Mardi Gras

Natalie Bassingthwaighte will deliver an exclusive performance at the 2024 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras — her first since coming out.
The Rogue Traders singer and Australian TV celebrity is locked in for the first-ever Mardi Gras Debutante Ball for First Timers, hosted at Kinsela’s in Darlinghurst.

In addition to being guest of honor at the deb ball, Nat Bass, as she’s affectionately known in these parts, will perform some of her “all-time favorite hits” while “sharing her story,” reps say.

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As singer with Rogue Traders, Bassingthwaighte has landed silverware and international hits. In 2006, two of those Rogue Traders numbers cracked the U.K. top 40, including the club track “Voodoo Child,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart.

Also, the dance act won an ARIA Award in 2003 for “One of My Kind” (best dance release) and two APRA Music Awards, for “Way to Go!” in 2006 (most performed dance work) and “In Love Again” in 2008 (dance work of the year).

“Being able to attend my first Mardi Gras as a new member of the queer community, surrounded with so much love, joy and acceptance is so special to me,” Bassingthwaighte says in a statement, “and what’s even more special is knowing that I get to share this memorable experience with other First Timers of diverse queer identities.”

LGBTQIA+ community trailblazers and Mardi Gras custodians will also be watching on, including LGBTQIA+ advocate Robyn Kennedy, who is an original first-timer having attended the first ever Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1978, plus Making It Australia judge Benja Harney, and trans couture designer couple, Katie Louise Nicol-Ford and Lilian Nicol-Ford.

Johnnie Walker is a sponsor of the 2024 Mardi Gras, and is sponsoring the inaugural Mardi Gras Debutante Ball, which celebrates “those who have, up until now, been unable to attend.” The whisky brand is getting into the spirit of Mardi Gras with a competition, which invites first timers to enter for a chance at an all-expenses paid experience.

The colorful LGBTQI party, march and festival is typically attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and abroad, and is set for Feb. 16 to March 3.

Bassingthwaighte reunited with her Rogue Traders bandmates last year for “To The Disco,” the first release from Rogue Traders in over a decade. The dance act supported the release with a slate of performances.