Sydneysiders, grab the glitter. Get ready for the biggest celebration of all things love at WorldPride 2023.
It’s one of Australia’s most famous and well-loved events. Since launching back in 1980, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been bringing colour, love and acceptance to our city’s streets for decades. Uniting Australia’s LGBTQI+ communities and supporters, this annual celebration and world-famous Parade prove a colourful and dazzling evening of pride, celebration and self-expression.
Get ready Sydney, the festivities are about to step up a notch with this latest announcement. In big news just revealed, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras have just won their bid to host the international marquee Pride event, WorldPride 2023. This is a massive pat on the back for our sparkling harbourside city, coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the first Mardi Gras Parade and the 50th Anniversary of the first Australian Gay Pride Week. In fact, Sydney is the first destination in the Southern Hemisphere to host this global celebration, which is set to bring the city to life.
And this win marks an important moment for LGBTQI+ communities in the Asia Pacific region, many of whom are still denied fundamental human rights. This landmark event hopes to shine a spotlight on the challenges faced by the LGBTQI+ communities across the region and celebrate the communities’ hopes for diversity, respect, and inclusion for all. Event organisers hope this win and subsequent celebrations will bring together all walks of life to listen and learn from some of the most isolated LGBTIQ+ members of our region.
So, what can we expect from these upcoming celebrations? Across February and March 2023, Sydney WorldPride is set to attract thousands of visitors from across the country and beyond to join in the event. In fact, Deloitte has estimated our city will experience a 25-40% increase in visitors during the period, on top of the typical 1-1.25 million visitors expected for the annual Mardi Gras events. Although details of the event as limited, we expect more exciting announcements about the program of activities to be revealed in the months to come.
To find out more about Sydney’s winning bid for WorldPride 2023 and to keep up to date with the latest announcements about the event, click here.
