I can definitely say that since I am in Australia, one of the national celebration that the most impress me was The Mardi Gras. It is a festival that happen every year in Sydney. If we had to find an equivalent back in France, it would be the Gay Pride.

It is one of the most famous festival in Australia, that attracts thousand and thousand of people from all around the world. So the Festival of Mardi Gras takes place during one month with lots of events all around the city like "Bondi Beach Drag Races" or « The Academic Discussion Panel Queer Thinking » or also the "Fair Day", a party in Victoria Park that attract more than 70,000 people each year.

But let's talk about the history of this event, and why it was created. The first march took place on Saturday 24th June 1978 at 10pm and it was met with unexpected police violence. At the beginning this march was a contribution for the International Gay Solidarity Celebration and one of a series of events by the Gay Solidarity Group. It was supposed to promote the  National Homosexual Conference and help the San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day and it’s campaign against California State Senator John Brigg’s. Indeed he wanted to stop gay rights supporters teaching in schools. It was also created to protest the Australian visit of homophobic Festival of Light campaigner Mary Whitehouse. From 3000 participants in 1979, it reached more than 50 000 in 1984. The event started to be mediated from the mid-1980s. In 2008, the festival celebrated its 30 years and in 2012 they produced their largest ever parade with more than 10,000 participants only walking in the Parade. It generates each year  an estimated $38 million for the New South Wales economy.

 The most significant event is the parade at the end of the month. The participants parade on Oxford Street,Flinders Street and Darlingursht, which are the most important areas in Sydney. They walk on the road, and all of the spectators are on the street and can watch all of the parade there. I had the chance to see this parade on March. I was firstly really impressed by the incredible number of people in the streets. Indeed, even if Sydney is a busy city, all of the streets and roads were crowded from visitors. I could hear lots of different languages from people from all over the world, and also lots of French people! It was also really impressive for me to see all of the work that was made for the event : organisers close the most important roads every year, install lots of barriers, signs, posters in all Sydney and hire thousand of people for the security and the organisation of everything. During this event, participants parade all over the streets in colourful costumes and beautiful floats. It was incredible to see that each float had its own topic, represented one community, or even express a political message. There was lots of colours everywhere, and I could really feel that people who was parading was happy to be here to defend their own cause, and the defend the Gay community.

Here a short video that I made this day of one float: