Sydney has sizzled with sequins and glitz as Mari Gras festival season opened on a sunshine-filled day championing equality and inclusivity.
Thousands gathered in rainbow colours at Victoria Park on Sunday for a fair featuring some 200 food, retail and community stalls.
Organisers were forced to cancel the 2024 fair day - the much-loved first big event of the Mardi Gras festival - after mulch contaminated with asbestos was found in parks across the city.
But the event returned in glorious fashion on Sunday.
Mardi Gras chief executive Gil Beckwith said the fair was expected to attract up to 70,000 people.
"There'll be some folks who only join us for that day out of the whole festival," she said.
This year's festival theme is Free to Be, a celebration of strides taken towards LGBTQI equality with a reminder that there's still a way to go.
The theme reflects the sentiment that none of us are free until we all are, Ms Beckwith said.
"There is a sense that some of those well-fought-for rights may be coming under attack again," she said.
"It underpins the strength of Mardi Gras and why it's so important because it reinforces that we (the LGBTQI community) are here and we're not going anywhere.
"We are loved and contributing members of the community who shouldn't be taken for granted."
Advocates have criticised a Queensland government decision to place an immediate pause on new patients under 18 years of age from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapies.
Queensland became Australia's first state to deny young trans patients puberty blockers, announcing a probe into reports gender-affirming hormones were given to minors as young as 12 without authorised care in the state's far north.
The federal government subsequently announced the National Health and Medical Research Council would independently review the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment guidelines for trans and gender-diverse children and adolescents.
It called on the Queensland government to suspend its probe while the federal review was under way.
The 2025 Mardi Gras festival hopes to bring extra sparkle after the usual joy and celebrations were overshadowed in 2024 by a series of dark events.
NSW Police was uninvited from marching in the parade after the alleged murder of couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies weeks before the festival, allegedly by a then-serving senior constable.
The 29-year-old accused remains in custody with the case before the courts, and was sacked by the force in March.
Police were ultimately allowed to march in plain clothes but ongoing debate intensified about their presence in the parade.
A proposal to ban police from the 2025 event was narrowly defeated by members at an annual general meeting of Mardi Gras in 2024.
The festival culminates in the Mardi Gras Parade on March 1, where some 12,000 people are expected to march as more than 100,000 spectators cheer them on.
Ms Beckwith declined to comment on whether uniformed police would march in this year's parade but said the community was still mourning Luke and Jesse's deaths.
"Last year it was extremely challenging for the community and the optics of the police, but we worked with them about their float," she said.
"I know that this parade will be a solemn moment for people. It's a memory for all that occurred last year which was just horrific."
The festival's wide-ranging impact could not be underestimated, Ms Beckwith said.
"Mardi Gras does take over Sydney and I'm hoping that we're changing the cultural narrative around difference," she said.
