'Years in the making': the story behind Sydney’s successful WorldPride 2023 bid

Adrian Phoon, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras’ newest board director, was tired yet excited as he nervously awaited the results of Sydney’s mammoth bid to host WorldPride 2023.

Widely described as the “gay Olympics”, reflecting its sheer scale, he knew WorldPride, which has run every two years since 2000, is a juggernaut – now the world’s biggest LGBTQI event. It unites Gay Prides and their communities across the globe – attracting, at a conservative estimate, a million visitors and world-class talent. At this year’s WorldPride in New York, Madonna performed hits including Vogue and songs from her new album Madame X.

On four hours sleep, Phoon had worked the phones all weekend, along with fellow board director Jesse Matheson and four volunteers – including Portuguese interpreters who canvassed South American votes. It was after dark on Sunday night when he received a call from Mardi Gras volunteer and former board member Liz Dods.

“She said stop whatever you’re doing right now, get down to the Stonewall bar and come share a drink because, whatever happens, we’re family,” Phoon says. “And that sums it up for me: we’re inviting the world to come join the close-knit family that is Australia’s LGBTQI community.”

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The bid team, led by 78er Kate Wickett, had split into two groups – half, including Wickett and Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, travelled to Athens to present the entry; the other half stood on stage at Stonewall in the heart of Australia’s most famous gay village, eagerly awaiting news, drinks trembling in hands.

The result was a triumphant landslide, Sydney winning 60% of votes from members of the InterPride network, beating Montreal (36%) and Houston (3%).

Phoon says he was so shocked he refused to believe it until it was confirmed. “We screamed and jumped up and down on Stonewall’s stage,” he says." “Afterwards, I did shed some tears. I thought about how many people, many of them volunteers, had been involved in this bid, years in the making.”

Politicians including Simon Birmingham and Penny Wong publicly thew their weight behind the bid. The bid proposal – 158 pages long – puts Australia’s First Nations people front and centre. The co-chair of First Nations Rainbow, Graham Simms, was part of the Athens presentation team. “We have the oldest continuing civilisation on the planet so we wanted the LGBTQI people within that community to tell their own stories in their own voices,” Phoon says.

The event itself will reflect the history, art and culture of Australia’s First Nations LGBTQI People, including a smoking ceremony to kickstart the parade.

Taking place over 17 days in February and March 2023, there will actually be two parades one week apart – the traditional Mardi Gras march up Oxford Street, but also a separate parade especially for WorldPride.

Every WorldPride has to demonstrate how it will host four staple events: an opening ceremony, a closing ceremony, a Pride march and a human rights conference attracting at least 1,000 delegates. Australia’s conference will, Phoon says, focus on tips and solutions for urgent human rights challenges both at home and abroad, such as trans issues and the balance between religious freedom and sexual orientation.

In addition, a new element of WorldPride unique to Sydney will be bespoke parties, including a huge celebration with DJs on Bondi Beach. “It’ll be iconic and very exciting,” Phoon says.

The unique flavour of regional and remote Pride events across Australia, including the Broken Heel festival, will also inform programming.

Deloitte predicts a 25-40% increased growth in visitors, in addition to the existing 1.094-1.225 million visitors for Mardi Gras. The NSW tourism minister, Stuart Ayres, estimates it could generate more than $664m for the economy.

2023 will be a milestone year for Australia: the fifth anniversary of marriage equality and the 45th year of Mardi Gras.

It will also be the first time WorldPride has come to the southern hemisphere, giving Australia the opportunity to highlight the “achievements and challenges” of the Asia Pacific region to the world, Phoon says, adding that of the 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal, 21 are in Asia.

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“As a person of colour, it was so important to me to promote the diversity within our LGBTQI community – to help empower and lift the voices of other people of colour, but also to promote body diversity, age diversity and gender diversity,” Phoon says. Growing up in the Sutherland shire, it’s the diversity he rarely saw. “Firstly I didn’t know many gay people. When I started getting involved with LGBTQI community, I didn’t see many people who looked like me.”

The successful bid will shine a light on the region, encouraging a pink domino effect for LGBTQI communities in Asian countries eager to work towards equality. It continues the work started by Greenwich, who says: “We were proud to support the successful campaign for marriage equality in Taiwan with strategic advice and resources. We’ve continued to support other campaigns in the Asia Pacific region and WorldPride 2023 provides an important deadline for further progress.”

The theme of Sydney’s event shares an ambition for the entire region in a single word: fearless.

“If visibility alone is a political statement,” Phoon says, “this is going to be one powerful statement.”