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How much is too much for a ticket to party on the golden sands of Sydney’s Bondi Beach? Or a three-day summit discussing the importance of community, justice and human rights?
These questions are being debated among the city’s queer community following this week’s release of pre-sale tickets for Sydney WorldPride, the landmark global LGBT event due to be held across the city around Mardi Gras early next year.
And the answers – beach party tickets that start at $179, or almost $1500 for a LGBT+ rights conference – have come as a shock to some, who say the price is too high for queer people from all income brackets to partake in what should be a community-driven and inclusive occasion.
WorldPride is a “mega” version of the Sydney Mardi Gras parade.Credit:Dean Sewell
The global LGBT WorldPride event – which is held every two years by a roving host city – is slated to be one of Sydney’s biggest since the 2000 Olympics. The NSW government expects it to woo 78,000 domestic and international visitors who will spend $100 million, with more than 500,000 people anticipated to attend overall.
Key events – such as the parade itself, 10-day pride villages around Oxford Street, and the Fair Day festival in Victoria Park – are free.
Others include a pool party at the Ivy (from $79), the opening concert in the Domain ($119), official party at the Hordern Pavilion (from $155), Domain dance party (from $129) and First Nations gala concert (from $89).
WorldPride’s three-day human rights conference at the International Convention Centre is under particular fire for its fees, charging $1497 for general admission, $1797 for government and corporate tickets, and $747 for attendees associated with a community organisation. Similar conferences at the ICC typically cost between $1000 and $1600.
Sydney collective group Pride in Protest, which is opposed to the corporatisation of Mardi Gras, said organisers had “completely locked out the LGBTIQ+ community with their insane prices of their human rights conference” and barred working-class people from attending.
But Sydney WorldPride chief operating officer Gabriel Pinkstone said the event was intended for a broad audience, and tickets through an affordability or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program had been made available at $49 a day.
“We also have a scholarship program which will facilitate 100 people attending the conference for free … We are working to stream many of the sessions online for free,” she said.
Beverly Buttercup, a drag queen based in western Sydney, said she would have liked to attend the conference – marketed as a centrepiece of WorldPride and “an incredible opportunity to come together and build a world in which all of us are free and equal” – but could not afford to.
WorldPride chief executive Kate Wickett (centre) is pictured with Raquel Feltch and Karma Bites. The Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed to traffic for a 50,000-strong pride march.Credit:Edwina Pickles
Erskineville resident Malcolm Grant, 57, had a similar gripe. The parties are not an unusual price point for such events: the annual Mardi Gras party that was set to be hosted at the Hordern Pavilion following the parade in 2022 was also priced between $165 and $200.
But Grant said it meant many of his friends were unable to afford more than one or two events. “I knew tickets wouldn’t be cheap, but I didn’t think they would be so high as to be beyond the reach of many community members, particularly those on a pension or in insecure work,” he told the Herald.
Pinkstone said only 11 of the expected 300 events had been announced so far, and that a further 60 arts events and 20 sports events to be staged across greater Sydney would be announced later this year.
“We are doing everything we can to make Sydney WorldPride is the global family reunion LGBTQIA+ people deserve, whilst also contributing to re-opening Sydney to the world,” Pinkstone said.
Pre-sale tickets have largely sold out; remaining tickets go on sale to the general public on July 15.
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