Mardi Gras celebrates its 35th year with an all-inclusive theme – Generations of Love…

2013 will be the 35th Anniversary year of Sydney Mardi Gras, and we celebrate it under the banner ‘Generations of Love’.

What is Generations of Love all about? In coming up with this concept, Mardi Gras says that these are the ideas we danced around:

Thirty-five years marks a generation in time. A chance to look through the vibrant and colourful archive of our Mardi Gras moments together. A chance to don fabulous sunglasses as we look to the sparkling future that our future generations will forge.

Think about the generations that came before us, generations who had to fight hard to make the way easier for us today. Think about what sacrifices our community has made to allow us to live and love more freely. Think about the possibilities that the generations to come will create as they strive for a world where we can all be free to love.

Think about the generation of footsteps that have defined the Parade from protest voices; calls for equality; a statement of pride; tentative steps into new confidence; moments of remembrance, and solidarity in friendship.

We are finding strength in numbers, dancing together, marching in sync, and adding sparkles where there was only shade before. Think about the footsteps that will be created in the future, along paths we can barely imagine, as the new generations lead the world towards a more fabulous version of itself.

Thirty-five years ago, brave and fabulous pioneers from our community made the bold, fearless move of stepping up and out.

Celebratory steps that were met with arrest and prosecutions. Our ’78ers, and the pioneers that came before them, set those first brave footsteps in motion.

With each year, there are new footsteps. Footsteps that tell a new story, footsteps that reach beyond the ‘Why’ and revel in the ‘Why Not’. Footsteps that we have all shared and footsteps still yet to tread.

SGLMG Co-Chair Pete Urmson explained the Generations of Love theme: ‘With the 35th Anniversary this year, this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate and honour our generations, our pioneers, our friends, our matriarchs, our young blood. This is our heritage. This is our family tree. This makes us who we are and who we will become.’

SGLMG Co-Chair Siri Kommedahl added: ‘35 years on; it is time to remember where we have been, take pride in how far we have come, look where we are going and get excited about the paths that lie before us. These are our Generations of Love.’

Visual artist Lewis Oswald developed this year’s season concept and the accompanying creative content. Lewis explained: ‘The creative draws heavily on the strength, support and inspiration that our future, past and present communities draw from connecting, identifying and celebrating each other. I have deliberately referenced the AIDS quilt as a rich patchwork of our shared Mardi Gras treasures, overlayed with holding hands, which offer a landscape for our future possibilities that we are yet to colour in…’