The 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is set to dazzle screens across Australia for another year on SBS. The special broadcast of the parade will be on Sunday 3March at 8.35pm.
10 News First Perth presenter Narelda Jacobs, comedian Joel Creasey and The Feed’s Patrick Abboud will be joined by comedian Zoë Coombs Marr to host coverage of the event.
Narelda Jacobs says: “It’s a huge privilege to host such an important event. As always, I’m humbled by the courageous attitude of our community, who show the world what resilience and love looks like every day. 41 years of pride and protest is an amazing achievement and certainly something to celebrate. Wishing everyone a very happy Mardi Gras!”
Joel Creasey says: “I am over the moon (or perhaps rainbow) to be hosting the Mardi Gras broadcast again. Last year was an incredibly special celebration of love and acceptance, and this year is a great opportunity to reflect on the fearless, fabulous characters who make our community so wonderful. I am especially excited to be presenting alongside Narelda Jacobs who I have loved and watched read the news in Perth for many years. And for the first time we’ll be joined by the hilarious Zoë Coombs-Marr alongside Mardi Gras regular, the brilliant Patrick Abboud. It’s going to be a truly epic evening!
Founded in 1978, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras remains one of the world’s largest and loved LGBTIQ+ celebrations. This year the festival is themed Fearless, to honour the sense of resilience, activism, protest and celebration that makes up the LGBTIQ+ community and fuels the continued fight for equality.
Zoë Coombs Marr says: “Hosting Mardi Gras this year feels like a triumph in many ways. After face planting in the middle of the parade as a 19 year old, I feel relieved to claw back some of my dignity. I’m also filled with immense pride to be part of the LGBTIQ+ family, and cannot wait to be on Oxford St with them showcasing my exceptionally bad dance moves.”
Patrick Abboud says: “I’m so excited to be hosting for the sixth year! 2018 was a huge milestone, an absolute honor to celebrate the legends that brought us through four decades fighting for freedom. Now we look to the future. I’m doing something really special this year with the new guard of LGBTIQ+ young people working across the country to make their communities more inclusive. These fearless warriors for change will surprise you, move you, and shock you as their stories unfold across the broadcast. It’s a new format that I can’t wait to reveal.”
The television broadcast will feature the most fabulous floats and costumes in the parade, interviews with celebrities and special guests. Patrick Abboudwill also present another very special series of untold stories that will be shown throughout broadcast.
SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald says: “It’s an honour and a pleasure to be broadcasting the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade again. Every year, the festival is a wonderful celebration of diversity, inclusion and acceptance. SBS is committed to upholding these values across all of our programming, and proud to bring this joyous event to our audience.”
A live stream of the parade will be available on SBS On Demand and the SBS Twitter account on Saturday 2 March. SBS Arabic 24 will report live from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to Arabic-speaking audiences around Australia.
SBS celebrates Mardi Gras across the network:
SBS VICELAND is celebrating Mardi Gras throughout the month of February with a Rainbow Pride movie collection, airing every Sunday includingSeventeen, A Moment In The Reeds and Hard Paint.
From Friday 15February, SBS On Demand will host a Rainbow Pride movie collection, including BPM, Beach Rats and 3 Generations starring Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. SBS On Demand will also show Thinking Queer, a special collection of documentaries curated by Queer Screen including The Last Goldfish and Rebels On Pointe.
From Sunday 24 February NITV will have a stellar line-up of programming for Mardi Gras which will celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community and explore this year’s theme Fearless. Appointment viewing will include TV series Shade: Queens of NYC and feature documentary Leitis in Waiting, the story of Tonga’s evolving approach to gender fluidity and the group of South Pacific transgender women battling with religious fundamentalism and intolerance.
Coverage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is produced by Blink TV for SBS.
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