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Mardi Gras 2025

Rita Bratovich

Updated: Jan 30

Sydney, get ready…Mardi Gras is coming to town!


If you’re starting to hear a buzz in the air, it’s likely the sound of sewing machines being gunned as frantic parade entrants and party-goers begin working on their costumes. With only a handful of weeks until February, feathers, sequins, leather and lace are being transformed into wearable works of art.


Mardi Gras Parade 2025

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a  celebration of pride for this city’s LGBTQI+ community, with a two-week long cultural festival culminating in the world-famous Mardi Gras Parade. In 2025, Mardi Gras will mark its 47th year. It’s a remarkable fete considering the very first event, in 1978, was a small protest march that ended in violence and arrests.

Male homosexuality was still a criminal offence that first year. So was sex work. Anything that deviated from conservative, heterosexual norms was considered intolerable. That didn’t stop a group of brave, queer advocates taking to the streets of Kings Cross to reclaim their freedom of expression. 


This year’s Mardi Gras theme is Free To Be, a tenet that echoes the chants of those 1978 protestors. Yet, almost 50 years on, there are still many in our community who are not free to be. That’s why Mardi Gras is so important; it gives visibility and voice to those people who are struggling to be seen and heard.   


Mardi Gras 2025 Fair Day Sydney

What makes Mardi Gras special is that it delivers its politics in an explosion of colour and glitter — and everyone is invited to join in the festivities. 


The 2025 Mardi Gras festival kicks off with the return of Fair Day in Victoria Park. This iconic and much-loved event was sadly cancelled last year due to asbestos in the park. Fair Day is second only to the Parade in terms of bringing members of the queer community together for a day of free expression and celebration. 


Then follows just over two weeks of music, theatre, comedy, art, sport, community, shopping and partying. The festival program is a mix of paid and free events, offering everything from family-friendly to pearl-clutchingly decadent.


Queer Art After Hours Mardi gras 2025

Oxford Street has always been the hub of the Mardi Gras festival and, of course, it makes up a significant part of the now heritage-listed parade route. It has undergone a lot of change during the past year and is still in a state of flux, with major developments across several blocks. But it remains the heart and home of Mardi Gras, happily hosting up to half a million spectators over 100 floats each year on a night like no other. 


Mardi Gras is for LGBTQI+ people, allies, and for those who believe everyone should be free to be


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