Events: Community

Happy Mardi Gras! The Rainbow Flag Raising Ceremony hosted by Lord Mayor Clover Moore at Sydney Town Hall is the first official welcoming event of the Festival each year.

The rainbow flag originated in San Francisco in 1978 and was designed by artist Gilbert Baker for the Californian city's Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Since then it has become a worldwide emblem of pride and LGBTQI+ friendly areas. The red in the flag symbolises life, while orange signifies healing, yellow is for sunlight, green represents nature, blue stands for harmony and violet signifies spirit.

City of Sydney is proud to show support for its many LGBTQI+ residents, workers and visitors. As a government partner of Sydney's Mardi Gras Festival, the City will fly the rainbow flag above Sydney Town Hall throughout the 2020 Festival from Friday 14 February until Sunday 1 March.

Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson: Step into Paradise is the first in-depth survey that captures the dynamic energy of Linda and Jenny’s creative partnership. The exhibition draws on more than four decades of one of the most influential pairings in the history of Australian fashion, examining the influences, inspirations and compelling stories behind their work.

Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson transformed the nation’s fashion and cultural heritage with their pioneering style inspired by Australia’s cultural and natural landscape, melded with global influences. Join us at the Powerhouse Museum this summer to experience the exhibition and contribute to the communal intergenerational making of their Mardi Gras float, celebrating the spirit of their social and environmental advocacy through brilliant colours, bold shapes and iconic motifs.

Working in collaboration with Creative Director Hugh O’Connor, Jenny and Linda’s float will make its debut in the 2020 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. With artist workshops by Justin Shoulder, Rosie Deacon and Doodad and Fandango, a talks series curated by Dr Sally Gray and curator tours by Glynis Jones, the Powerhouse Museum’s Summer Program is not to be missed!

A very special event with the Sisters escorting our guests to the Zoo.

We will share recipes and cooking details (from the 19th Century) of Australian animals, and may read poems to some of the inmates (who never seem to take heed). We will be accompanied by Zoo Volunteers who will talk in depth about some of the Australian animals that we will see. A wonderful opportunity to see a little of Sydney Harbour, and visit a truly wonderful Zoo.

Ferry departs at 9.20 am (Ferries don't wait) Wear block out, a hat, and wear sensible shoes.

Bring money for ferry, entry, and possibly having lunch at the Zoo.

An annual History Walk with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, led by eminent historian and author, Cardinal Robert French.

This year's Walk will focus on the Colony of Sydney - and its Gay history - in the heart of the city. A very special Walk to mark the 30th annual walk undertaken by the Sisters and Robert French together with other historians over the past 30 years.

Do wear comfortable shoes. Duration of walk is approximately two hours.

OutStanding Short Story Competition presents … The Launch of MINIATURE (for micro-stories of 50 words or less) A special event for the Mardi Gras season! Great prizes! And a fun get-together for Sydney’s Queer Lit community!

Enter the raucous, radical and wildly funny world of Queerstories and listen to an unexpected tale or two from some of Australia’s finest LGBTQI+ storytellers. Fast becoming an institution around the country, Queerstories returns to Riverside Theatres, Parramatta for the third year running. Join host Maeve Marsden and an eclectic line up of stars and strangers for an evening of our city’s queerstories, unexpected tales of lives well lived and battles fought, pride, prejudice, love and humour. The LGBTQI+ community has been sharing stories for centuries, creating our own histories, disrupting and reinventing conventional ideas about narrative, family and community.

In its usual home in Redfern, Queerstories has been selling out every month for more than three years, bringing storytellers from all walks of life to the stage. Funny, moving, surprising and engaging, the stories from Queerstories are also available on the award-winning podcast and in a collection of stories published by Hachette in 2018. This event is Auslan interpreted.

Celebrate the 'joie de vivre' of house/ballroom culture Mardi Gras style at an inclusive electronic dance music community event featuring awesome DJ’s, live VJ’ing and dance artists working with real-time technology and inter-active videoart. Immerse yourself in the 'pop-up performance spaces' with a live vocal performance and #thestylecollaborative's stellar show cast.

@thestylecollaborative is a multi-disciplinary boutique production house developing innovative artistic work and content through diverse stage settings, performative contexts and the corporeal body.

In 1998 Matthew Shepard, a first-year college student in Wyoming, was kidnapped, beaten and left to die. This brutal anti-gay hate crime inspired anguish and outrage. Nearly 20 years later it inspired composer Craig Hella Johnson to contemplate suffering, death and the flame of love and led him on a challenging creative journey. “In composing Considering Matthew Shepard,” he says, “I wanted to create, within a musical framework, a space for reflection, consideration and unity around his life and legacy.” The result is a fusion-oratorio, stylistically eclectic music that moves between Lutheran hymnody, chant, blues, cowboy songs and Broadway as it captures the fullness of Matthew’s life and the legacy of his death. In the background are the Passion settings of JS Bach – offering musical comfort as their listeners reflect on a story of intense suffering. And Considering Matthew Shepard begins with Bach: the serene sounds of the first prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier (the music that underpins Gounod’s Ave Maria). Considering Matthew Shepard will be performed by Sydney Philharmonia VOX choir – some of its members the same age as Matthew himself when he died – in a presentation that reverberates with hope and serenity.

