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Published: March 5th 2006
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In the botanical gardens We needn’t have worried that Mardi Gras was going to be a letdown. We’d been advised that if we wanted any sort of view of the parade we needed to get into position by 5. The parade started at 7.30. As we’re starting to understand ouselves better we decided to get the 1.30 ferry across the harbour to the city.
We took the scenic route through the botanical gardens to get to the Oxford Street area, which is where the parade starts. The gardens are really beautiful, not at all crowded, lots of interesting plants and plenty of shade so you can escape the heat when you need. As we got nearer to the parade area the crowds had already started to gather, it was still only about 3pm. Once we got to Oxford Street the Friends of Dorothy were really making their presence felt and much more of a party atmosphere was developing. As the drink laws here are pretty much on a par with California (actually they may be even more restrictive, supermarkets don’t sell alcohol, you have to go to a bottle store) we had filled a water bottle with sparkling wine and OJ as drinking in the
Tool Shed
There's a LOT of DIY shops in this part of town streets is banned. We noticed plenty of other people using imaginative ways of subverting the regulations, including the old standby of just wrapping your bottle in a brown bag. As there were still 3 1/2 hours to kick off we decided to catch a drink in a handy pub. What a revelation, everywhere we’d been for a drink before had been non-smoking, here most of the pub was a smoking area, with just a small area for the health nazis. Even better, the non-smoking area was situated just where the natural ventilation took our used smoke. Fantastic. The place was also well endowed with television, I counted ten screens. A video jukebox screen, a big screen showing Aussie rules footie, and 8 screens showing the latest prices on the horses, yes you can place a bet in here too! After about half an hour the 8 betting screens were switched to different channels, motorcycle racing, fashion tv, MTV, news and others. Heaven. At 5 we went to find a vantage point.
Just around the corner we pitched up on the raised entrance to the Apple centre, it’s just as well that we did because very soon after we got there
Ooh.. Hello
Heidi comes to town the crowds really started building up. The atmosphere was just getting better and better, a really friendly vibe developing and everyone taking less and less notice of the booze restrictions. Despite the fact that people were getting more and more pissed I didn’t see any attitudes, let alone any aggravation. That really does seem to be the sole preserve of the British.
After a bit of pre-parade entertainment the show got under way at 7.30 with the ‘Dykes on Bikes’ parade, exactly what it said, there were loads and loads of them and their bikes were BIG. By this time about every bit of pavement space was used up for the length of the parade, about 10 deep, both sides of the road for about two miles.
The parade went on for about 2 1/2 hours with floats from just about every queer group you can think of from gay greens to the Gay Sydney Police Band. A real highlight for me was the Celebrity friends of Lesbians and Gays (CFLAG) which followed Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). The theme for CFLAG was the ‘Kate Moss Line Dancers’ -”I believe in Rehab”. What else but a bunch
of guys dressed as our Kate with giant straws stuck up their noses hoovering up the white lines down the middle of the road- FAB.
It was a great party, but I wouldn’t want to do the clearing up. The highlight of our trip so far.
We’ve got some great movie footage of the parade so I’ll really try to edit some together and put it on the jonharmonie site. Promise.
Hi everyone, yep the Mardi Gras was fab so many lovely toned bodies! so much colour, and a fantastic vibe, lots of lovely comments on my outfit, and guys being so sweet, blowing up ballons for me - pink of course and I was shaking my maraccas! ps in case you wondering yes it is hot and sunny and the sun is much stronger over here.
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