Sleaze expects 10,000

As the lights go up at Fox Studios, New Mardi Gras are expecting to sell about 10,000 tickets to Saturday night’s Sleaze party.

Co-chair Michael Wood-house told Sydney Star Observer while early ticket sales had been slow, they had risen significantly -“ as expected -“ in the past week.

Every day is a new record, Woodhouse said.

Woodhouse said an attendance somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 would mean the party would succeed as a fundraiser for next year’s Mardi Gras season.

At that size I’m expecting we would be making money. The question is how much, he said.

Special measures have been put in place for the party in the wake of recent GHB overdoses in the gay community.

Woodhouse said there would be more volunteers looking for people in dangerous drug situations than in previous years and a joint New Mardi Gras-ACON advertising campaign about safer drug use.

We continue to have a really highly skilled and highly staffed medical team on site, so between the increases in security, the drug rovers that will be around looking out for people and the medical team itself, we’re confident we’re doing all we can, Woodhouse said.

Ultimately, the decisions were up to the partygoers, he said.

People need to think pretty seriously about the decisions they’re making, particularly with respect to G.

While he expected there would be a police presence at the party, Woodhouse said he was not anticipating any particularly heavy-handed policing. But he could not comment on whether there would be a designated sex space.

What I can say is sex at some of these parties is an inevitability and we’ll do our darnedest to make sure people have access to safe-sex supplies.

New Mardi Gras have increased the cost of tickets available at the door from $90 to $100, with no concessions for members. Tickets are available before the party from Ticketek.