YOU SPIN ME ’ROUND
Now in its fifth year, the annual Mardi Gras DJ spin-off will be held this week at the Stonewall Hotel, Oxford Street. Submissions to the competition closed on January 19, and the six who’ve been culled from the many applicants, who’ll be performing on the night, are: Mr Stoj, Ashley Callan, Mister S, Anthony James, Tim Graham and undersiege. (Note: undersiege is just one word, and there is no capital ‘u’ in undersiege. OK?) Be there, or be somewhere else.

The Annual Mardi Gras DJ Spin-Off: 5pm-11pm on Sunday, February 4 at Stonewall Hotel, 175 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

A sponsorship deal involving international dating website Gaydar has locked rival online groups out of the Mardi Gras parade on 3 March and the festival’s Fair Day on 18 February.

The inclusive spirit of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has been betrayed by organisers who are excluding groups because of the commercial deal, according to one disgruntled businesswoman.

Liz James from lesbian dating website The Pink Sofa says her members have been refused permission to take part in the parade and have been rejected from the Fair Day, despite having a stall there for the last six years.

Ms James said organisers were jeopardising the spirit of Mardi Gras as well as its financial future by opting for the immediate cash injection from Gaydar, over the community ethos the festival was meant to represent.

Organisers confirmed the commercial agreement with Gaydar prevented The Pink Sofa being involved in Fair Day and the parade.

“Hundreds of girls wanted to march under a Pink Sofa banner and we’ve been told they can’t,” Ms James said.

“I believe Mardi Gras is a celebration of everybody, but this business practice is anti-community.

“Mardi Gras is a community event, it’s all about inclusion, but this excludes people from the community. It doesn’t belong to anyone in particular, it belongs to all gays and lesbians.

“If they continue with this practice they have lost touch with the community and what the event is all about.

“A number of businesses might consider boycotting the event in future if they continue this practice.”

Mardi Gras chairman Marcus Bourget rejected Ms James’ complaints and said the festival did not exclude any individuals.

Mr Bourget said, with an annual turnover of $3 million, Mardi Gras was a business which needed sponsors to survive like any other commercial event.

“She runs a for-profit company in direct competition to our leading sponsor,” Mr Bourget said.

“We are not excluding people, only competing commercial organisations.
“If not for our sponsors there would be no Mardi Gras. We have to provide a fair deal for our sponsors.

“We welcome her (Pink Sofa) members to participate in the event as individuals.”

Organisers backed down from another exclusive deal yesterday after the state tourism boards from Queensland and Tasmania were also refused admission at Fair Day because of an agreement between Mardi Gras and Tourism New South Wales.

Following intervention from Vincent Cooper of the International Gay and Lesbian Tourism Association, the decision was reversed.

Mr Cooper said commercial exclusion was not appropriate for Mardi Gras.
“They need to be a little more sensitive when signing up these sponsorship agreements,” Mr Cooper said.

“I can understand if Ford sponsored it and Toyota wanted to be involved, but when they exclude gay and lesbian businesses like Pink Sofa, it’s just not on.”

 Some of the paraders from Mardi Gras 2006

Organisers of this year’s Mardi Gras parade Marching Group will turn to ancient history to make a spectacular statement on modern political struggles. Historical themes are nothing new for the iconic Oxford Street event, but the 2007 Marching Group will go much further back than usual with its Greek Love entry. The Marching Group will feature 100 people between two floats, accompanied by a “huge” Trojan horse.

“It’s a bit of a battle cry,” Marching Group spokesperson and parade creative director Graeme Browning said. “The whole theme of it is there’s a battle still to be fought, but there’s nothing wrong with looking glamorous while you’re fighting the battle. There’s going to be a huge horse. We’re very excited about that. That’s going to be somewhere around the middle of the parade, we’re thinking.”

The Marching Group entry is bigger than usual this year because of sponsorship from Gaydar.com.au.

“Normally we have one truck with lights and sound, this year we’re having two,” Browning said.

Organisers are shipping in costumes from overseas to cater for the expanded entry. They are also recruiting more participants. The lead float in the Mardi Gras parade on 3 March will also look to the past as it makes a statement on the community today.

Browning said the float would refer to “the things that have been put in place in the last 100 years that have led us to the point we’re at now, what those things are and perhaps what the world would have been if a lot of these things hadn’t happened.

“It’s about the gay community but it’s also about the wider community. Mardi Gras’ statement is often about ourselves but I think as a community more and more we’re concerned about the world we live in.” Organisers have not announced the lead float’s theme.

