In heartbreaking news, the annual Sydney Mardi Gras parade has been cancelled, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 43rd annual celebration will instead be a ticketed event held at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Floats will lap around the stadium instead of the traditional Oxford St route.

“Mardi Gras has always been the epitome of creative expression through art and culture; two things severely impacted by COVID-19 this year,” Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger says.

“So it was important to Mardi Gras that we rise to the occasion and to give the community the creative platform to express their pride to the world. The 2021 Parade may look different to how it has been in the past, but we feel very lucky to be able to give this opportunity to our communities during these times.”

“The team at Mardi Gras have worked tirelessly with NSW Health to develop a COVID Safe event plan to ensure the Parade can go forward and we’re excited by the prospect of staging the event at the SCG,” continued Kruger. “Not only is the SCG close to our spiritual home of Oxford Street, but it also provides the safest venue for us to hold the event and meet requirements of physical distancing and contact tracing.

“With a greater focus on community, our 2021 Parade will move away from large floats, centring instead on the outlandish pageantry of costumes, puppetry and props that make it such a phenomenon to witness.”

Mardi Gras spawned from a gay rights protest first held in Darlinghurst in the 70s. On June 24th, 1978 a group of gay and lesbian activists operating as the Gay Solidarity Group staged an event in Sydney. The intention was to highlight gay and lesbian culture, and protest against discrimination members of the LGBT community routinely faced.

The protest was met with a violent police response which attracted national attention. Many of those arrested at the protest were beaten inside police cells. This violence incited backlash, and a ‘drop the charges’ campaign was born in defence of the protestors.

The first charges were dropped in October 1978, and all charges were dropped by the end of 1979. The following year, 3000 people marched in an incident-free parade. 

It’s now one of Australia’s most iconic and beloved events, and one of Australia’s biggest tourism drawcards.

Mardi Gras 2020 was held on February 29th, and marked one of the last colossal events in Sydney before we were collectively cucked by coronavirus.

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