It’s the seventh year for Oxtravaganza, the fabulous takeover of Oxford Street during Mardi Gras, and the Darlinghurst Business Partnership is planning a bigger celebration than ever for Sydney WorldPride 2023.
The two-week fringe festival, operating in and around Darlo and Surry Hills, returns with events including an Art Walk, Big Drag Brunch, Late Night Shopping, the Kids Zone, Drag Storytelling, viewing parties, lots of fabulous performances, and a whole lot more.
A big feature of Oxtravaganza is Pride Villages. For ten days from February 24, parts of Crown and Riley Street will be closed to traffic, becoming home to stalls, performances and dining – helpful places to regroup in between WorldPride events. On weekends, Crown Street will have a stage with nightly shows. Closing out the second-last night of the festival, Eurovision star Conchita Wurst is doing a FREE performance on the Booking.com Stage at Pride Villages Crown Street (Sat Mar 4, 6pm). The precinct will be pumping throughout the whole final weekend of WordPride (Sat Mar 4 from noon-1am, and Sun Mar 5 from 10am-10pm) featuring performances from the likes of Brendan Maclean, Alex Lahey, Carla from Bankstown, Imbi, Haiku Hands, and many more. Get all the details and find a festival map here.
Darlo’s Big Drag Brunch (Sat Mar 4) will have the queens of Sydney Drag Royalty holding court over bottomless Drag Brunches at over a dozen venues – find out more and book here. The Family Zone is happening that same day at the East Sydney Community and Arts Centre with Drag Queen Story Time, face painting, art activities, balloons, colouring games, free fairy floss and goodie bags for the kids.
Art exhibitions include The Party at UNSW Galleries (tracking the evolution of LGBTQIA+ nightlife and party culture in Sydney from 1973 to 2002); Doris Fish: Queen of Queens at the State Library; and Life in Colour at Sketch Co Gallery, as well as an extensive program at the National Art School.
What’s certain is that the traditional centre for queer culture in Sydney will come alive like never before. It’s time to show the world what Oxford Street is all about – and you’d be bonkers to miss it.