Mardi Gras party goes retro

Get out your eyeliner, slip on your favourite Choose Life shirt and get ready to step back in time. Mardi Gras is going retro.

This year’s Mardi Gras party on 6 March will feature one venue dedicated to retro hits of the 80s and 90s, alongside other venues which will deliver the more traditional house, trance and doof styles of music.

New Mardi Gras board member Mark Orr said the decision to convert the Stage 11 venue to a retro hall for the night was made in response to many requests from community members. Some of these requests had come from punters who remembered retro dance spaces working well at previous parties, while other requests had come from people who had not been to parties for a long time, Orr said.

Stephen Blomfield, Jake Kilby and Justin Scott will be the DJs in the retro hall.

Orr said the retro hall idea was in keeping with the organisation’s desire to keep doing things differently and have innovation. Punters who were attracted to the more cutting-edge and contemporary styles of dance music would still be catered for in the RHI and Hordern, he added.

Alex Taylor, Luke Leal, Ryan Murphy and Shigeki will DJ in the RHI, while the Hordern will showcase the turntable skills of the UK’s Lisa German, Brisbane’s Kylie Rose and local favourites Mike Kelly and Sveta.

Another outside dance space will be set aside for up-and-coming DJs.

Orr said that party tickets were selling very, very well and that Mardi Gras had been encouraged by the number of tickets sold even before this week’s announcement of DJs. If enough tickets get sold, the organisation will open up additional dance spaces at the party, he said.

Discounted tickets ($99 for non-members and $89 for members) remain on sale until Friday 13 February.