Young queers to make a splash

The Mardi Gras Youth Festival (MGYF) will kick off this year with 21 Down on Saturday. February 20, at Slide.
Hosted by Courtney Act, this drug- and alcohol-free event is presented by ACON and gives youth a place to party safely.
A new addition to the festival is the Aqueerium, organised by GLBT youth support organisation Twenty10. Held at the Australian Theatre for Young People at Walsh Bay on Saturday, March 6, the event will feature a full day of workshops, performance, art, music and discussions with an aquatic theme.
“With this year’s aquatic theme, we wanted to say to queer young people ‘while it seems scary out there, you can come and explore safely with us and see the world is really exciting and colourful’, ” Twenty10 managing director Rebecca Reynolds said.
“Celebrating gender and sexual diversity is about so much more than just partying. Sometimes young people feel like small fish in a big pond when it comes to the whole Mardi Gras festival or even just a fish out of water in finding events that match their age and interest.
“This festival makes the pond smaller, meaning young people are more likely to find others who are like-minded.”