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Sydney WorldPride / Mardi Gras 2023: guide

Queer highlights this week and beyond as Sydney turns on the glitter for WorldPride.

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Sydney WorldPride and the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festivals are now imploding across Sydney in a glittering display of culture, arts, music, sport, dance and more.

500,000 participants, including an estimated 78,000 visitors, are expected to take part.

But if you can’t make it, your TV is also bursting at the seams with LGBTQIA+ content, especially on ABC which is a broadcast partner.

Here are some first run highlights.

ABC:

Friday, 24 February
6pm The Drum: WorldPride special
Dan Bourchier will present a special episode of The Drum from Sydney WorldPride’s First Nations Gathering Space. Dan and an all-queer panel will be looking at the history of WorldPride and its importance today, along with human rights issues facing LGBTQIA+ citizens around the globe, and what belonging means under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella.

7:30pm Live and Proud: Sydney WorldPride Opening Concert
Broadcasting live from the Domain, join us for the official Opening Concert of WorldPride 2023 as we welcome the world to Sydney. The star-studded event will be hosted by songwriter, actress, author, presenter Casey Donovan and international drag icon Courtney Act, joined by the ABCs’ Jeremy Fernandez, award-winning comedian, Rhys Nicholson and entertainer Brihony Dawson. The night will be an epic celebration as we welcome the world to Sydney in a concert featuring headline performances from Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX, Jessica Mauboy, plus a huge array of Australia’s iconic queer performers.

Saturday, 25 February
10:30am rage: Worldpride Party Special

7.30pm: 45th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade
Tune into the live broadcast of the 45th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade as it returns to Oxford Street, bigger and better than ever. Anchoring the parade will be ABC News Breakfast’s Nate Byrne, Behind The News presenter Jack Evans and ABCQueer’s Mon Schafter. They will be supported by exceptional on-the-ground hosts including ABC NEWS’ Jeremy Fernandez, actor, musician, director, Zindzi Okenyo and comedian Mel Buttle. Fan favourite presenters Tyrone Pynor, Abby Butler and Latifa Tee , will all be at the helm of triple j’s broadcast covering the floats, the fanfare and all the fun. Broadcasting live across ABC TV, ABC iview.

10:30pm rage: Worldpride Party Special

Tuesday, 28 February
8.30pm: Queerstralia
Join award-winning comedian and professional lesbian Zoë Coombs Marr as she uncovers hidden LGBTQIA+ histories in a landmark documentary series, Queerstralia. Across three episodes, the series will wipe away the straightwashing and peer into the untold and frankly fascinating Queer history of Australia.

Wednesday, 1 March – Friday 3 March
Sydney WorldPride Human Rights Conference
LGBTQIA+ Activists, community members, political leaders and change agents from across the world will come to Sydney in March 2023 to take part in the largest LGBTQIA+ human rights conference ever hosted in the southern hemisphere. Highlights from the conference will be available to stream on ABC iview.

Sunday, 5 March
Pride March
ABC News
50,000 people in their brightest colours will walk across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Domain, in a powerful international statement of visibility.

Tuesday March 14
iview: Kweens of the Queer Underground
Three queer stories. Three queer filmmakers. Three journeys into the queer underground, to celebrate WorldPride 2023. I Am Kai tells the story of transgender Brother Boy Kai Clancy, as he navigates the traditional roles and his identity within his culture./ Are You Into Labels? digs deeper into the labels that are often used by the queer community to find their tribes and self-identify their sexual interests and asks if they are liberating or limiting./ Lesbians on the Loose celebrates the love story behind a pioneering magazine of the 90s that created a space for Australia’s lesbian community to connect and be seen.

Nine:

Tuesday February 21
9pm: The Hundred with Andy Lee: WorldPride special
Joining host Andy Lee this week as guest panellists are comedians Mel Buttle and Rhys Nicholson, along with resident funny man Mike Goldstein, in an episode celebrating World Pride. Handpicked to represent the makeup of Australia, “The Hundred” will be standing by to be polled live and provide the stories behind the stats as the three comedy panellists compete to see who knows Aussies best.

10:

Thursday February 23
9:30pm Pride Gala With Rhys Nicholson
Join Rhys Nicholson and friends in a special Comedy Pride Gala with comics DeAnne Smith, Matteo Lane, Fortune Feimster, Sam Jay, Solomon Georgio, Al Val, Tranna Wintour & Emma Willman.

