Ready to roll

A smile breaks out over Justin Green’s face as he recalls arriving from Melbourne and watching his first Mardi Gras parade back in 1993.

I well remember my first parade as I have never felt so happy or safe in my life, Green says.

It is a beautiful feeling the gay community of this city gives off and I think, with Mardi Gras, there will always be something to celebrate. And let’s face it, the gay community knows how to party better than anyone else.

And these days, that’s very much thanks to Green, who is the construction manager and design coordinator of this year’s Mardi Gras parade and party. For the past three months, Green has been dividing his time between Mardi Gras’s Petersham workshops and a workshop in Zetland, in preparation for this weekend’s festivities.

In his construction role, Green has overseen a variety of volunteer working groups who have come to the aid of the organisation, as well as a small team of paid workers.

Every time I think about what the volunteers have achieved around here, I almost get a headache as it is so hard to imagine the dedication they show unless you see it, he says.

Some of them are doing two jobs -“ their regular work, and then another 40 hours or so a week for Mardi Gras. I would just love to see them get more acclaim for it.

When Mardi Gras gets criticised, I feel for the volunteers as they are doing it all for nothing. And when I hear that criticism, my response is always the same -“ if you don’t like it, then come in here and help change it as we need you.

Walking around the Zetland workshop -“ splattered with the paint and dust of that day’s activities -“ Green shows off his team’s handiwork with the three giant truck floats that will lead this year’s Mardi Gras.

This year’s lead entry carries an environmental theme. The first float is titled Mother Earth, the second is a Greek Relic Temple and the third is a Trojan Horse. All have been designed by the Creative Working Group, headed up by Graeme Browning, and built by Green and his team.

Assaf Carmeli is a designer who has been working on the float. He left Israel to study at NIDA, and recalls being disappointed upon seeing his first Mardi Gras parade earlier this decade when the reality did not live up to his imagination.

I wondered why they hadn’t built bigger things. So when I was approached to work on this, I liked the challenge, Carmeli says.

I am now getting butterflies, thinking about this going up the street. The amount of work that has gone into making this is much, much worse than what is seen on the outside. But when people come in to help out and look up at it and say, -˜Oh wow,’ then that is worth it, as I know Saturday night will be worth it as it wheels by.

In another corner of the Zetland space, Jane Becker is wielding a paintbrush, putting the finishing touches to the City of Sydney’s float, More Than Just Pansies -¦ Another Gay In The Emerald City, designed by Pip Playford.

The float represents the green hills of Sydney Park in St Peters, with a twist on clean energy sources being tied in with Oscar Wilde’s lapel carnations.

Playford says she and her team have been working on the float for five weeks, and it is now down to the final details to have it ready to roll for Saturday night.

I have done a lot of floats over the years, but when you get to Saturday night and you turn on the generator, and the lights and the music are on and you are ready to go, I still get really excited -“ and this is something I have been doing since 1989, she says.

Over the years, you learn new tricks and know what works and what doesn’t, so you know how to pull it together. It is still nice to feel excited about this, and to be with people who have never been in the parade before who just love doing it is such a buzz.

With parade time now only a matter of hours away, Justin Green returns to checking the wiring of the lights along one side of his float, plus attending to the neverending ringing of his mobile phone.

But if he has any nerves, they don’t show. Last year was my first one and it was testing -“ I think we were putting the last screw into the dancefloor as the gates were being opened to the party. But this year, we are in good shape.

I am just looking forward to watching the parade this year and seeing people react to what we have all worked on. This is going to be bigger than it has been for a long time.