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Mardi Gras and WorldPride 2023
Supporting our LGBTQIA+ community
We're proud to be part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and WorldPride.
The University of Sydney is pleased to once again participate in the 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and WorldPride events.
The world-renowned Sydney Mardi Gras Parade will return to its spiritual home of Oxford Street this year on Saturday 25 February in celebration of its 45th anniversary. To catch all the action, you can tune in to the livestream on ABC from 6pm on 25 February.
With this year’s overarching theme being ‘Gather, dream, amplify’, we are excited to join 12,500 marchers and 200+ floats with our twist on the theme being: ‘Synergise, alchemise and rise wise’.
The University will also be hosting a stall at Mardi Gras Fair Day on Sunday 19 February at Victoria Park, so please drop in and pay us a visit.
2023 marks the eighth year that the University has participated in the festivities and a wide range of additional events are planned for WorldPride.
Please check our listing below of upcoming events on-campus and those featuring our staff and students.
Mardi Gras and WorldPride 2023 Events
Venue: The Seymour Centre, Sydney
From emerging Australian voice, Elias Jamieson Brown (Green Park), comes CAMP, a brand-new play directed by Kate Gaul (The Trouble with Harry, The Moors, H.M.S Pinafore) and proudly presented by Siren Theatre Co and Seymour Centre in association with Sydney WorldPride.
Capturing the excitement and spirit of revolution present at the birth of Australia’s fierce gay rights movement, CAMP charts the struggles, successes, and legacy of early Pride activists who risked family, careers, and imprisonment to achieve social reform in Australia.
Tickets from $39
Launch event: Thursday 16 February, 5pm - 7pm, UTS Building 2, Sydney
Venue: UTS Building 1 Foyer and Broadway Display Screen, Sydney
Time: 8am - 6pm or all day from the street
CLOAK brings together LGBTQIA+ folk working in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine with emerging fashion designers to reinvent the lab coat as a symbol of queer pride.
Free event
Launch event: Friday 17 February, 6pm - 8pm, Courtyard Restaurant & Bar Science Road, Camperdown.
Venue: The Footbridge Gallery, between Parramatta Rd Footbridge and Science Rd, The University of Sydney
Time: 6pm - midnight
The University of Sydney will join organisations across Greater Sydney to transform Sydney into a Rainbow City.
Featuring the University of Sydney’s “45” Light Mural designed by Xavier Ho to celebrate 45 years of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and located on the Footbridge Gallery’s Dash Wall.
The Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) will deliver this activation as part of a series of activities to celebrate Sydney WorldPride and welcome all queer visitors and their friends to campus at dusk from 17 February to 20 March 2023.
Free event
Venue: The Seymour Centre, Sydney
Internationally renowned performance artist, and one of Australia’s greatest storytellers, William Yang is an iconic chronicler of our time. His work, although intensely personal, speaks a universal language.
Join William as he explores the heady and turbulent scenes of 1970s Sydney, the vibrant history of Mardi Gras, and the ever-evolving GLBTIQ story.
Tickets from $32
Venue: The Seymour Centre, Sydney
All Out Comedy fires the glitter gun on a 15-day celebration of artful, extraordinary and completely gorgeous LGBTQI+ artists.
A spectacular night of stand-up from two of Australia’s leading comedians, Geraldine Hickey and Nath Valvo. Hosted by fabulous drag superstar Coco Jumbo, you won’t want to miss this prideful comedy special.
Standard tickets from $45
USYD students can access discounted $20 tickets - click here
Venue: Australian Museum, Sydney
Time: 6.30pm - 10pm
Whether you’re coming for the science, the silly, or the sing-alongs, this is a night for everyone; for our LGBTQIA+ community and allies, for the Jurassic Lounge loyalists and the first-timers.
A night of comedy, community and science will turn the spotlight on the queer heroes of STEAM. Get your costumes ready... We want you to be who you want to be, whether it's animal, mineral, vegetable or just fabulous you!
Professor Alice Motion will host Queered Science which will celebrate the LGBTQIA+ champions of the science world.
Suitable for 18+ audience.
Entry: $36 - $45
Venue: Victoria Park, Sydney
Time: 10am - 9pm
There is something for everyone at Fair Day, one of the community’s most-loved events bringing over 200 retail, information and food stalls, sample giveaways and family-friendly picnic areas, with entertainment and live performances.
