Events: Community

Happy Mardi Gras!

The City of Sydney's 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 woldwide emblem of gay pride and gay-friendly areas. The red on 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 2019 Festival from Friday 15 February until Sunday 3 March.

Queer Screen’s 26th Mardi Gras Film Festival has searched high and low to create a powerful fusion of LGBTIQ+ characters, stories and filmmakers from all over world. The brilliance and the challenges of being queer will be screened from 13 – 28 February in Sydney before touring to Canberra, Parramatta, Lismore, Newcastle and the Blue Mountains in March and April.

The Festival boasts five world premieres, 75 Australian premieres and 15 Sydney premieres, screening 54 feature-length films and 66 short films across 70 sessions in Event Cinemas George Street and venues across Sydney.

Opening with Giant Little Ones from Canada in its Australian premiere. A coming-of-age film featuring Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello, it explores how 17-year-old Franky begins to question his sexuality after an incident at his birthday party. This touching drama looks at the pressure to pick a label when maybe you don’t need one.

Rafiki will close the Festival. A bold and powerful story about young lesbian love in a conservative society in Nairobi, it was the first Kenyan film selected for Cannes and was initially banned in its home country where homosexuality is still illegal.

Other highlights include, the Felix Maritaud double header in coming of age thriller Boys and the film that shocked Cannes, Sauvage, a Focus on Latin America including the World Premiere Gala screening of The Blonde One, a slow burn sexy drama from Argentina, the Australian Premiere of the much anticipated bio-pic Mapplethorpe, a nod to old Hollywood with Making Montgomery Clift and Scotty & the Secret History of Hollywood, important documentary from Tonga, Leitis in Waiting, romantic drama Snapshots and the Molly Shannon lead comedy Wild Night Nights with Emily.

2 fabulous parties, 1 ticket! This Mardi Gras do not miss Lansdowne’s special edition of SATURgAY and ALL SORTS all in one! Hosted by the hilarious duo Miss Ellaneous & Marzi Panne from Party Passport! SATURgAY downstairs - Disco, fabulous, hands in the air good times!

ALL SORTS Blackout upstairs – Drop it like it’s hot with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+ mob, Brotha Boys, Sista Girls and their supporters! ALL SORTS is the best blackfella event this side of the lolly jar! Special shows from Divas, Miss First Nation finalists and much, much more!

This special Friday evening event is a dynamic combination of live beats, social artmaking and entertainment in the beautiful Australian Botanic Garden.

Join the fabulous Motel Sisters for an evening full of art, music and Nudes in Nature!

At the garden pARTy, we will have several nude model posing in front of the beautiful background of The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan. The interested artists can sketch and draw under the guidance of the two fabulous Motel Sisters.

Not into drawing : no problem – come and experience the great vibes of our DJ, have a drink, and watch the art in process

Join the fabulous Motel Sisters and learn how to best capture the human form in Australia’s beautiful flora.

Grab your sketch pad and be guided by those two amazing artists and entertainers. They will help you find your inner artist.

Or join us for a glass of wine, listen to DJ Shorty’s vibes and watch the creative process of the life-drawing class unfold.

Participants will expand their drawing skills and enjoy using a variety of materials to capture the human figure amongst the blooming flowers and a truly ‘au naturel’ setting.

Please note: We will be working with nude models from 7pm.

ARTIST BIO: The Motel Sisters (Paris and Tacky Motel) are a glamorous artist duo from Western Sydney. Starting out as ‘art scene anti-socialites’ and daytime television show-crashers, their work engages with Australian society, pop/internet/celebrity culture and the contemporary art world. Most recently, Paris and Tacky undertook a project entitled Motel Sisters in Care, an artist residency at Abel Tasman Village in Chester Hill NSW, creating daily performative interventions for retired residents and the Village staff (such as glow-up day spas, art parties, sensory activities, chair aerobics and much more).

