Here's a letter from today's SMH:
The Herald has published the crowd estimate at the Mardi Gras as 300,000 people ("Heavenly night, hell of a morning after", March 9). This seems extremely unlikely. The City to Surf is the most easily measurable street crowd in Sydney, with all participants numbered. Is it believable that five times this number was squeezed onto the footpaths of Darlinghurst?
I drove across the Harbour Bridge in the early evening with far less traffic than one would get for a crowd of 20,000 at the Football Stadium or SCG. I was in the Darlinghurst area late in the night at a pub which was lively, but by no means crowded.
Did one in 12 people in greater Sydney really come to Oxford Street to watch this parade? The Herald should apply the same journalistic acid to these claims as it would to any other data. If it did, I would be saved from sending this same letter every year.
Andrew Coorey, Darling Point
As the man says, same non-story every year.
2 comments:
The Mardi Gras felt a lot larger to me this year, with the addition of one. A Christian friend proudly joined the marched.
I was incredibly disappointed with my first, and last, Sydney Mardi Gras. The fact that over half of the parade route was not only blocked off for paying quests but that the blocking barriers were so constructed as to obstruct any viewing of the parade from behind them was in my opinion totally opposite of the parade's 'inclusive' ideals. This exclusive 'us' and 'them' concept really overwhelmed any sense that the parade was supposed to promote community. As a veteran of European pride parades, where participants and spectators are one-in-the-same, this exclusionary policy of the Sydney organisers left more than just a bad aftertaste. It spoiled an otherwise very positive impression of Sydney.
Noteworthy: The day after, the local news station reported the story of 'Yesterday's Mardi Gras' as a total success 'ACCORDING TO ITS ORGANISERS.' Interesting choice of words.
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