Don't rain on our parade
Despite the 30 million dollars the Mardi Gras brings in to NSW every year, some believe the Government has no business ensuring its survival. Andrew Georgiou reports
It may be the news the GLBT community has been waiting for however
Wednesday's announcement that the NSW Government will make Mardi Gras
history by partly funding the event next year, has ruffled more than a
few feathers in the mainstream community. While the details of the
deal, including the funding amount have not been made public, reactions
on The Daily Telegraph website erred towards lynch mobbing.
Over
550 comments have been left on the site since the story went live on
Wednesday many of which were bordering on homophobic "Being gay may not
be a life style choice but prancing round, with the arse ripped out
your pants, singing look at me I'm queer certainly is," wrote one
telegraph reader who set the tone for a myriad of bigoted comments
which have dominated the site over the last three days.
Supporters
of the move from within the GLBT community have combated the negative
comments by pointing out the benefits the planned funding will bring to
the State economy. "This event brings millions of dollars into
Australia. Everyone, gay, straight, bi or transgender benefits from
this! You have all been enjoying the fruits of our labour! Now its time
the government gave back something on behalf of everyone," said one
supporter.
"Touché!" Says Time Out.
Sydney gets nice and Sleazy this Saturday night with the 2008
Sleaze Ball at The Horden Pavillion. Andrew Georgiou talks with new
Mardi Gras chair David Imrie for all the details.
Sleaze seemed to have fallen into a slight lull until last year when
the Zircus theme gave it some much-needed mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation... It was an easy theme for people to get costumes for,
people really engaged with it because they had really good costume
ideas. I think that here had been a few years where there had been some
difficult themes to work with and difficult times for the organisation
as well.
What has the feedback been regarding this year's them, The Villains Lair? The
word on the street has been fantastic. You've got a lot of the younger
people who are seeing it as an opportunity to go a bit camp in Lycra
and others who want to get a bit down, dirty and evil. It's great theme
for men and women, bears and twinks - it's for everyone.
Do you think people will be blown away by the set design of the night? Oh
yes, I think people are going to walk into the Hordern on the 4th and
go "wow, this is really quite something!" It'll be high-tech, multi
level, all encompassing.
Is it just the Hordern this year, or have we got other areas to look forward to? Well
we've cut it to the Hordern and the forecourt. Because of the theme we
decided to bring the entire production into the Hordern and watch it
get progressively darker and dirtier and sleazier as the night goes on.
And the forecourt? It's a bit more chilled and outdoor and a
little fun - a good escape from the Hordern if you need to take a
break. We'll have DJs outside all night as well.
The feedback that I've received from a lot of diehard old school
Sleaze fans is that it's a bit squeaky clean these days compared to
what went down on the dance floor at a Sleaze party back in the day.
True? There's been some pretty crazy stuff happen on the dance
floor over the years. Obviously regulations have changed and there are
some behaviours that no longer belong at a licensed dance party. I
think we've now struck a balance in progressing the theme back a little
dirtier, a little bit darker each year - it' not going to be the Sleaze
Ball that it might have been 20 years ago, but it's really going to
capture the essence of what this party's all about. Which is
essentially an amazing costume party, a very high-energy dark costume
party.
Can you talk us through the DJs and the acts you've got lined up? Our
headliners are Potbelleez and Alan Thompson, familiar to all. We've
brought Sveta and Mark Murphy out of the dome and into the Hordern this
year. We've got a couple of very big production shows going on but
right through the night. It'll be a very visual party.
How integral is its success to the continuation of Mardi Gras financially speaking? Sleaze isn't an enormously profitable party for us but it's an
important part of the calendar. There are certain events that we almost
feel a responsibility to put on and carry on as an organisation and
Sleaze is most definitely one of them.
Sleaze Ball 2008 is on Saturday October 4 at The Hordern
Pavilion, EQ Lang Rd Moore Park, 2021 at 9pm. Tickets $119 for
non-members and $79 for concessions from Ticketek
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