More than 36,000 attend Sydney’s LGBTQ Pride celebration in person, in COVID-era Mardi Gras

Don’t rain on Sydney’s Pride parade.

Members of the LGBTQ community and their friends in Australia’s largest city partied like it was 2019 — or as close as it got — on Saturday to celebrate the city’s world-famous Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Now in its 43rd edition, the event celebrating LGBTQ equality is one of the largest in the world, and it normally includes the massive Mardi Gras Parade and Party, as well as a number of smaller events attracting tens of thousands of tourists from Australia and abroad to the state of New South Wales.

Participants wearing costumes march in the parade during the 43rd Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney. (DAVID GRAY/)

In November, organizers of the rainbow-colored festival announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual march down Oxford Street, in the heart of Sydney’s LGBTQ district, would be replaced by a smaller celebration at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

For the first time in history the beloved parade was replaced by a ticketed event.

“Our 2021 Parade will move away from large floats, centering instead on the outlandish pageantry of costumes, puppetry and props that make it such a phenomenon to witness,” Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger said in a press release at the time.

On Saturday, instead of the usual crowd of around 200,000 people, some 36,000 revelers gathered in the city’s cricket stadium for the event.

Parade goers take part in the 43rd Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade at the SCG in Sydney on Saturday. (Lisa Maree Williams/)

The parade was broadcast on television and it featured a performance by singer Rita Ora.

This year’s theme was “rise,” as a nod to the community’s power and willingness to overcome obstacles.

“When we rise to the occasion, amazing things happen. We are agents of change. We rise to the challenge of being our true selves, of loving who we love, of discovering our own identities, culture and creativity,” organizers said in a press release.

“We connect. We overcome fear. We emerge from hard times stronger together,” they added.

While images of tens of thousands of maskless revelers hugging, kissing and high-fiving could be hard to fathom for most people around the world, as the pandemic continues to dictate social interaction behavior, Sydney managed to have a taste of what the world will be like in the post-COVID future because of its handling of the crisis.

Australia has had 29,002 COVID-19 cases and 909 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.

The state of New South Wales hasn’t had a single local transmission in 48 days.

“We knew Mardi Gras was going to look very different in 2021, so I’d like to thank the community for coming together today and celebrating peacefully and safely,” New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Talbot said in a statement, according to the BBC.

“We are in a unique position in Australia to be able to host events of this scale during a global health pandemic, and I commend the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras team for planning such a well-organized, COVID-safe event,” Talbot added.

“Happy Mardi Gras Sydney,” Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney tweeted on Saturday, sharing an image in which she can be seen marching in the parade, happily waving at the crowd.

“Have a wonderful night, you deserve the party,” she wrote.