Friday February 24
6:30pm The Project
Returning to the desk this Friday, Maria Thattil is here to talk about her powerful book Unbounded. Chatting all things sex positivity, Mardi Gras, and identity, Maria delivers all the good vibes you need to kickstart a killer weekend.

SBS  / SBS VICELAND

Friday, 24 February
9.25pm VICELAND: Late Life Lesbians
Later Life Lesbians tells the compelling, funny, and passionate tales of very different women who’ve found their true selves and true love in later life…not with another man, but another woman.

Saturday, 25 February
8.30pm VICELAND: Handbag: The Untold Story Of The Fag Hag
Handbag is a documentary film about an unusual kind of friendship – the age-old relationship between gay men and straight women, as told by Monica Davidson, a self-declared “fag hag” (aka an array of names, including “handbag”).

10.05pm VICELAND: Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over The USA
Episode One: Transgender Mum And Dad
Mya was born as a man and Kennedy as a woman, the couple fell in love 12 years ago. Kennedy gave birth to their two boys aged 11 and 9 and shortly after he transitioned to a man. At around the same time Mya also transitioned, to a woman. Stacey travels to their home in Virginia to find out how this most unique of family units adapted to such a seismic shift.

Saturday March 4
10:15pm SBS: Planet Sex
Episode One: No Such Thing As Straight Cara grew up feeling ashamed of her sexuality and fearful of exploring it. In this episode, Cara meets people who live their lives out, loud and proud.

SUBSCRIPTION TV:

Hayu:

February 23: Loud + Proud with Justin Hill
With six seven-minute episodes, each episode will dive into topics related to the LGBTQIA+ community, with guests sharing their inspiring personal experiences. The series covers everything from the impact of coming out and exploring the gender spectrum to owning your identity and parenthood and creating wider allyship in Australia and across the world.

Foxtel:

Club MTV
Pride Anthems various

Tuesday February 28
Foxtel on Demand / Binge: Rain Dogs
New eight-episode comedy series, from the brilliant new voice of Cash Carraway, is an unconventional love story between a working class single mum, her 10-year-old daughter, and a privileged gay man. The comedy stars Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing, Ronke Adekoluejo, Adrian Edmondson and Fleur Tashjian in her debut role, as a dysfunctional family on the fringes of society attempting to go straight in a crooked world.

Prime Video:

February 17: Joel Creasey: Queen of the Outback
This exclusive special from Joel Creasey (Australian Amazon Original LOL: Last One Laughing Australia) was filmed in front of a live audience at the 2022 Broken Heel Festival, Australia’s largest regional drag celebration, in September 2022. The special features a live, all-new stand-up performance from Joel Creasey recorded under the stars, plus all the glitter and glamour amidst Broken Heel’s nonstop weekend carnival.

February 17:  Rhys Nicholson’s Big Queer Comedy Concert
The stand-up special was recorded at Sydney’s magnificent Enmore Theatre. Hosted by Rhys Nicholson, the concert features a cast of award-winning LGBTQIA+ comedy superstars, including Urzila Carlson, Geraldine Hickey, Cassie Workman, and Chris Parker. Rhys has had a busy time over the last few years, hosting RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under in New Zealand, and won the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Award for Most Outstanding Show (formerly the Barry Award) for his latest show Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!, which he then took to sell out audiences in LA, Montreal, Toronto, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This all new one-hour special is brazen, honest, warm, and above all—hilarious.

Netflix:

WorldPride collection includes:
Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt), an AACTA award winning rom-com set in the complex world of high school
Girl Like You which explores the real, raw and confronting reality of transitioning
Between a Frock and a Hard Place, a story behind one of the world’s most cherished films, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

This post updates.

13 Responses

  4. Too much Rhys for my liking. Wow!!! rage beginning at 10.30pm! Will the whole 8 and a half hours be Mardi Gras themed? Does this mean retro season is over until next year? Seven has the Keanu Reeves movie John Wick: Chapter 2.

      1. i was being a bit facetious, but the point I was (perhaps badly) trying to make was that it’s a bit monotonous having Mr Nicholson pop up all over the place during the week being on three networks and a streamer. Not a dig at him, personally, but more about the state of the (commercial) media.

  6. Is 10:30PM the earliest Rage has ever started on a Saturday night? I think it might be. It shows that it’s quite a special event.

    I hope they will play some different music videos for the people that watch it every year. Even if they have to go through the archives or look at previous Mardi Gras special playlists for music videos that have only had one airing years ago.

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