Latest news with #MardiGras
CBS News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Kennywood's Fall Fantasy parades returning this weekend for the 75th year
The popular Fall Fantasy parades at Kennywood Park are returning this weekend for a 75th year. Kennywood announced the return of the parades on Wednesday and say that the events will return on Saturday, August 2. The parades will take place daily for over two weeks and will feature nearly 150 local marching bands with a Mardi Gras twist this season. In addition to the marching bands, the parades will feature live music, specialty food and drinks, a French Quarter themed block party, and floats designed and created by Kennywood's artists and carpenters. The parades, which began at the park in 1950 as a way to celebrate local students before the school year began, will begin nightly at 7:30 p.m. from August 2 through August 17. "For 75 years, the Fall Fantasy Parades have been a beloved tradition that brings our community together," said Ricky Spicuzza, Kennywood General Manager. "This year, we're turning up the energy with a Mardi Gras twist, from vibrant parade floats to live music and festive food, it's going to be a celebration like no other." The park says that people wishing to attend Kennywood for the parade can purchase single-day tickets online for $39.99. Kennywood will open daily through August 18 and after that will be open on weekends and Labor Day through September 7.
AU Financial Review
a day ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Hotel occupancy edges up as corporate travel rebounds
Australian hotel room rates dropped in five major cities while occupancy levels edged higher over the first half of 2025 as hoteliers focused on filling rooms rather than on how much they could charge, industry analysts say. Major events like the Australian Open, Comedy Festival and Formula 1 in Melbourne, Sydney's Mardi Gras parade and Vivid Sydney, and Dark Mofo in Tasmania encouraged domestic and international travel in the first six months of this year.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Is this the end of an era for a 50-year-old tradition in Australia? Bitter feud erupts over a very controversial change
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is facing its biggest internal rift in years, as fierce infighting threatens to reshape the future of the world-famous event. A new campaign group, Protect Mardi Gras, is urging members to reject what it calls 'division and exclusion' ahead of a pivotal annual general meeting. At the heart of the dispute is whether LGBTQIA+ police officers should be permitted to march in uniform in the 2025 parade. Protect Mardi Gras claims a 'group of activists' is using the AGM to push an 'exclusionary agenda'. That group is Pride in Protest, a self-described 'grassroots political organisation focusing on queer liberation'. Veteran activist Peter Murphy, who was brutally bashed by police during the first Mardi Gras in 1978, called on members to defend the parade's inclusive spirit. Mr Murphy is a '78er,' a term used to describe those who took part in the original 1978 march, which was met with police violence and arrests. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Protect Mardi Gras (@protectmardigras) Mr Murphy reflected on the event's evolution, calling Mardi Gras a 'beacon of hope' for LGBTQIA+ communities in Sydney, Australia, and around the world. He highlighted the 1998 decision to allow LGBTQIA+ police officers to march as a milestone moment. 'When the LGBTQIA+ police joined our parade in 1998, it was a fabulous victory,' Mr Murphy said. 'But its beautiful, inclusive character is under sustained attack from within our community here in Sydney.' He urged members to join the Mardi Gras organisation, attend the AGM and vote, or hand over their proxy to a Protect Mardi Gras member. Protect Mardi Gras organiser Peter Stahel told Daily Mail Australia the campaign consists of 'ordinary volunteers who care deeply about the power of Mardi Gras'. 'Mardi Gras is made possible by the hard work of hundreds of volunteers and the participation of a very diverse group of people, businesses, and activists that don't necessarily agree with each other on every issue,' he said. 'Mardi Gras has many voices, but it's one parade. That's what makes it powerful.' Mr Stahel acknowledged the NSW Police's history of harm toward LGBTQIA+ communities, but urged a pragmatic, inclusive approach. 'I agree we must constantly acknowledge that many institutions, including the NSW Police, continue to cause harm to LGBTQIA+ people and many others,' he said. 'If only one in 100 police are allies, we start with them and build from there. We don't reject the one to spite the 99, that's just silly, unstrategic, and frankly, dangerous.' Protect Mardi Gras is encouraging people to join the organisation and vote to maintain the parade's inclusive tradition. Meanwhile, Pride in Protest has campaigned to ban police from marching in the event since 2018. Their most recent attempt to formally exclude officers from the 2025 parade was narrowly defeated. In 2024, NSW Police officers marched out of uniform in a compromise following the deaths of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird, who were allegedly murdered by Beau Lamarre-Condon, a serving police officer at the time. Earlier this month, Pride in Protest renewed its call to ban police from participating in Mardi Gras following the death of Collin Burling, a 45-year-old man who died in police custody on July 15. Mr Burling's partner, Taite Collins, captured distressing footage of the incident, in which Burling cried out: 'I've done nothing wrong. I can't breathe. I am dying. Help.' 'The police institution is an oppressive one laced with racism, queerphobia, and violence, and one that is not held accountable for its actions,' Pride in Protest said. 'We renew our demands that the disgraced NSW Police Force be removed from the Mardi Gras parade float and for Operation Mardi Gras to end, putting a stop to the dangerous and overwhelming police presence in Sydney's queer spaces and events.' The Mardi Gras annual general meeting will be held later this year.
