The best free and cheap Sydney WorldPride events

What if we told you that you can ride on a totally free (yes, free) rainbow party bus filled with LGBTQIA+ icons this WorldPride and Mardi Gras Parade? Well, you can. Thanks to the transport gods over at Uber, a completely free hop on, hop off party bus will be moving through the city centre during WorldPride and Mardi Gras from Friday, February 24 to Sunday, February 26 and then again from Friday, March 3 to Sunday, March 5. Hallelujah! 

Carriageworks has been transformed into a portal of colourful, queer new reality. With the joint powers of Paul Yore’s installation Word Made Flesh and the Huxleys’ exhibition Bloodlines combined, you can immerse yourself in a whole lot of glittery good times and historical tidbits. Conceived as a cacophonous, kaleidoscopic ‘gesamtkunstwerk’, Word Made Flesh imagines a queer alternative reality, erected from the wasteland of the Anthropocene, performatively implicating itself into the debased spectacle of hyper-capitalist society. Meanwhile, Bloodlines utilises the artists’ skills in costume design, performance and photography. This major new exhibition from Melbourne’s dynamic duo honours legendary queer artists lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The 45th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade is on Saturday, February 25, but you don’t need to be at the actual parade to get amongst the Mardi Gras magic. As well as some fabulous paid parade-viewing events dotted around Sydney, there are plenty of free-entry parties happening throughout the day and night, including at Darlo Bar, the Bank, Vic on the Park, the Kings Cross Hotel and The Star. Click here for more info on all the best Mardi parties.

Stanley Street in Darlinghurst will be buzzing throughout WorldPride. For four weeks from Feb 17, 95 events will run across 14 venues for Secrets on Stanley, supported by the City of Sydney and Pride Amplified. It's a big, multi-venue celebration of music, art, community and food, with each venue offering a ‘secret’ item on the menu every day and a range of experiences including drag bingo, rainbow gelato from Bill & Toni's, crab racing, life drawing, a one-day Margarita Festival, an epic DJ line-up at Stanley’s every Wednesday and much more. The full events calendar can be found here.

Australian performance artist, storyteller and photographer William Yang is an renowned chronicler of our time. Join Yang as he takes the audience back through 1970's Sydney, the vibrant history of Mardi Gras, and the ever-evolving LGBTQIA+ story. The storytelling in Gay Sydney: A Memoir is set against his own vibrant photographs and evocative music created and played live by Meanjin/Brisbane composer, Timothy Fairless. His show runs at the Seymour Centre from Sun Feb 19 to Thu Feb 23, 2023, and tickets are $32.