While for some it will be a sombre occasion, sequins and glitter will still light up the streets of Sydney as the annual Mardi Gras parade marks the city's full-scale awakening from a pandemic slumber.
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The parade on Saturday will serve as a finale to a feverish February of events in the NSW capital.
Arts Minister John Graham said the packed calendar, which had led to full hotels and a booming tourism trade, marked a significant shift in the city following the lingering effects of multiple COVID-era lockdowns.
"This is the biggest month (hotels have) ever had - not since COVID, but the biggest month they've ever had," he said on Friday.
"That is as a result of Taylor Swift and Pink, of Lunar New Year, but also as a result of Mardi Gras."
An estimated 30,000 visitors from outside the city will flock to Sydney to join the Mardi Gras celebrations.
But the upcoming march will take on a more restrained tone for some as members of the local LGBTQI community mourn the loss of two of their own, allegedly at the hands of a serving NSW police officer.
Luke Davies, 29, and Jesse Baird, 26, were allegedly murdered by Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon on February 19.
Mardi Gras officials initially uninvited police from joining the parade following the officer's charges, but a compromise was reached to allow them to march out of uniform.
The board's co-chair, Brandon Bear, said organisers were pleased to see the compromise struck and that police management took on feedback from the LGBTQI community about their parade presence.
"We understand that there are a lot of opinions in the community about this, that range from one end of the spectrum to the other," he said.
The Sydney Mardi Gras has grown to become one of the largest LGBTQI events held in the world after starting as a protest march in the late 1970s.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators routinely flock to the area surrounding inner-city Oxford St for the parade.
"We are an inclusive and celebratory city," Mardi Gras chief executive Gil Beckwith said.
"These past weeks, we've also been a city and community in mourning for beautiful and precious lives lost."
Australian Associated Press