Irish Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
The 10 golden rules of having a successful Galway Races
THE Galway Races is truly one of the most unique events on the Irish sporting calendar. 53 races over seven days it's a Mardi Gras or a 'sane madness' as once described and has been a fixture at the Ballybrit racetrack for 155 years. The €270,000 Tote Galway Plate and Guinness Galway Hurdle are the main events on Wednesday and Thursday and around 125,000 punters are expected through the gates. Many things have changed at Galway over the years, some for the better and some for the worse, but it remains a summer highlight and the quality of the racing has improved. I've been going to the Galway Races for over 25 years, and here's my ten golden rules of having an enjoyable and indeed profitable week, whether you're a paying customer or a stay at home punter. 1 - Follow the smaller trainers that target Galway. 2016 was a significant year at the Galway races as champion jumps handler Willie Mullins achieved the then unthinkable by wrestling the leading trainers' prize away from Dermot Weld for the first time in over 20 years. Since then Mullins has won the award every year but he doesn't win every race and there are many progressive yards who target this meeting and are worth following. Ross O'Sullivan left last year with four winners from his six horses across the Festival and he'll have a strong team again with recent Tipperary winner Strong Link likely to go for a race on Thursday. Other trainers with good recent records are Ado McGuinness, Emmet Mullins and Peter Fahey, who trained four winners at the meeting in 2022 and 2023. 2 - A wide draw in the flat races can be curtains Galway is a sharp track with a relatively short uphill home straight and some horses drawn wide can nearly be ruled out of a race before it even begins. A low draw is a massive positive for horses in the contests run over seven furlongs and a mile as it helps jockeys get a good early position at a track where being prominent is crucial. The statistics show that winning from a high draw is tough to achieve. In the day two feature, the Colm Quinn Mile, last year's winner Mexicali Rose was drawn in stall one while the Corrib Stakes winner over 7f came from stall 5. Horses can win by being drawn wide but you're at a disadvantage before the race begins. 3 - Huge priced winners have been common in recent years. There are, incredibly, over fifty races over the seven days at the Galway Races and they won't all be won by the fancied horses. Ladies Day punters went home stunned 12 months ago when Brave Crogha became the Festival's biggest priced winner ever when winning the Bumper at odds of 200-1. It ended a five-year drought for local trainer Iggy Madden and was the longest priced bumper winner in Ireland or the UK since records began. There were also two 50-1 winners. Sirius in the opening day feature and Bessie Abbot giving Wesley Joyce a welcome return to the venue where he almost lost his life. Racegoers attempt to shield themselves from the rain during The Galway Races Summer Festival (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) 4 - Horses for courses Galway's undulations and twists and turns aren't for every horse and keeping an eye on animals with course form is a shrewd route to success. Jesse Evans is a fascinating runner this week. Noel Meade's gelding has finished second twice in the Galway Hurdle and was fourth in 2021. He won a Beginners' Chase here last year and holds entries for both the Plate and Hurdle. The Emmet Mullins-trained Teed Up has incredibly appeared eight times at Galway — winning three times and finishing second three times too. He's entered in the Boylesports Handicap Hurdle on Saturday. Sylkie, trained by Danny Howard, has posted three career successes with all three coming at Ballybrit. One of those wins was at last year's Galway Festival, in an extended mile handicap, and Howard is hoping Sylkie can repeat the feat this year. 5 - Back the Mee-owned horses It's no