About

Tasmania participatd in the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday 1 March 2008. It was the first time the state had been represented at Mardi Gras since 2001. The 2008 project raised awareness of the Tasmanian gay community. We also raised $6,000 to support research being done to help save the Tasmanian Devils from extinction.

Tasmania was represented by over 100 volunteers from all over Tasmania and interstate who quite literally put Tassie on the map. It was the largest float Tasmania had ever entered in the parade. The Tassie Devil's team marched up Oxford Street performing a choreographed routine in front of over half a million spectators.

The parade

The night time Parade is the jewel in the crown of the Mardi Gras Festival. It has an unrivalled reputation for glitz, glamour, satire and sass. It's a celebration of pride and diversity that never forgets to deliver its messages with humour and pizazz. Mardi Gras Parade has grown to become a major cultural event and its appeal stretches well beyond Sydney's gay community and its close supporters.

Theme

In 2008, Tasmania was represented in the parade as sexy and naughty little devils! Our emphasis was on having fun with a little bit of sexy attitude whilst marching in the parade. Our team worked very hard to finish the costumes that you can see on this web site. Our costumes included a pair of Blunstone Boots that were generously donated to each participant by Blundstone Footwear. The costume was designed so each participant could wear any amount of clothing as long as it was black. Participants could wear as much or as little as they liked!

History

Tasmania has previously participated in the Mardi Gras Parade many times. However, we had not taken part since 2001 - so we wanted to come back with a vengeance! In 2001 our theme was the Tassie Gladdies and we had over 70 marching boys and girls dressed as silver gladiators holding pink maps of Tasmania as shields and waving silver plastic swords. Without knowing we were participating in a competition, we were awarded the "best out of town" float. The reason we won was because we kept things simple, we made everyone look fantastic and we engaged the crowd that was watching. We are using this winning formula again this year.