Free entry
Venue: The Calyx, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney
Time: 6pm - 10pm
Come along to An Evening with 500 Queer Scientists to hear stories, and join vibrant conversations with inspiring LGBTQIA+ scientists who are out 'in the lab' and to their peers. Hosted by Professor Alice Motion.
Suitable for 18+ audience.
Entry: $30-$45
Venue: The Seymour Centre, Sydney
Following a sell-out run of Beast at Sydney Festival in 2018, Dan Daw Creative Projects returns to Sydney to bring you the highly anticipated Australian premiere of their critically acclaimed show, The Dan Daw Show.
Directed by Mark Maughan (The Claim, Petrification), Dan is joined in an intimate evening of play by performer and collaborator Christopher Owen (Joe Moran, Scottish Dance Theatre), where Dan takes back the power by being dominated on his own terms.
Tickets from $32
Venue: Sydney College of the Arts Project Space, Science Rd, Camperdown
Time: 10am-4pm daily. Please note the event is closed on Sunday 26 February.
Pride at Play is a curated exhibition of LGBTQIA+ games from Oceania and the Asia Pacific. It is a celebration of thoughtful videogames and tabletop games made by queer folks for queer players.
The exhibition is organised by a team of volunteering game designers, researchers and curators who love queer games. It is supported by grants, university institutions, and queer game designers who continue to push the boundaries of what games can become.
Free entry
Find out more
Venue: Sydney Observatory
Time: 7pm - 9.30pm
Join Alice Motion and Alexis Weaver for an experiment in collective sound and become a part of the Atomic Choir to create an album of some of science’s greatest hits. Create rhythms for reactions, basslines for the Big Bang and melodies for molecules in an immersive experience merging sound, music, and science.
Free entry
Venue: Powerhouse Museum Ultimo
Time: 5pm - 9pm
A night championing Sydney’s diverse and vibrant LGBTQIA+ music communities, Powerhouse Late: Queerbourhood features live music and performances curated by Jonny Seymour and Paul Mac (Dr Paul McDermott from The Conservatorium of Music) who have been supporting Sydney’s emerging queer artists for decades. Taking over the iconic Powerhouse Transport Hall, the night will feature music from iconic Sydney musicians.
Free event
Venue: Oxford Street, Sydney
Time: 6pm - 11pm
Annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade with 200+ floats and 12,500 marchers, including a University of Sydney float.
Free entry
Venue: Lobby of Michael Spence Building (F23), Camperdown Campus
Time: 4-6pm
An opportunity for Uuniversity staff and students, as well as the broader community, to come together and celebrate the LGBTQI season.
Introduction by Dr Chris Pepin-Neff and Welcome by Dean of FASS, Lisa Adkins. Featuring USyd alumni and LGBTIQ+ law scholar, Associate Professor Senthorun Raj, from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Free event - registration required.
Venue: Seymour Centre, Sydney
Briefs return to Seymour Centre for the Sydney premiere of their brand new show.
After 10 years of selling out festivals worldwide, the Briefs boys are back with their hills hoist poised, ready to air their Dirty Laundry in this unmissable new party cabaret performance.
Standard tickets from $49.
USYD students can access discounted $20 tickets - click here
The Human Rights Conference will shine a spotlight on global, regional and domestic human rights issues facing people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and variations in sex characteristics.
The Conference is offering a register to view option for people to watch the conference online free of charge.
Venue: Manning Bar
Time: 6pm
Party at Manning is BACK to celebrate to World Pride with a return of everyone's favourite Tribute band, BABBA! Plus, infamous Drag Kings.
Online event
Time: 3pm - 4pm (AEDT)
As Sydney welcomes WorldPride 2023, the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney is honoured to welcome Qantas CEO Alan Joyce AC and former US Ambassador to Australia John Berry in conversation with the ABC’s political commentator Annabel Crabb.
Venue: The Refectory
Time: 6pm
We're providing the dinner, drinks, and music, you provide the dance moves - it's sure to be one of the most spectacular events of the year.
Online event
Time: 4pm - 7.30pm (AEDT)
Queer Chinese Voices is the first forum of its kind, organised by the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University in partnership with the China Studies Centre (CSC) at the University of Sydney.
The forum features prominent voices in art, literature and history, music, cultural studies and queer studies via keynote speeches and panel discussions by leading experts on LGBTIQA+ topics throughout the Sinosphere (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), Australia and around the world.
Free event
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