Colour burst: a sneak peek at the parade

Colour burst: a sneak peek at the parade
Image: Behind the parade: the Mardi Gras workshop gets colourful. Photo: Chris Peken

In keeping with the 2014 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras theme ‘Kaleidoscope,’ the floats and costumes of the parade will be bursting with colour.

This week City Hub went behind the scenes of the Mardi Gras Creative Workshop as preparations for this year’s parade come to a head. Angela Sinnett, manager of the workshop, said the process has been underway since October.

“We work on all the floats that are Mardi Gras design and we work on the party design as well and costumes and all the scenic elements for the festival,” she said.

“The workshop is absolutely crazy currently. Everyone is in their own zone. We’ve got builders. We’ve got scenic artists. We’ve got fashion designers and seamstresses.”

Ms Sinnett said this year’s parade is going to be one of the biggest in recent years with a lot of floats to look out for.

“The theme this years is ‘Kaleidoscope: Let your colours burst,’ so everyone is going a little bit crazy with that,” she said.

“There’s the trans-group float, the Carmen Rupe Memorial Trust, that’s a stand out one. There’s DIY Rainbow, the group that started chalking the rainbows, they’re doing something pretty fabulous.”

Gary Leeson, who was Party Director for the Mardi Gras Party throughout the 90s, is back this year to create a multi-sensory experience.

“We do amazing lighting and sounds. Things have moved on a little since I last did it. There’s a lot of visual stuff involved with screens and lasers. All those things that affect the senses,” Mr Leeson said.

“The main [room] which holds about 8,000 people, that’s the Royal Hall of Industries is going to really capitalise on our ‘Kaleidoscope’ theme. It will be very colourful.”

He said while the party itself hasn’t really changed, attitudes in the community have shifted significantly.

“Gay and Lesbian rights now are on everybody’s mind. The community, we’re more diverse and accepting of everybody else because we’ve been accepted more,” he said.

But not all of the work for the parade is taking place at the Creative Workshop.

Mitch Tyrrell, an organiser for the Sydney Nurses Love float, said preparations were going smoothly and the real test will be organising people on the day.

“I’m decorating and organising the float with a few others, with a doctors and nurses set on the back with decorations, love hearts and red crosses,” he said.

“The advice I’ve got from the Mardi Gras people is that practicing is best to be held the week before or two weeks before, so people don’t forget.”

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