Newcastle Pride is heading to the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras to march in the world-famous parade for a second year on Saturday 29 February 2020!
In 2019, Newcastle Pride marched up Oxford Street with a decorated ute and 80 keen participants dancing to Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’. Keeping the ‘Freedom’ theme alive and tying into the overall theme of the 2020 Mardi Gras of ‘What Matters’, in 2020 Newcastle Pride’s float entry is titled ‘Freedom To Be Me’. Newcastle Pride has also raised the stakes this year and will be entering a fully designed, decorated and glamourously glittered 6m flat bed truck, with another 80 keen participants dancing behind to Rozalla’s club favourite, ‘Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)’.
The design and build of the Newcastle Pride Mardi Gras float has been well underway since before Christmas, with committee members and other volunteers putting in hours of planning, drilling, cutting, painting and glittering to get the float built. Parade participants have also put hours into choreographing and learning dance moves to accompany the float as it heads up Oxford St this Saturday. There’s a lot more pressure this year for the float to look amazing and the dance moves to be spot on, with SBS broadcasting the parade live on TV for the first time!
After being awarded the City of Newcastle Community Group of the Year for 2020, Newcastle Pride is even more excited to be representing not only the local queer community, but the City of Newcastle and the wider Hunter Region.
President of Newcastle Pride Lee-Anne McDougall said: “I would like to sincerely thank every single volunteer who has had a hand in preparing Newcastle Pride to march in the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. A lot of blood, sweat and glitter has gone into our parade entry and I couldn’t be prouder of the Newcastle Pride community.”
Newcastle Pride will play host to its third annual Pride Festival from 14 – 30 August 2020. Following the success of the 2018 and 2019 festivals, in 2020 the Newcastle Pride Festival will include events in Lake Macquarie, Maitland and elsewhere in the Hunter, allowing Newcastle Pride to reach out to more regional communities that currently have no established LGBTIQ+ events or places to meet. They are also launching the Newcastle Pride “Youth Pride Tribe” social group, which will provide the queer youth of the region with a safe social space, support, workshops and events. Newcastle Pride also plans to host a “queer youth prom event” in the 2020 festival program. Other LGBTIQ+ and culturally diverse groups are invited to stage their own event in the 2020 program, with expressions of interest now open.
