Parade goes on, but Sydney's Mardi Gras suffering the blues

By ROBERT LOWE

Once a defiant act of protest but now a money-spinner for tourism, Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is suffering some mid-life blues.

The three-week festival culminates this year on March 2 with the traditional glitzy parade of buffed buttocks and outrageous outfits that attracts enthusiastic, mainly heterosexual spectators in their hundreds of thousands.

The nationally televised march will again wind its way through the inner city, including down Oxford St, the home of "queer Sydney".

The annual Mardi Gras, which also includes stage shows, music concerts and art exhibitions, has helped the city to rival San Francisco as the gay capital of the world.

It is also reported to have become Australia's single biggest earner of tourist dollars, bringing in an estimated $A100 million ($NZ123.8 million) for the local economy last year.

And yet, the 2002 event has been marked by a sense of malaise, with talk of big budget cuts and complaints that the carnival has lost its way.

Less than half the 20,000 tickets for the main fundraiser - the post-parade party - has been snapped up and there are no big drawcards this year after three headline acts, including British porn star Aiden Shaw, pulled out.

Mardi Gras president Julie Regan remained confident this week that targets would be met.

"There are always doom-and-gloomers around and they should know better," she said.

"This is an organisation that adapts to change and has done so for nearly 25 years."

Part of the problem for organisers are the aftershocks from the September 11 terrorist attacks, which caused a slump in travel worldwide.

Gay and Lesbian Tourism Australia managing director Rob Wardell predicted that the number of international visitors to the Mardi Gras, especially those from the United States, would be significantly lower than in the past.

"The American downturn could be anything from 30 per cent to 50 per cent," he said.

Many potential tourists were also having to choose between the Mardi Gras and the Sixth Gay Games, being held in Sydney in November.

The Gay Games are expected to attract 14,500 sporting and cultural participants, more than the total of athletes at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"People have only so many holidays and so many disposable dollars," Mr Wardell said.

To soften the Mardi Gras' financial problems, the New South Wales state government has waived $A322,000 in fees it would normally charge for crowd control and road closures.

Premier Bob Carr said the exemption was necessary to protect the 170,000 jobs in the tourism sector.

But the move caused controversy, with other organisations such as the state's MS Society and Cancer Council, also seeking the same for their charity events.

A separate issue facing the Mardi Gras is philosophical, with critics complaining that its accent on hedonism rather than gay rights had reduced its relevance.

The carnival has its origins in an illegal march by 1000 protesters down Oxford St in June 1978.

The demonstration, marking International Gay Solidarity Day and calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals, was disrupted by violent clashes with police and led to 53 arrests.

Since then, Mardi Gras has grown into a summertime celebration attracting corporate sponsorship and pulling in parade crowds that reached an estimated 650,000 in 1996.

But many in the gay community have expressed disenchantment with the commercialism that has turned the festival into what they see as just another date on the tourist calendar.

The signature parade, once deemed so daring, was now a night out for middle-class families, while the organisation behind the festival had become bloated.

"In the old days, Mardi Gras was run by a tiny staff of volunteers," one former treasurer said.

"Now, there are 19 full-time employees - including a CEO who is paid $A125,000."

Ageing revolutionaries can point to other developments, such as the nature of the police presence, which once carried the threat of baton charges and "perverts" being carted off to prison.

Nowadays, officers fall in line. Last year, several uniformed NSW officers marched in the parade and some of their Queensland colleagues have expressed interest in doing the same next month.

In another sign of the times, Tupperware, that icon of suburbia, has become a new sponsor of the Mardi Gras.

The maker of plastic kitchen containers, traditionally hawked at housewives' get-togethers, is hoping to boost its profile among gay consumers and to attract a younger clientele.

"The company has had to change tack because there just isn't the volume of stay-at-home mums interested in selling the products," marketing manager Ian Evans said.

Mardi Gras film festival organiser Richard King backed the deal, describing it as "totally camp".

"It's just so wacky," he said. "We love it."

Then again, perhaps not so wacky. One of the movies on Mr King's programme is Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic - the tale of a singing Jewish lesbian's obsession with Tupperware.

- NZPA