40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

The 40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade and after-party were held on 3 March. Considering the milestone – and that it’s a good excuse to visit Sydney and party with friends and ‘family’ – my husband and I flew across the country to attend.

The last time we went to Mardi Gras was 12 years ago, soon after we first started going out, and to our discredit, we didn’t attend the parade. We were even going to give the after-party a miss, but thankfully common sense took hold and we went. (Best night ever!)

This time, in 2018, we were there with a group of friends from Perth and Melbourne, which made the experience extremely fun but also verging on difficult when trying to coordinate a group. Herding cats springs to mind.

As well as ourselves, it seemed like nearly every gay from Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane etc was in Sydney for the event. It’s probably not that far from the truth considering an estimated 300,000 attended the parade and (I think) 15,000 went to the after-party (yes, the one Cher performed at).

The Mardi Gras celebrations go for more than a weekend but the big focus is always on the parade and after-party (and a few of the side events). Really, there’s so much going on that it’s impossible to do everything (though I know a few people who try and I’m always surprised they survive). For us though, probably because we’re old, or we hate crowds, we were fairly limited in what we got up to.

The Parade

Unlike that first time we went, this year we watched the parade on Oxford St. Now, if you’re ever going to go, unless you’re willing to get there at 4pm for a 7pm start, you should just buy one of the $10 plastic stools that suddenly appear for sale on the side of the street. It was only because of buying one that we were able to see anything.

Two of the big highlights this year were the group representing the marriage equality law change – with Dean Smith, Penny Wong and Richard di Natale in attendance. The other was the bus of 78ers, with 200 members of the original Mardi Gras parade attendees. The changes that these people must have seen over 40 years just staggers me, and today to finally see equality (at least enshrined in law) as the rule of the land blows me away, but what it must be like for them…

We watched a good portion of the parade as it made its glitzy and cacophonous way down Oxford St and Flinders St. Politicians, local organisations, corporations were all in on the gig, with a record-breaking 200 floats this year. Friends of ours took part in routines, while wearing next to nothing, as they marched along between hordes of cheering people.

The only real downside that we saw is that Australians just don’t know how to street drink without ending up being vile arseholes. Not that street drinking is even legal in Australia but there was a good lot of half- (and fully) cut people staggering around knocking into people. And don’t even get me started on the mess at the end of it!

The After-Party

Yes, this is the one Cher came to and sang three songs for. No, we didn’t see her. The thing with this is that Cher was performing in one pavilion (there were about five) and to get in to see her, you pretty much had to be lining up from 9pm to get in. And once you were in, you were in. If you left, that was it. You weren’t getting back.

When we arrived at 12:30am, the queue outside this pavilion was stagnant which meant inside was already full. Instead we went elsewhere. I’m fortunate enough that I’ve seen Cher in concert twice – once from about two metres in front of her – so I didn’t feel like I’d missed out. A couple of our friends braved the crowd to try to see her on the two screens elsewhere in the venue but it was a mess. I was glad to stay where we were – which ended up having the best music and the best air conditioning of the night.

We danced until 3, bumping into friends (including a guy who works for my publisher!), and unlike the thousands of other people in attendance, decided to call it an ‘early night’. We left as a group, wandering the almost deserted streets to stumble into our beds and sleep.

Final Thoughts

The party vibe was great in Sydney – even if it sometimes verged on the manic and aggressive. So many parties to choose from, so many people to see. The only way we really survived was to be definite about what we did and didn’t want to do. And drinking for four days wasn’t really my idea of fun.

But what we did get up to was definitely worth it – especially thanks to the company we had.

There were few negatives.

Apart from the parade and party problems, the mildly disappointing thing was the presence of a skywriter on the afternoon of the parade who wrote ‘Jesus saves’ above our heads. They couldn’t get it out fast enough so a good part of it had already blown away by the time they were finished. And while it’s disappointing, it also struck me as sad and pathetic, a last gasp of an argument that most of the country has moved on from. I thought that, as supposed Christians, they could have found better ways to spend their money, but apparently not.

The plusses outweighed all this.

We were there with friends, we were there without fear (even if the terrorism alert story did unsettle a few of us) and we were there to have a good time. Glen and I freely walked down the street holding hands and it felt safe, ordinary, as it should. (Less certain was me walking through Chinatown in a kilt that looked more like a netball skirt but in many ways that felt pretty freeing as well.)

So really, Mardi Gras in 2018 was a great celebration, a cleansing act after the past year’s struggle for marriage equality, and if you ever get the chance, you should go and see how it’s down Down Under.