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Sydney (AFP) – Police, pastors and military personnel will be among the drag queens and divas on parade at Sydney’s Mardi Gras on Saturday when one of the world’s premier gay and lesbian events marks its 30th birthday.
The March 1 parade by 10,000 people through streets thronged with thousands of spectators will be unrecognisable from the city’s first “fancy dress” gay pride march which ended in clashes with police.
The inaugural 1978 Mardi Gras, a street celebration to commemorate International Gay Solidarity Week at a time when male homosexuality was still illegal in New South Wales state, ended with more than 50 arrests.