, Jordan Barr, Ruby Teys, Gaffy, Aaron Manhattan, Foxy Moron and Aurelia St Clair. Plus, Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt’s Jazz or a Bucket of Blood (one of Suffern’s top picks of last year’s Fringe Festival) will return for the festival. Tickets range from $20–50. You can check out the full schedule via Humanitix.

Image: Andy Mullins