Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations are set to be supersized when Sydney WorldPride plants its flagpole in the Emerald City in 2023, with the two festivals combining into one big great 17-day LGBTQIA+ extravaganza. Organisers have now revealed key festival dates and a new look alongside the festival theme – Gather Dream Amplify.
After 23 years of being hosted exclusively by Northern Hemisphere cities, in 2019 it was confirmed that the largest Pride celebration in the world would be headed to Sydney for the first time. The festival will span from February 17 to March 5, 2023, and it will be one of the largest global events in NSW since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Some of the landmark events in the WorldPride pipeline are the Opening and Closing Ceremonies (currently slated to take place in the Domain with over 25,000 attendees), a First Nations Gala Concert, a world-class Human Rights Conference, and a closing party at Bondi Beach with over 10,000 partygoers. There will also be a Pride March across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with over 50,000 participants – the largest pride march to ever be held in Australia. Local and international headline artists are promised for all events.
You can also expect all the usual Mardi Gras Festival events to be held throughout the overall WorldPride program, including Fair Day, the iconic parade and the last night afterparty.
Sydney WorldPride’s new logo and festival artwork was directed by First Nations artist Jessica Johnson, also known as Nungala Creative. “Creation of the new logo and artworks for Sydney WorldPride was inspired by my belonging to a big, multigenerational queer First Nations community and our extended family. We embody intersectionality and I wanted the design to express that through the vibrancy, colours and textures,” said Johnson.
“Each and every aspect reflects a sense of movement like light and shadows cast through nature, the trees and water. The tactile, hands-on, textural aesthetic is a nod to the nostalgic tools of our predecessors and an era of people power and protest definitive in our existence today. The electric colour palette draws from the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree and all the wondrous magic our country has on offer.”