Media release

Friday 4 March 2005

Mardi gras - 2005

"NOT 500,000, NOT 250,000, NOT even 100,000 will be lined up along the Mardi gras parade route on Saturday night according to Adam Carr," said Peter Stokes CEO of ethics group Salt Shakers.

"Adam Carr is a prominent homosexual journalist/activist and he supports our contention that Sydney's Mardi Gras parade ONLY draws a crowd of 60-75,000 people. He should know, he counted them, according to an article he wrote in 2001 - just as we did," Stokes said.

"The police stopped releasing 'official' crowd figure that year after admitting they were really the organisers 'estimates'.

"Yet even this smaller figure could be an exaggeration," Stokes said, "We were very generous in our counting and so was Adam Carr. We used a 10 row average and he assumed that three people can squeeze into one metre. That is very, very squashed together - far more likely is a 5 row average and two people per metre - this would mean that 40 -50,000 is a far more realistic MAXIMUM crowd figure," Peter Stokes said.

In his article in the Melbourne Star, titled "Mardi Gras crowd puzzle" (March 7, 2001 p. 6) Adam stated:

"The mardi gras route is 2.5km long making 5km of available viewing space. Allowing three people per metre (a tight fit) 15,000 people can line both sides of the parade route. A crowd of 150,000 would therefore line the entire route 10 deep. A crowd of 600,000 would line the route 40 deep... The crowd was thickest in Oxford St but cannot have been more than about ten deep there because of shop fronts. At Taylor Square the crowd was about 20 deep for a short distance but it thinned out dramatically along Flinders St. Once the parade entered Moore Park there was almost no crowd at all. The average crowd depth was therefore probably four or five [rows], making a total of 60,000 to 75,000."

"In fact the route is closer to 2km, the crowd was no more than 6-8 rows in Oxford St and about 4 rows and less along Flinders St with few in Moore Park" Stokes said.

He invites journalists to visit our web site to see photos of some of these areas or count the rows themselves.
See http://www.saltshakers.org.au/html/P/9/B/194/

"Using a more reasonable 2 people per metre, a more accurate 2km (4,000 people per row) and  6 row average, this amounts to just 48,000  people with perhaps 5,000 on rooves/balconies - 53,000."

Why are numbers important?
"Because numbers mean dollars," Stokes said. "Major commercial sponsors have realized the people are not there and have stopped sponsoring Mardi gras - unfortunately the government has not yet seen the light and continues to support it."

Given that almost all of the media have been pushing the organisers' very unrealistic, deliberately deceptive, and exaggerated figures we have to ask, "Who are they afraid of?"

Is it homophobic to tell the truth, or are they embarrassed to admit that they have been supporting the lies for so long?

"It is time for both mardi gras organisers, and the media, to come clean and put this charade to an end.  Mardi gras is not the biggest cultural event in Australia - it appears, though, that it is possibly the biggest lie," said Peter Stokes.

Peter Stokes is available for interview.

Media contact: 0413 084 146 or Sarah Champness on 0439 615 413.