A Saturday to remember......Mardi Gras in Sydney

One of the World's largest party nights is about to begin....it is Mardi Gras time in Sydney, Australia...a coming together of GLBT persons to celebrate with the World....and I am here to tell you...now that it is the day after...it was one BIG party...thousands and thousands were involved.  In the early hours before the parade the streets were sealed off within 2 blocks of the parade...and Hyde Park across from my hotel was sealed off to protect the park as well as prevent injury to the parade celebrants.  So here is what it looked like from my hotel room about 3:00 in the afternoon...some 4 hours before the parade....

About 4:00pm I begin my trek to a reserved seat at the parade.  A reserved seat because there was food and drink...and more important toilets....don't laugh...this is a 4 hour parade...and with drink being very plentiful...it may come in handy....but I have to admit I only used it after the fact...way too much parade action to leave my seat.

As I trek up the street...and realize the streets were sealed off with barricades.....  the sidewalk was the only way to navigate the 20+ blocks to my seat location.  But there were sights on the way....

One of these guys you will see later as part of the parade...very unique I might add....

And yes...the police were out in force...hundreds....of them...on bike, horseback and walking....

It took about and hour to reach my seat location....and I settled in for the festive evening.  I watch the make-up artists at work on anyone who wanted their face painted in festive Mardi Gras color.  And socialized with persons from Scotland, Thailand, United States, South America and a lot from Australia/New Zealand.  

Later when I took my glass of Rose to my seat I sat there and began noticing these large birds...at first I thought they were crow...NOT....they were flying fox...in the States I call them bats!!  Yes, these were huge BATS...flying all over the place just a dusk.  Take a look at this one....

Soon I looked over my head in the trees and see this guy hanging on....YIKES....but then I got distracted and forgot about it....only realizing when I put these pictures together...this was hanging over my head for quite a while....

Let me get to this parade...I have to begin by saying I have never attended a parade with so many participants...some of the units had 200 or 300 participants...and this was a 4 hour parade...great music...dancing...but different from a parade in the US....no throwing of candy, beads, or any other trinkets....just a great time for everyone.  It began with motorcycle groups...Guys and Gals on Bikes..

There were police units.....construction/trade units....and of course surfer units (yeah...big in Australia...i.e.,Bondi Beach)

Even the Pope was there.....

Opps....NOT!!

There were water polo teams....swim teams....sailing teams....

Superman was there along with a unit with Kilts...to show that...as you guessed any undergarment was in his hand....not on his body!!!!

There was a lot of music...most of it recorded...but here is one of the marching band units...associated with the Wizard of OZ unit (some 200+ strong) along with the Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion...

The costumes of some of the units were outstanding.  Beautiful and huge feather outfits were the main attraction for units from Thailand and other Asian Countries....

and these beauties....

and remember the guy I captured a picture of on the way to the parade?  Well here he is again....

Yep...one of the "Gayola" group.....go figure.

There were these vehicles in the parade...

Now that would be a great way to get back to the hotel.....but here a couple lasting pictures of the parade...

There were a hundred other images I could have selected of the parade...But this could go on and on...let me give you one of two couples on the street as I made my way to party time...

and this...is what I faced for the next few hours....

And so about 6:00 am...I toast to my friends at Red Rock.....one last shot!!