How many reasons do you need to go to Sydney World Pride? How long have you got?

1. It is set to be the BIGGEST (we put that in capitals just to get our point across) LGBTQ+ - that’s ‘gay’ to you – party in any hemisphere you care to mention in 2023. And we’re not even kidding.

2. It’s coming up soon with the main action happening over a fortnight in February and March, though there’s already stuff going on… so you don’t want to hang around when it comes to securing tickets, accommodation, going on crash bikini-body diets, booking a spray tan…

3. Kylie will be there. She’s headlining the Live and Proud opening event at the Domain and if you stand on a box – a very tall one – you might see her (she’s small!) alongside the likes of Charli XCX.

4. Courtney Act will also be there, in several guises. She’s hosting the Live and Proud event – see above – and, when we talked to her from her Sydney penthouse, she reckoned she had a bunch of friends coming in and was determined to do everything.

5. The Speedo, which is like the national costume of Australia, so there will be a lot of that sort of thing.

6. The Mardi Gras Parade, which is already famous/infamous even without that extra World Pride spin. Expect hair up to here and very little else, if we know those people.

7. They’re putting the First Nations, erm, first with the aboriginal LGBTQ+ community being embraced so tight it can hardly breathe! ‘There’s this genuine allyship because there are a lot of queer First Nations people,’ said Courtney (see, we really did talk to her!) ‘and so it’s this beautiful inclusion.’ Best of all will be Miss First Nation; Supreme Queen, a drag queen fight to the death (well, death of reputation) over three days at Carriageworks.

8. It’s not just partying and dollying around, there is also sport, like the 2023 IGLFA Football World Championships, which we assume means men in short shorts.

9. And politics! The Human Rights conference is an international meeting of LGBTQ+ minds with speakers, symposiums, the works. You can stream it if you don’t want to put in an appearance.

10. Mardi Gras Fair Day, which takes over Victoria Park for the whole day in what they refer to as a ‘rainbow extravaganza’!

11. The Paradiso Pool Party at the Ivy Pool Club. We think Speedos are actually obligatory for this one, though you can probably take a cover-up.

12. The show called All The Sex I’ve Ever Had (how long do they think we’ve got?), a show where gay elders tell their stories – think Vagina Monologues but with much less vagina – at Eternity Playhouse.

13. The whole of Oxford Street is being turned into an all-weekend street party. Please do not wear white trainers, they’ll never be clean again.

14. Nicole Scherzinger is headlining the closing party on the beach! Which surely means more Speedos!

15. The cultural side of the festivities – the first time World Pride has been held south of the equator, by the way – is remarkably classy with events like Tony award-winning play Choir Boy, by the guy who wrote the Oscar-winning film Moonlight (remember the JAKE screening? Told you it was going to be big), at the Riverside in Parramatta one of the highlights.

16. The Domain Dance Party is being billed as the biggest LGBTQ+ circuit event Australia has ever seen. We feel tired just thinking about it.

17. It’s in Sydney. And you’ve always wanted to do the Opera House, the Bridge (the Pride March is going over it!) and Bondi, right?

For more highlights go to sydneyworldpride.com