secret that horses owned by Galway natives, Pearse and Annette Mee, always demand close inspection at Galway. Mee is a software engineer, whose fortune was estimated at €139 million by the Sunday Times Rich List in the past, and the couple adore Ballybrit like nowhere else. Their green and purple silks have been in the winners' enclosure dozens of times in the past decade for trainers like Emmet and Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead. As mentioned above Teed Up is a regular here while other Mee owned horses to watch for are Arctic Gale, Sea Music, Enfranchise and Toll Stone — who ran a very good race in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November. 6 - Pace your punting Having a bet in all 53 races is definitely not recommended and some races are best left alone for punting purposes, the 7f Handicaps in particular. Punters need to be disciplined and patient and not be afraid to change their mind due to changing ground conditions or stable form or the draw. JP McManus' pre-Cheltenham advice is worth another look. He said: 'I have a more considered approach now. I used to have my mind made up about things. That's dangerous. When you have your mind made up, it means you can't change your mind. These days I would delay making a decision until one has to be made. A view of the crowds during the races (Image: ©INPHO/Tom Maher) 7 - Back Willie Mullins' runners in the Amateur Handicap on Monday Willie Mullins has a special relationship with Galway, his uncle Luke was manager for many years and he rode plenty of winners there himself, including the Amateur Handicap 40 years ago on Pargan. In more recent times he's dominated the opening night feature, winning it five times since 2017, interestingly with four different jockeys. Not many could have predicted David Dundsdon winning at 50-1 last year but Too Bossy For us looks very interesting for Closutton this year. The 330,000gns purchase was second on the flat at the Curragh on Derby weekend and was a useful hurdler last term, making the frame behind Lulamba at Punchestown and running well in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. 8 — Classy horses now win the Galway Plate The Galway Plate is no longer a race for good summer jumpers. The days of horses like Sir Frederick winning off a mark of just 126 appear to be long gone. A mammoth prize-fund of €270,000 has made the big boys send the heavy artillery and 2022 Plate hero Hewick went on to win a King George at Kempton Balko Des Flos went on to capture the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham. Other recent winners like Carlingford Lough and Road To Riches went on to win big winter Grade 1 contests while 2016 Grand National winner Rule The World would have went very close in the 2015 Plate only for slipping up in the dip. Runners and riders during the 2023 Galway Hurdle (Image: ©INPHO/Tom Maher) 9 - Watch the the traffic It may seem obvious but Galway's weather patterns are increasingly unpredictable. It can go from summer sunshine to downpours in minutes and because the crowds are so big there's not much cover for punters who come unprepared. Bringing a brolly is the best tip anyone can get going to Ballybrit for the first time. Traffic in Galway is also horrendous, even outside race week. So leaving early should be part of everyone's plan. Even those that have spent months preparing their outfits. For those who can't afford a helicopter, the shuttle buses in and out of Eyre Square are a usually reliable service and much cheaper than a taxi. 10 - Go racing Monday or Tuesday night The Monday and Tuesday night at Galway are two of the most enjoyable race meetings of the year and well worth checking out for any first time visitor. They usually have a more gentle and relaxed atmosphere than the madness of Ladies Day or the Friday night and the crowd is usually a bit older. There is a bit more room in some of Galways's great pubs like Tigh Neachtain or Taaffe's apres racing and there's time for a nice lie-in the next morning too.
