Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras

For those of you who don't know, Sydney has one of the largest gay and lesbian communities in the world, and Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is the biggest party of the year. This time around it is particularly raucous because it's the 30th anniversary, and we aren't going to miss it! At around 6:00 we head down to Hyde Park and make our way up Oxford Street toward Taylor Square. Finding the perfect vantage point (slightly downward sloping streetscape and less than two-person deep audience) we park ourselves and wait for the parade to start. It opens with the traditional 'Dykes on Bikes' spectacle as hundreds of motorcycles roar up and down Oxford Street, getting things, um, warmed up. Then come the floats, which include 'Divas through the Decades', and 'Oz Fag Hags', among other very colorful and flamboyant scenes! We are right in the thick of the action, but as the night progresses, the crowd swells and I get a bit nervous that we'll lose our peep hole. Ah, but with every problem comes a solution. Especially when money is involved. After paying an obscene $20 for two flimsy plastic stools that will be chucked in the trash post-parade, we are at least a head-and-a-half above the other losers who didn't shell out. Other highlights include: a drunk girl taking a world-class face plant behind us, only to pop up and explain "but I'm not drunk, and that's the annoying thing!", and a pair of buttless jeans that look very handmade. Well done! Refreshing and practical, all for the price of a pair of scissors.