Sydney WorldPride - Live and Proud Opening Concert

On 24 February 2023, one of the main events of Sydney WorldPride 2023 was Live and Proud Opening Concert.

This concert was meant to be the opening event for the festival but in reality, it was held halfway into the actual festival period.

This was not a free event; it was ticketed and the tickets weren't exactly cheap.

There were two sections.

Reserved seating was up close to the stage, with seats.

Most of the area was General ission, which was in the grass area of the parkland and no seating.

Anyone with a General ission ticket was not permitted to bring chairs (except for a legless chair).

I had a Reserved ticket, which I'd purchased back in July 2022.

Pretty much all the Reserve tickets sold out on the day they were released, so paying a high price was unavoidable.

Close to $200.00 is well above what I can really afford but a seat was necessary for two reasons.

1) For health/disability reasons, I need a seat. Standing the entire concert wasn't an option.

2) I'm aware most of you couldn't be there so I wanted to be as close to the stage as possible so I could report back and share the experience with you.

On arrival at The Domain, there were different entry points for VIPs, Reserved ticket holders and General ission.

My ticket was scanned and I was given a wristband to indicate I was a Reserved seating patron.

The seating area was oddly shaped and I was seated in one corner, in an aisle seat, as I chose at purchase.

It wasn't the best view but when looking behind and seeing the mass amount of people behind the Reserved fencing, it was certainly still better to be as close to the stage that I was.

It all kicked off with an Acknowledgement of Country. For those who are unaware, this is something we do in Australia as respect to our First Nations people, who are the oldest continuous living culture on Earth.

The concert was co-hosted by Casey Donovan (a popular Aussie singer) and Courtney Act (a pansexual drag performer).

Both of them performed as well.

Courtney Act did a song in a similar style to a number from 'The Sound Of Music', except it was 'The ABCs of LGBT' and a cabaret styled piece.

While Courtney Act went to get a costume change, she appeared on stage in her Madam Tussaud's wax form.

There were speeches by the Sydney WorldPride CEO, the CEO of Equality Australia and the (then) State Minister for the Arts (who happens to also be gay).

Eventually, the three main acts made their appearances.

First up was Jessica Mauboy.

I'm going to be critical of her performance.

The songs she performed (don't ask me what they were) weren't interesting, when she has other good songs that weren't sung.

She also kept saying 'Happy Mardi Gras' when it was a WorldPride concert.

Next up was Charli XCX.

I was happy she sang her most popular song but there was another song that seemed a poor choice as it, in my view, is heteronormative.

Eventually, the drawcard act arrived.

Kylie Minogue, known as the Princess of Pop, took to the stage.

She has a lot more songs than the other two artists put together, having had a more extensive career.

In the set performed, only one of the more popular songs was sung.

The little video I managed to capture was still interrupted by a patron a few rows ahead who was dancing in my line of sight.

Towards the end of the set, Kylie dropped a surprise and although not billed, her sister Danni Minogue made an appearance. They performed a song together.

(Some of you might that Australia contributed a music video to Global Pride in 2020, featuring a Danni Minogue track and Danni herself. I appeared in that video, representing the global Pansexual cohort.)

It was a treat to have both Minogue sisters performing together, something rarely seen.

Fireworks ended the concert but not before there was a very cool drone show that went for more than ten minutes.

The drones formed the Progress Shark, rainbows, the words 'You Are Loved' and other images and words relevant to the festival.

It's impossible to a 2GB video to Amino and even the short clip I chose to show doesn't fit within Amino's restrictions.

This portion of the drone show entailed the formation of the words 'Sydney WorldPride', which rotated.

The reason I chose to show this part is because it was in pink, yellow and blue.

Of all the possible colours they could have used, they chose those of the Pansexual flag!

I've also had to speed it up to fit it within Amino's fifteen second limit, so apologies if it sounds strange.

A camera boom cuts across, if you wonder what that is.

After the concert, a DJ took to the stage but I left like thousands of others, since it was already late at night.

On reflection, I have mixed feelings about the concert.

There was a constant flow of people moving and blocking my view, in both the aisle I was seated next to and in the walkway dividing the reserve area I was in with another closer to the stage.

The reason for so much movement was people going between their seat and either the bars, food trucks or toilets.

It's expected when there's tens of thousands of people there.

The three main performers were all heterosexual females.

For an international festival, it would have been preferable to feature rainbow artists amongst the top billed performers, of a variety of Orientations and Gender Identities.

The huge list of restrictions was also ridiculous.

Patrons weren't allowed to enter with many ordinary items, including hand sanitiser and water.

I went without as the food trucks were far away, too expensive and hundreds were lined up.

The concert was geared to a certain demographic; those who like to party and drink alcohol.

There were children in both Reserved seating and General ission but the party/alcohol stereotype still dominates.

That's not what Orientation and Gender Identity is all about.

Nevertheless, it was still a privilege to be able to attend the concert in person, which will likely be a once in a life opportunity.

Importantly, I was there for all of you that couldn't.