A Gay Ole Time

All walks of sexual nuance will be out en masse this weekend to celebrate, gyrate and drink at their favourite Oxford St venue.

Big Gay Weekend, a three-day party organised by New Mardi Gras (NMG), is a fundraiser for the city’s annual Mardi Gras Parade which celebrates sexual diversity and acceptance.

The producer for the weekend-long party James Bridge is a former manager at Midnight Shift and has been on Oxford Street’s “scene” for eight years.

“We’re aiming to fundraise about $40,000 this weekend,” he said.

The money will be spent on producing both community-based and NMG floats.

Mr Bridge said the organisation receives a lot of support from the City of Sydney and Events NSW, they rely heavily on donations. “Last year we lost over $30,000 running the parade,” he said. “But this year we managed to get all the party promoters to donate a portion of their ticket sales. This has never been done before so it’s very exciting.”

Chief executive of NMG Michael Rolik said the upcoming public holiday has been a fundraising tradition for the last 30 years.

“The main objectives of the weekend are to raise funds for the Parade and to support businesses on Oxford St,” he said.

The event involves dozens of restaurants, bars and entertainment venues and officially begins at 5pm Friday.

Part of the ticket sales for the parties on Oxford Street this weekend will go toward funding the annual parade.

“In recent years, due to a number of reasons which had to do with having different teams every year, it hasn’t been that successful. So we decided to park it and come up with the concept of the Big Gay Weekend,” Mr Rolik said.

Mr Bridge said an army of volunteers are integral to the parade’s whole operation.

“We rely on volunteers to do everything from bucket collecting (getting donations) to building websites. Even those on the Board are volunteers,” Mr Bridge said.

“The organisation wouldn’t run without them.” The Parade is more than an excuse to prance around in sequined costumes for most Sydneysiders, it is also a platform for raising awareness about social issues pertaining to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals.

“The Parade started off as a march to get a point across in terms of equality,” Mr Bridge said. “Today marriage equality is at the forefront. To me, it seems like a no-brainer. Everyone should have the same rights. They should be able to marry whoever they want.”

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