Sydney’s Mardi Gras broadcast returns home to the ABC

After a long stint away, the Sydney Mardi Gras will return to the ABC from next year, to be broadcast ‘without commercial interests.’

The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade will be broadcast on ABC Radio and ABC Television from 2022, in a three-year deal announced today.

Triple j been named as the host radio broadcaster, with the ABC given both the television and radio rights to the event until 2024

The ABC has also been given broadcast rights to WorldPride, to be held in Sydney in February and March 2023.

ABC Managing Director, David Anderson said he was delighted the ABC would once again be host broadcaster of the Parade. “This is a homecoming for Mardi Gras.  We’ve waited 28 years for it to return and from 2022 onwards, we will provide coverage of Mardi Gras that only the ABC can, without commercial interests.”

ABC Chair, Ita Buttrose said: “Who else but the ABC can do justice to Mardi Gras?  The decision to first broadcast the Parade in 1994 paved the way for other media to cover the event and since then the ABC has been proud of its support of the LGBTQI+ community in Australia.

“We are the natural home for Mardi Gras, no-one else can take this event to so many Australians in so many places and in so many ways.”

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras CEO, Albert Kruger, said:   “We’re thrilled to have the ABC join us as our broadcast partner for the next three years.  Our national broadcaster has been a long time champion of LGBTQI+ communities, and we are proud to partner with such an icon of the Australian media landscape whose values and ethics align with our own. We look forward to working alongside their talented and committed team to amplify the diverse voices of our LGBTQI+ communities, as well as share our stories with the rest of the country.”

The Mardi Gras Parade will be broadcast on triple j, ABC Radio Sydney and local radio around the country and on ABCQueer on Saturday 5 March 2022 starting at 7.30pm. The ABC will also feature LGBTQI+ content on the ABC’s Main Channel, ABC iview and on ABC Australia.

The ABC has long-championed on-air representation of the LGBTQI+ community in Australia.   In June 2020, the corporation released its Five-Year Plan reaffirming its commitment to LGBTQI+ Australians as part of its diversity strategy, including people from diverse cultural, geographical, and Indigenous backgrounds, and people with disability.

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