Anyone who is going to be in Sydney on Friday 3rd October, please come along and help raise some money for Lifesavers with Pride, the Gay & Lesbian Lifesavers Mardi Gras group. Money raised will not only go towards our float in next years parade, but also help gay and lesbian lifesavers with their training fees etc. It’s going to be a great night with DJ’s Luna T and Miss Kitty Glitter.
I’ve just come home from rehearsing my routine for my first public performance and I’m not quite as terrified as I was last week. If you are a regular reader of the blog and are there on the night, say hi, I try and be very friendly, but while I’m dangling from the roof might not be the best time. I’ve also hijacked the evening and am using it as a birthday celebration for my 35th (holy crap I never thought I’d make it) on 7th. I hope to see you all there! Click the picture to see the flyer in full detail.
For those of you that are in the U.S. the Logo channel is running a special segment on the gay lifesavers and our participation in the Mardi Gras parade. I’ll find out more about when it’s running and keep you posted.
Well, the time has arrived and it’s gay christmas here in Sydney today. It’s less than four hours til our float is meeting at our designated spot and the closer it gets the more excited and nervous I get. It’s going to be a wild night with a sold out dance party afterwards and rumours of all sorts of stars making an appearance on stage. Forgive me if I don’t blog tomorrow, I’m going to be curled up in bed starting the recovery process!
Last week at rehearsal we turned up to find a photographer from the local media waiting to shoot us for a cover story. Now when I did several years of patrols not once did the entire patrol group stand around in a line with our hands up to our forehead, nor did we all jump and cheer in unison. Maybe I was working on a dull patrol but I think it’s more the photographer didn’t know what to do with us.
It’s now only 3 more sleeps til the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and everyone is enthusiastic about it and there is a great vibe about the party. Given that it’s the 30th anniversary, it’s been especially popular and tickets are sold out, with numbers like 18,000 and 22,000 being thrown around. Rumour has it they are releasing another 1,500 tickets by the end of the week!
Here’s a clue for what to expect from our mardi gras float. No there won’t be any waves, but you’ll love this video anyway. This is why I had so much fun rowing surfboats. It’s an amazing adrenaline rush crashing through a massive surf or flying down the face of a wave. It doesn’t hurt that there are fit guys all around with their speedos up their butts either!
I seriously can’t wait for the parade, its going to be so much fun!
With just over a week to go before the 30th Anniversary Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade makes it’s way up Oxford Street I thought I’d share this brief history of the parade from Wikipedia with you.
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is an annual gay pride parade and festival for the LGBT community in Sydney, Australia, and is one of the largest such events in the world. Despite its name, it is not held on Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) or indeed, on a Tuesday at all. It began on June 24, 1978 as a protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall Riots. Although the organisers had obtained permission, this was revoked, and the march was broken up by the police. Many of the marchers were arrested. Although most charges were eventually dropped, the Sydney Morning Herald published the names of those arrested in full, leading to many people being outed to their friends and places of employment, and many of those arrested lost their jobs as homosexuality was a crime in New South Wales until 1984.
The event was held again in 1979, with the name changed to the “Sydney Gay Mardi Gras”. In 1980 the first post-parade dance party was introduced, and in 1981 the parade was shifted to February. An increasingly large number of people not only participated in the event, but larger numbers of the wider community turned out to watch the parade. In 1988 the parade was renamed the “Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras”.
The parade, whilst featuring many in the gay community with a penchant for exotic costumes and dance music, has always retained a political edge, with often witty visual commentary on their political opponents featuring in the floats. As homosexuality became more and more accepted in the wider community, more gay representatives of community groups and organisations have taken part in the parade, including the police force. The parade features a number of costumed characters that return for many successive years. Dykes on Bikes and Miss New Zealand are perfect examples of regular crowd favourites.
Last week’s second rehearsal for the mardi gras parade saw our numbers swell to about their capacity and a few of the moves simplified. We are lifesavers after all, not dancers! It’s a fun, strong and sexy routine which, when we are all in full flight will look really cool! There are some hot guys in the float again this year, and again being in the mardi gras doesn’t mean they are all gay! We have a fair number of straight guys and girls joining us to show their support which is a fantastic thing in my opinion. It’s only a week and a half away! God that’s gone quickly!
Here is the first pic from our rehearsal on thursday night. The pace has definitely been wound up from last year’s march with a more energetic routine, albeit with a similar flavour, we are lifesavers not dancers after all. I for one, am really pumped to be in the parade again and this year I’m not making the mistake of going home afterwards, I’m going to the party and skaking my groove thing all night. Last year I went home and lay in bed so wound up I couldn’t sleep all night, instead I lay there still doing the routine over and over with Bonnie Tyler telling me she was still holding out for a hero.
Check the bruises on my left arm from silks on Tuesday night. I got a little tangled doing a trick. Oops. Some have said it makes me look tough. I disagree, I look like a $5 crack whore who’s pimp wasn’t satisfied.
For those still yet to join our float who are eligible, head over to Life Savers With Pride and register.
It’s nearly ten o’clock on Thursday night and I’m about to go to bed so I can get some sleep before getting up for the gym at 5.30 in the morning. I’ve just got home from the first of our rehearsals for the Mardi Gras parade in a few weeks time. It’s looking like we’ll have about double the number of participants in our float of last year for this year’s float. There are even a few guys that read this blog in the float! Check out our float’s blog here.
Tomorrow night a friend is hosting a group of around 7 or 8 guys for drinks, nude. I posted that we wanted to do this a few weeks back asking whether we can do it without it becoming sexual and I think with the guys we’ve got coming, definitely. They are all guys that enjoy being nude for the enjoyment of the freedom, not for sex. I’ll let you know how it goes, but I won’t be posting photos!
The madness is about to begin again and it’s having a good effect. Last year lifesavers took part in the Mardi Gras parade for the first time and it’s set the example we hoped to set. Gay and Lesbian members are signing up in record numbers and here’s hoping they all join us in the parade.
Anyone who is going to be in Sydney on Friday 3rd October, please come along and help raise some money for Lifesavers with Pride, the Gay & Lesbian Lifesavers Mardi Gras group. Money raised will not only go towards our float in next years parade, but also help gay and lesbian lifesavers with their training fees etc. It’s going to be a great night with DJ’s Luna T and Miss Kitty Glitter.
