2013 will be the 35th Anniversary year of Sydney Mardi Gras, and we celebrate it under the banner ‘Generations of Love’.

35 years marks a generation in time. To think about the generations that came before us, generations who had to fight hard to make the way easier for us today. Think what sacrifices our community has made to allow us to live and love more freely. Think about the possibilities that the generations to come will create, as they strive for a world where we can all be free to love.

35 years ago brave and fabulous pioneers from our community took the fearless move of stepping up and stepping out. Celebratory steps that were met with arrest and prosecutions. Our ’78ers, and the pioneers that came before them, set those first brave footsteps in motion.

With each year there are new footsteps. Footsteps that tell a new story, footsteps that reach beyond the ‘Why’ and revel in the ‘Why Not’. Footsteps that we have all shared together and footsteps still yet to tread.

SGLMG Co-Chair Pete Urmson explained: ‘With the 35th Anniversary this year, this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate and honour our generations, our pioneers, our friends, our matriarchs, our young blood. This is our heritage. This is our family tree. This is what makes us who we are, and who we will become.’

SGLMG Co-Chair Siri Kommedahl added: ‘35 years on it is time to remember where we have been, take pride in how far we have come, look where we are going and to get excited about the paths that lie before us. These are our Generations of Love.’

This year’s season concept and the accompanying creative content were developed by visual artist Lewis Oswald. Lewis explained: ‘The creative draws heavily on the strength, support and inspiration that our future, past and present communities draw from connecting, identifying and celebrating each other. I have deliberately referenced the AIDS quilt as a rich patchwork of our shared Mardi Gras treasures, overlayed with holding hands, which offer a landscape for our future possibilities that we are yet to colour in…’