Grab your mates, family and dog and come along to a new food, culture and community day-festival. Enjoy summer vibes with delicious picnic offerings, specially curated by local institutions, pubs and cafes.

Use the PICNIC Surry Hills map to find everything from fresh summer snacks, delicious desserts and hearty lunches from any of the participating food outlets in Surry Hills. Pick up your preferred menu option, take it away in provided eco-friendly packs and enjoy any of the new neighbourhood pocket parks and spaces, as well as old favourite spots like Shannon, Ward and Harmony Parks.

Blankets, deck chairs and beanbags will be available at parks as well as entertainment, artists and DJs.

The FABalice Festival is a three day rainbow celebration in the beating heart of Australia, Alice Springs, for Kings, Queens and everything in-between. 6-8 March 2020, the weekend after Mardi Gras, extend your LGBTQI celebrations across the country and head to outback Northern Territory.

The festival pays homage to the iconic Australian film, 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', which was filmed in Alice Springs over 25 years ago. However Alice Springs is not the community portrayed in the film, we are a diverse and accepting community. Bucking the sterotype of an outback Northern Territory town, Alice Springs has one of the highest proportions of lesbian couples in the country, and same-sex couples represent about one in 100 of all co-habiting couples in town. The celebrations include a Drag Crawl, Paint the Town, Festival Pageant, Drag Racing, ExDRAGvaganza, Pool Party and an Outdoor Cinema with shows set amongst the glittering landscape of Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a melting pot of diversity and multiculturalism and the proud home of the FABalice Festival.

For more information and to grab your tickets, head over to www.fabalice.com. It won't be a drag!

FRIDAY 6 March 2020:
DRAG CRAWL featuring comedy and cabaret across a few venues including the famous Lasseters Casino where the movie Priscilla was filmed $55pp or Rainbow Wristband

SATURDAY 7 March 2020:
PAINT THE TOWN - This is where we colour the Todd Mall in a fabulous rainbow Free Community event
FESTIVAL PAGEANT - Camp and glittering colour featuring our performers alongside the community of Alice Springs Free Community Event
DRAG RACING - These are hilarious running races, dressed in drag, for the entire community Free Community Event
EX-DRAG-VAGANZA - an outdoor party at an outback quarry, layered with drag performances and DJs $65pp or Rainbow Wristband
THROB ON TODD - The iconic NT Nightclub features in Alice Springs as part of the FABalice Festival $10-$20 or Rainbow Wristband

SUNDAY 8 March 2020:
POOL PARTY - Time to de-wig and cool down Free Community Event
OUTDOOR CINEMA - Featuring a screening of 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' alongside healding act drag performances (Free Community Event)
RAINBOW WRISTBAND - all access pass to the FABalice Festival celebrations - $99pp

You won’t find a radio edit here - you’re gonna get the full 12” remix. Harbour City Bears is a not-for-profit community group that caters to large, hairy gay men, their friends and admirers. This year for their festival Bear Essentials, they are serving a mix tape of party tracks such as Wet Furr and the largest event on the HCB calendar Underbear, old favourites like our regular nights at Kinselas and afternoons at The Bank, intermingled with a few easy listening social events when the music gets too loud.

There's bound to be an event that you will like in this set list - so come along, bears and admirers, and socialise and party with the bears this Mardi Gras!

Sydney's most prestigious Blak drags and drag kings return for your beloved performance event Blak Nulla.

This year will see the return of all your favourites in one venue, featuring local elder Nana Miss Koori, Darwin celebrity Miss Ellaneous, radio personality Felicia Fox, Drag Kings Bran Nu Boi and Bedazzled Shanks – the prince of Redfern, Nova Gina, plus many more! Kick on afterwards in the Mardi Gras festival lounge.

Exploring WHAT MATTERS during the weeklong writing intensive at Carriageworks, five emerging LGBTQI+ blak artists will present their newly-developed works as public readings at Seymour Centre.

Come along and explore in a safe place your hidden Drag King or Queen. A one-day workshop for community members to come along and dress up and find your drag persona. Choose from a variety of donated glamorous outfits, participate in a makeup workshop, and select your song to perform.

From romance to comedies, documentaries to dramas, and everything in between, Queer Screen delivers a huge 27th Mardi Gras Film Festival with an exciting array of diverse films that showcase the LGBTQI+ experience.

The 2020 festival will feature a raft of Australian and Sydney premieres from all corners of the globe. Highlights include Lizzie, a psychological thriller based on the infamous 1892 murders of the Borden family starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart. Dreamy Henry Golding from Crazy Rich Asians stars in Monsoon as a gay man who heads to Saigon, in a film that questions how family ties, culture and sexuality make us who we are. A massive hit in France, The Shiny Shrimps is a feelgood comedy based on the true story of a flamboyant amateur water-polo team striving to qualify for the Gay Games in Croatia. Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh narrate Sid & Judy, an amazing documentary about the talent and tragedy of gay icon Judy Garland. Unsound is a unique, Australian movie that explores the connection between Noah, a guitarist, and Finn, a deaf transman.

The teaser films listed above are on sale now ahead of the launch of the full festival program on January 8.