‘The FIFA World Cup of queer energy’: Inbound to Sydney WorldPride

When you host the world’s biggest LGBTQ event for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, a natural question arises: How to bring the crowd?

And much like the city’s Mardi Gras, Sydney WorldPride is not without its very willing corporate sponsors. Enter the event’s airline partner, which has just landed with a plane load of people from the Northern Hemisphere, ready to party, fresh from an all-singing, all-dancing, fully made-up pride flight.

15 hours in drag and still looking fabulous.Credit: James D. Morgan/ Getty Images

Qantas has plenty to celebrate itself, it just posted a $1b after-tax profit, off $9.9 billion in revenue in the first half of the 2023 financial year. Virgin is similarly hosting domestic flights to bring interstate travellers to Sydney for the 15-day extravaganza.

We were invited aboard the Qantas pride flight to find out who’s travelling to WorldPride – organisers expect about 500,000 people to attend the event – and what it is like to spend 15 hours partying on a plane.

LA, 6.30am: Qantana, Vybe and Felicity Frockaccino, the flight’s official Queens, are ahead of me in the check-in queue. Rainbow luggage tags, rainbow Qantas signs, rainbow flags and little rainbow ’roo pins become our new flight essentials.

Felicity Frockaccino, Qantana and Vybe checking in to LAX on Wednesday morning.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Is it too much? Tokenistic? Am I smelling a bit of pink-washing?

Weirdly, no. The details and glittery personalities seem genuine. It’s also heartwarming to see the excited fliers.

LA, 7.23am: Through security, into the first class lounge. Mimosas, a rainbow carpet and flags and hats on arrival.

LA, 7.39am: The people you find in the lounge! I snag a quick chat with singer-songwriter G Flip who is performing here, and at WorldPride next week.

Singer, songwriter and drummer G Flip performed for guests at the Qantas first class lounge.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

“It’s WorldPride, it’s like the FIFA World Cup of queer energy, so it’s the big event and it’s in my country,” says the Melburnian.

“A big part of my project as G Flip is being the role model that I never had growing up.

“As a kid I was so confused with my gender identity and my sexual identity, and I think that has to do with there were no figures or role models in the media, whether it was TV, radio, music, even queer storylines weren’t present... so a big part of it is filling that gap I never had,” G Flip says.

LA, 8.09am: I meet Justine Goldon and her partner Sam, who describe the journey as their “trans-liberation flight”. Justine is also celebrating her 32nd birthday mid-air!

“We have been wanting to go to WorldPride for a while...and honestly, what sold me was the kangaroo pyjamas,” Justine says.

Sam and Justine Goldon are celebrating Sydney World Pride.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

“We really love how Sydney WorldPride is centering around Indigenous and First Nations people in a lot of their pieces, work and events, so we are going to do a lot of cultural stuff there.”

Solo traveller Gregory Giza, a nurse from San Francisco, is ticking off two bucket list items by attending WorldPride and travelling to Australia.

“I love to travel and since travel has been stifled the past two years with COVID-19 and everything, this is going to be my first big trip.”

“I have been to several WorldPrides in the United States, but this will be my first international one.”

Solo traveller Gregory Goldman is ticking off two bucket list items by going to World Pride and Australia.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

LA, 8.37am: Our host ain’t your regular flight attendant. Comedian and self-confessed aviation nerd Joel Creasey looks like he is about to burst with excitement.

“I don’t think I have ever responded yes faster to a gig. I love planes,” Creasey says.

“I am excited for people to see how beautiful the LGBTQI community from around the world are. We are all so diverse, we often get stereotyped and clichéd, and yes, sometimes those hilarious stereotypes are true, and we only have ourselves to blame, but I think it will really open people’s eyes to what an even more magical world we have.”

Hugh Sheridan welcomed passengers with a rendition of I Still Call Australia Home.Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

LA, 9.30am: Please welcome to the stage Hugh Sheridan!

There were more than a few American whispers of “who’s that?,” but an enthusiastic rendition of I Still Call Australia Home followed by Love Is in the Air, and they don’t care.

G Flip’s Waste Of Space had the crowd silent.Credit: James D. Morgan

G Flip takes to the stage next, and if Sheridan’s performance is the party set that hypes everyone up, G Flip’s is the soulful reflection of what pride’s really about. They sing about family, heartbreak and coming out. Friends and partners hold hands and link arms. For many, the lyrics of confusion and torment are something they know too well, alongside the feelings of liberation and love.

Partners Sam and Justine Goldon hold each other during an emotional performance from G Flip.Credit: James D. Morgan

LA, 10.45am: Everybody changes into rainbow roo pyjamas, and I’m reunited with Qantana, Vybe and Felicity Frockaccino. One or two of the Queens have swapped heels for flats, and honestly, I’m relieved. I could barely get through my year 10 formal in heels, let alone turbulence.

Somewhere over the Pacific, 1.21pm: Anyone who thought about watching Triangle of Sadness (not a movie you should watch in a confined space anyway) is kidding themselves. This is the Hugh Sheridan show, a show my American friends are now familiar with, much like this YMCA - as Sheridan, the cabin crew and Queens dance their way up the aisle.

40,000 feet above somewhere just past Hawaii, 4.35pm: Martin Kratz from NSW’s Hunter Valley was in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle when he booked his LAX-SYD flight, and he may have missed the (multiple) memos it was a pride flight.

“I booked this flight from Montezuma...when I checked in, they gave me the pride baggage tag and said they had a thing going on in the lounge. I rocked up, and it was a party vibe.”

Still above the Pacific, 4.45pm: We get skincare and make-up packs. I use the make-up wipe, apply eye cream followed by a jelly mask, and we are set for a snooze.

Above the Central Pacific Basin, 8.30pm: What’s it like wearing full drag for 15 hours, I ask Felicity Frockaccino. “Wait till the lights come on,” she says.

Above Port-Vila, 11.30pm: Wakey wakey to those who slept. Not me. Eye shadow and lip gloss to prepare us for the final hours of our journey.

Makeup artist Xander helps passengers apply their eye shadow ahead of arrival in Sydney.Credit: James D. Morgan/ Getty Images

Approaching Sydney, 1.30am (LA time): After 15 hours of pink fizz it’s almost time for us to land. I’ve been awake for 21 hours now and the fatigue is hitting.

Arrive in Sydney, 2.44am (LA time): At the airport, there’s a DJ, ice cream booth and goodie bags including another hat (this time it says SYD), some Oreos and of course the bible...which in this case is a comprehensive WorldPride information booklet.

Everyone on the flight gets a free ticket to the WorldPride Opening Concert tonight. Kylie Minogue here we come.

This reporter travelled on the pride flight courtesy of Qantas.

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