Rita Ora to serenade Sydney’s Mardi Gras 2021

It might be for one night only but the British pop star’s headline gig at Mardi Gras will mark the first live peformance by a global name in Australia since the pandemic.

British pop superstar Rita Ora will headline the 2021 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.

Pop superstar Rita Ora will headline Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade in March — the first major global act to perform in Australia since COVID-19 closed borders and shuttered live music.
The British music sensation’s performance will be part of a sequined spectacle with a line up that also includes sets from electronic duo Electric Fields, Australia’s Eurovision competitor Montaigne and ARIA award nominee G Flip.
Ora is already in Australia to film the newest season of The Voice and finished her mandatory 14-days quarantine on Monday.
Running from Friday February 19 until Sunday March 7, the festival is scheduled to go ahead with around 5000 marchers all embracing this year’s theme ‘rise’.
The event will be ticketed and held at Sydney Cricket Ground. Floats that usually parade down Oxford Street will instead make laps around the stadium where capacity for the party is 23,000 people.

Soo excited to be part of this year’s @sydneymardigras line-up!! 🧡☄️💥 Saturday 6th March, cannot wait!! 🧡🥰 #MardiGras2021pic.twitter.com/XJRHfJyVsv

— Rita Ora 💥 (@RitaOra) February 16, 2021

Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger said attention will turn to the “outlandish pageantry of costumes, puppetry and props, that make it such a phenomenon to witness” as the festival takes on a new look.
“The move to the SCG has presented us with a unique opportunity to add to the spectacle of the parade with some truly awe-inspiring performances and we are thrilled to have a worldwide superstar in Rita Ora join this once-in-a-life-time parade”.
Ora will join a long, star-studded list of acts who have kept the party going into the early hours of the following morning. At last year’s event Dua Lipa lit up Oxford Street and was followed by Sam Smith at the after party. In 2019 Australia’s pop princess Kylie Minogue dazzled the crowd while Cher brought the parade to a standstill when she stepped out in Taylor Square in 2018.
Mr Kruger asked festival-goers to “rise to the occasion” to give the community the platform to express their pride to the world.
“The 2021 parade may look different to how it has been in the past, but we feel very lucky to be able to give this opportunity to our communities during these times,” Mr Kruger said in November last year.
“Not only is the SCG close to our spiritual home of Oxford Street, but it also provided the safest venue for us to hold the event and meet the requirements of physical distancing and contact tracing.
Ticket sales have currently paused as government restrictions continue to evolve, however event organisers hope they will receive the green light from authorities to increase capacity and release more tickets before showtime.
Tens of thousands attended 2020’s festivities in February which was the last major event in Sydney before coronavirus restrictions were introduced and national borders were closed.