Mardi Gras

The Mardi Gras celebration takes place over two weeks with the culmination of the great Mardi Gras parade. Although the event is catered and celebrated for the liberation of Gays and Lesbians, tons of people partake in the festivities.

The first party of the Mardi Gras celebration was the Harbor Party on the Sunday before the big final weekend. The 3000 Harbor Party tickets sold out in 24 hours. Luckily, I knew this weeks back and qued for a ticket one Saturday morning with many others. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera for the party to capture and record the beautiful setting of the party.

We entered the party through a gate along the footpath in the Botanical Gardens on the Sydney Harbor. As we walked down the path lit by chinese lanterns and outlined by a shear rock wall, we passed a couple nice bars erected for the event and descended down a large rock stairway overlooking the Opera House and Harbor Bridge across the harbor. At the bottom of the wide stairway sat a huge dance floor with three stages elevated above a sea of dancers. Around the dance floor (which was literally half the size of a football field or larger), tables were placed and a walk way left along the three-foot high stone wall that bordered the harbor waters. A shear rock wall draped in fines with the walkway carving its way along down to the stairway of we just descended enclosed one side of the dance floor. On the other side, the lighted Opera House and Harbor Bridge reflected in the dark waters behind the random yaght anchored along side the party filled with on-lookers drinking and dancing on the decks. The party started at six and ended at midnight (traditionally the event was capped by fireworks, but because of the draught this did not happen this year).

Throughout the week I enjoyed several of the events that accompanied Mardi Gras including the film festival and festivities in Hyde Park.

On Thursday night of Mardi Gras weekend, I went to an invite only party at Fox Studios locally known as "Malcolm's Party"--the best at Mardi Gras. I had met Malcolm a couple of times at other smaller parties and at the gym. The party's attendees, which numbered around 1000, included some of the most beautiful people in Sydney and around the world. I met people from everywhere. Fox Studios has several buildings on site including the nightclub where the party was held.

On Friday, I chilled and recovered from the previous evening and prepared for the rest of the weekend. During the day on Saturday, I went to the beach with some friends and met some others that had traveled from Europe, Canada, South Africa, American and around Australia to come to Mardi Gras. Saturday night was the big parade.

Marcel, a friend of mine I had met while in Sydney, is an american traveling in a similar fashion to me. He was staying at the hotel I stayed at when I arrived and was having a party for the parade. The hotel, strategicly located on the parade route, proved perfect for viewing the parade. Since I knew the staff very well, I found myself enjoying the party at several of the rooms and the private party in the bar on ground level closed for the owner. The location provided two perfect places to watch the parade. Between the roof of the hotel and from the window of Marcel's room (where we had a mini bar established), we could fully enjoy the uninterrupted brilliant bird's eye view of the parade while enjoying cocktails!


Me on the roof enjoying the parade below


Marcel


Others at Marcel's party.

Unfortunately, my photos of the parade did not turn out very well because the parade was at night. Take my word for it though, the parade was magnificent. Marchers and floats paraded in costumes of ploomed drag queens (some with feathered head dresses reaching about five feet), took political pot shots of both Howard (Australia's Prime Minister) and our own Bush, and strutted with bands and dancers (including police officers marching behind on a float on which a band of officers played rock and roll music). The streets were packed with people watching the parade with at least 10 people deep all around the parade route. I think the news reported over 200,000 people in attendance.

After the parade, the on-lookers marched to the huge Mardi Gras party. I understand 15,000 tickets were sold. The party was huge to say the least. Four different venues were set up around Fox Studios to facilitate what was basically a huge dance party. The main stage was in a large studio with a stage and speakers carefully placed to provide throbbing music to the largest dance floor I have ever seen. And the huge dance floor was packed (shoulder to shoulder people)the entire night and into the next morning with sweaty partying people. The party was loads of fun.

Although we were not allowed to bring a camera into the party, I did take a couple photos. Below is one of the dressed partiers.


In perfect Mardi Gras fashion, on Sunday night, I attended yet another party. I have to admit by this time I was a little sick of big dance parties, but I had to take in the full Mardi Gras experience. Luckily, I was hanging with a friend visiting from London that I had met earlier in the week through some other friends from Sydney who was also a bit tired of the dance party. We took a break left the huge nightclub and headed down to a bar on Darling Harbor and chilled for a while. While we rejoined the party later, I have to say that I could not enjoy it as much as I had the previous ones...these Australians can really party hard!

On Monday, I slept in and then took a stroll though the Botanical Gardens along side the harbor and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day. On Tuesday, I flew to Brisbane to join my friend Nicholas in Noosa (see the Brisbane page).

Home