A Mardi Gras Marching Group briefing session will be held on Saturday 10 February from 2pm at Stonewall Hotel. To sign up before then, email parade@mardigras.org.au. Marchers need to be available for rehearsals in the second half of February.

The Imperial Hotel’s cabaret bar will be the location for two sexy plays staged by the Focus Theatre group to coincide with Mardi Gras 2007. The plays will run back-to-back on four nights in late February.

Blowing Whistles is the story of Nigel and Jamie, a couple of ten years’ standing in an open relationship, who hook-up online on Mardi Gras eve with ‘Cumboy_17’. “It’s about three blokes who meet online and how their lives are changed in the course of 24 hours,” says actor Pete Nettell of the play, which explores the pitfalls of internet dating.

Blowing Whistles will be followed by I Love Youse All which, according to director Alice Livingstone, “is a drag and music hall and cabaret and burlesque all melded together in a celebration of this city’s obsession with celebrity and money and fame.”

Blowing Whistles will play the cabaret bar at The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville on February 19, 21, 26 and 28 at 7pm. Tickets $15. Book on (02) 9029 8349. ($1 from each ticket sale goes to ACON). I Love Youse All follows at 9.30pm. Tickets $5 (door sales only).

While received wisdom states that you need to camp out for hours to get a really good view of the Mardi Gras Parade, it’s not necessarily so. An alternative to squeezing in with all and sundry, craning your neck and standing on milk-crates, is to purchase a ticket in the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation (BGF) Glamstand. Tickets to  Glamstand 2007, a roped-off section of tiered seating along the parade route, are now available, and once again, patrons can pre-pay for a Simmone Logue picnic box, ensuring not only a prime viewing position, but fabulous food and wine to go with it. Proceeds from Glamstand benefit the BGF, one of Australia’s leading charities for people living with HIV/AIDS.

To purchase a ticket to Glamstand (from $100 plus booking fee) visit www.bgf.org.au

If you’re not too fragile the next day, Café Sopra (7 Danks St., Waterloo, 011-61-2-9699-3174) is a must. “No bookings, fantastic fresh produce Italian-style,” says Christine, and worth a detour, but be prepared to queue. Her other tip is Zinc (77 Macleay St., Potts Point, 011-61-2-9358-6777), “run by gay boys, where all the locals hang out.” Peter and John say Ten Buck Alley (185A Bourke St., East Sydney, 011-61-2-9356-3000) has the best coffee and best breakfast. For Marcus, he likes the cafes in the beach suburb of Bronte. “Lots of choice, lots of coffee, and lots of surfers to keep the eyes as well as the taste buds satisfied.”To conclude, Brent suggests that visitors come during the summer (winter in the Northern Hemisphere): “Charm, a smile, and being a little forward will get you a long way. You’ll get even further with an accent and a tan. Try everything, and be prepared to party all weekend!”

Source and Copyright: From the winter 2006 issue of TheOutTraveler

The swankiest club is Tank (3 Bridge Lane, Sydney, 011-61-2-9240-3094), “a beautifully designed venue with a fairly regular gay night,” says Daniel. Slide (41 Oxford St., Darlinghurst, 011-61-2-8915-1899) is perfect for lounge divas, and “for a gay Sydney experience, you can’t go past the Mother Ship…er, Midnight Shift [85 Oxford St., Darlinghurst, 011-61-2-9360-4319],” says Kane. It’s been around forever, as have some of the punters. Arq (16 Flinders St., Darlinghurst, 011-61-2-9380-8700) is all high-tech lights and thumping sound; Manacle (1 Patterson Lane, Taylor Square, Darlinghurst, 011-61-2-9331-2950) is “down and dirty” and has “cold beers and hot men,” according to Brent; while Stonewall (175 Oxford St., Darlinghurst, 011-61-2-9360-1963) is “full of young boys wearing makeup with a ghetto punk look,” says Benn Anderson, a junior government bureaucrat. It’s also “where you too can find a boy who won’t remember your name or his own in the morning,” adds Cleopatra. Occasional Fag Tag (www.fagtag.com.au) and Bad Dog (www.baddog.net.au) parties, which take over a different straight venue for a night, attract a slightly more offbeat gay and lesbian crowd, and are “not to be missed,” says Marcus. For drag, Cleopatra says, “don’t leave Sydney without seeing the best in the biz” at the Imperial Hotel (35 Erskineville Rd., Erskineville, 011-61-2-9519-9899), immortalized in Priscilla the movie.