This public dialogue provides a rare opportunity to illustrate how HIV social and behavioural research has been part and parcel of a visible transformation of local gay Asian men, their network formation and community building over the past two decades.

Associate Professor Limin Mao, from the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) at UNSW Sydney, will give the third annual CSRH Sex Lecture, reflecting on her research in this area, alongside shifting approaches towards engaging and collaborating with ethnic minorities that are often marginalised. Supported by Darlinghurst Theatre Company.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Join us on February 27th as we celezbrate Mardi Gras week in true rainbow fashion, at the iconic SLYFOX in Enmore. 9PM DOORS • PRIZES FOR BEST DRESSED • FREE ENTRY

See the event on Facebook here

It’s high tide this Pride with Rule 34 Club’s WET SPOT.

Heeyyy sailors! Calling all nauti buoys and gay gulls, kinky crabs, mer-creatures, sea-men, harbour homos, sexy starfishes and all other queer seafarers who like to get wet.

Join 300 queers for an evening of dirty dancing, perverted performances and more sea-prises aboard the WET SPOT – a spacious 84 ft catamaran – as we mince our way across the Sydney Harbour to the beats of DJ Maxxxy T and DJ Betts.

All aboard! Camp costumes serving maritime realness highly encouraged! Seas the gay at WET SPOT this Sydney Mardi Gras!

All genders and sexualities welcome!

Sponsored by Here's Looking at you, Kid!

Strictly limited tickets available here

Any trip to Australia wouldn’t be complete without seeing Sydney Harbour, and this tour covers every possible vantage point, in one day!

This ultimate day tour will take you up, over, across and around the harbour, in a variety of ways. The day starts with an escorted journey with the highly sought after Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb. After you have soared your way to the summit and been thrilled by the heights of one of the most spectacular climbs in the world, we head back down to earth for your harbourside lunch! A walking tour around the central harbour districts, followed by an unforgettable escorted tour inside the Sydney Opera House! Finally, our afternoon gently sails into evening with the exclusive VIP boarding on to the Mardi Gras Sunset Cruise! An evening of fantastic vibes, entertainment and sunset behind the bridge, from the best stage in Sydney, the Harbour! As the cruise comes to an end, this extraordinary day will become one of the stories you tell forever!

Yes! Yes! Nanette! is our response to Australian comedian, Hannah Gadsby's stand-up-and-be-proud performance, "Nanette"; her personal exploration of the reality of sexual violence and homophobia while growing up Lesbian in Tasmania. She reminds the world that we need to demonstrate our support for the LGBTQI+ community, especially our Rainbow Youth.

We want to show our support for Gadsby by saying YES! - an echo of the Same Sex Marriage campaign and a celebration of our LGBTQI+ community.

(Please note: this exhibition is a heartfelt response by Artist, Janice Raynor, to Hannah Gadsby's performance, "Nanette". It is in no way to be construed as part of Hannah's own work.)

Exhibition is on until 5 March and is open Mon - Sat 10am - 5.30pm / Thurs til 7pm.

Celebrate Bear Culture this Mardi Gras at Bear Bar, as Sydney’s small gay bar expands, taking over the ground floor of the Burdekin Hotel at the start of Oxford Street.

For 9 days from February 22nd, Bear Bar’s Mardi Gras line-up showcases the cream of the local and international Bear scene including DJ Corey Craig from NYC, Berlin based performer Rica Shay, Go Go Bears and popular Sydney DJ Hamo. As well as the pub style nights and parties there'll be special events geared to visitors to Sydney, including an Australian wine tasting and a walking tour exploring Sydney’s secret gay history.

Bear Bar will once again be the friendly focal point of the Australian Bear Community during the Mardi Gras celebrations. Festivities also include the Grand Final of Drag Bust on February 24th and wrap up with a massive Mardi Gras Parade Party on March 2nd, overlooking Oxford Street with amazing views of the parade.

Full line up of events here!