Rain, hail or shine the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will go ahead tonight, all 185 floats and 12,000 marchers of it. The good news is as of this morning, the 90% chance of rain has been updated to a 10% chance!
Our prayers to the glitter gods have been answered! Forecast for rain has been updated to 10% as of an hour ago.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a 95 percent chance of rain in Sydney, putting hundreds of thousands of parade attendees and participants in line for for a wet night.
The 39th edition of the Mardi Gras — “the world’s biggest LGBTQI parade and party” according to festival CEO Terese Casu — will be even bigger than last year, a near-four hour extravaganza that will begin at Hyde Park, snake down Oxford Street and end at Moore Park Road.
“Mardi Gras continues to provide the platforms and stages for our community, to tell their stories, to have their say and to protest, and that hasn’t changed,” Casu said on Friday.
Organisers expect 500,000 people to fill Sydney streets on Saturday night, including more than 40,000 international visitors who are expected to inject $42 million into the NSW economy. Mardi Gras artistic director Greg Clarke said nearly 200 floats would be on show, under this year’s theme of ‘creating equality’.
In the parade will be 1300 riders, 300 motorbikes, 185 floats and thousands of others marching in the streets. The Mardi Gras organisers have three marquee floats of their own, including a collaboration with the Art Gallery of NSW on a giant gold shoe inspired by Andy Warhol (and featuring 60 people dressed as the iconic artist), as well as others featuring performing aerialists.
Parts of the article first appeared on Huffington Post.
