50,000 people in Sydney celebrated the last day of WorldPride 2023 with rainbow flags, a huge colorful snake and all sorts of flashy outfits. A march over the famous Harbor Bridge near the opera house in the Australian east coast metropolis on Sunday morning (local time) was also part of the most important major event of the year for the global LGBTQIA community.
The abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intergender, queer and asexual people as well as other sexual minorities.
Indigenous Australians included
The final event was attended not only by many young people, but also by older couples and entire families, including numerous indigenous Australians. Under a bright blue sky and temperatures around 22 degrees, they ran a four kilometer route that led from North Sydney over the Harbor Bridge and finally into the center of the city.
“There is something very special about teaching the next generation the importance of equality,” a woman in a white rhinestone and glitter outfit told Australian television network ABC. She attended the event with her young niece dressed in a unicorn costume. Also present were Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Australia’s first openly lesbian woman in Parliament and Cabinet. “We are an inclusive country and it’s great to show that to the world,” Albanese told an ABC reporter.
Diversity, acceptance and inclusion
Sydney is the first city in the southern hemisphere to host WorldPride. With over 300 events including concerts, films, exhibitions, drag shows and parades, Australia’s most populous city celebrated the diversity, acceptance and inclusion of the queer community. A highlight was the concert by pop singer Kylie Minogue, which took place on February 24th. A day later followed the legendary Mardi Gras parade, which was celebrated for the 45th time – and for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic – on Sydney’s famous Oxford Street with 12,000 people.
On the last day of the colorful festival, celebrations were once again the order of the day on Oxford Street from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. At the same time, the final concert “Rainbow Republic” with seven hours of live music was to take place in the central green area of The Domain – including a performance by the German singer and transgender artist Kim Petras.