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Almost 20 Years After Katrina, a Filmmaker Visited New Orleans. Everyone Told Her the Same Thing.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A visitor in New Orleans might frolic around the French Quarter, revel in Mardi Gras culture or get lost in a blues performance. When trying to track down the tastiest jumbo, it is easy to forget the trauma that meanders the Mississippi. But for residents, there is no getting away from the impacts of Hurricane Katrina, which still haunts the city two decades on. Filmmaker Traci A. Curry visited Essence Festival in 2023, a behemoth of Black American culture hosted annually in the city. She soon uncovered a startling truth, uttered by pretty much everyone in New Orleans—from Uber drivers to bartenders. "What was interesting was that all of them said some version of the same thing, which was that for those of us who come to New Orleans as visitors, it looks and feels as the New Orleans we all know. The one of our imagination. It's the Mardi Gras, it's the drinking, it's the food, it's the music. "But for us, they describe this bifurcated experience of the city—of before Katrina and after Katrina, that continues to this day," Curry told Newsweek in an interview at the London pre-screening of the upcoming five-part documentary Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, premiering July 27 on National Geographic and streaming July 28 on Disney+ and Hulu. Anthony Andrews and Traci A. Curry during a Q&A event at the London pre-screening of "Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time". Anthony Andrews and Traci A. Curry during a Q&A event at the London pre-screening of "Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time". Lydia Patrick/Lydia Patrick It soon became clear to her that the city's recovery is somewhat surface-level. Curry's series—a five-part documentary—peels back the veneer of post‑Katrina New Orleans to reveal the lingering scars. A Man-Made Disaster Most Americans remember the mayhem when Katrina made landfall off Louisiana on August 29, 2005. Broadcasts aired stampedes of people trapped in the Superdome, overhead footage of submerged streets, and looted grocery stores. Now, the storm is memorialized as a "man‑made" disaster, noting the failure of the emergency response and the maintenance of the aging levee system that was supposed to protect the low‑lying neighborhoods from being utterly deluged. Curry told Newsweek: "So many of the things that happened during Katrina and the story that we tell were not things created by the storm. They were things that were revealed and exacerbated by the storm," noting how it disproportionately impacted poorer Black communities. A mandatory evacuation order was put in place; tens of thousands of the city's 480,000 residents fled, but more than 100,000 remained trapped. Many made their way to the Superdome, which descended into unbridled chaos as survivors were left without means to survive. Stranded New Orleans residents gather underneath the interstate following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Stranded New Orleans residents gather underneath the interstate following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. KTVT - TV/KTVT - TV "When you're talking about class and race and, you know, all these things—so much of the reason that there were so many people left behind is because they could not afford to just because you are working class and don't have money, you are more likely to perish during Katrina," Curry added. A crowd of stranded New Orleans residents are gathered outside of the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A crowd of stranded New Orleans residents are gathered outside of the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. ABC News/ABC News The Personal Stories Curry and her team sifted through hundreds of hours of footage to reframe the narrative of Katrina with humanity. Curry explained during a post‑screening Q&A hosted by Anthony Andrews, co-founder of arts company We Are Parable: "I used to be a news producer, and I understand how it goes. If you're on a deadline, you get your shot and go. If you run the same footage of one guy taking the TV over and over, that becomes the story." But she believes something more nefarious took place, too: dangerous stereotypes against Black people were perpetuated, dehumanizing victims of the unfolding tragedy. "There's a pre‑existing narrative about Black people in the U.S.—violence and pathology—that the media can easily lean into. News cycles don't incentivize a nuanced human story," she said. A military helicopter arrives to rescue stranded New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A military helicopter arrives to rescue stranded New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. John Keller/John Keller The Oscar-nominated director counteracted this with personal and individualized footage. "You can either look at footage, look through hundreds of hours and see like shirtless Black men running crazy and say like, 'That's a criminal,' or you say 'that's a human being that's trying to survive' and allow that to inform the storytelling, which is what I and the team did," she explained. "You as the audience member must look into the eyes of the human being." Personal stories include that of Lucrece, a mother trapped in her attic with her children. Her daughter wrote their names on the walls, believing they were going to die. They were rescued by boat, but had to confront her haunting reality, a submerged city. Lucrece Phillips, resident of the 8th Ward at the time of Hurricane Katrina, who shared her harrowing rescue story in the documentary series. Lucrece Phillips, resident of the 8th Ward at the time of Hurricane Katrina, who shared her harrowing rescue story in the documentary series. Disney/National Geographic/Disney/National Geographic "There's a point at which she sees the body of a dead baby in the water. She says, 'Stop the boat, we have to get her.' The man goes, 'We have to focus on the living,'" Curry recalled. Lessons Learned? Fast‑forward 20 years and New Orleans is a city forever etched by disaster. The Lower Ninth Ward was completely decimated by Katrina, and today the area once populated by working‑class Black residents remains largely vacant. "It looks like it just happened," Curry said. "There's footage in the fifth episode we shot last year: block after block of concrete steps leading nowhere—houses that no longer exist. That neighborhood has never recovered." Meanwhile, gentrification has "turbo‑charged" the displacement of the original community, as rising housing costs transform shotgun doubles into Airbnbs with skyrocketing rents. Natural disasters are still having devastating effects. Before production wrapped, Hurricane Helene made landfall in September 2025, causing extreme flooding in Asheville, North Carolina. Crushed vehicles and storm debris sit along the Swannanoa River in a landscape scarred by Hurricane Helene on March 24, 2025, in Asheville, North Carolina. Crushed vehicles and storm debris sit along the Swannanoa River in a landscape scarred by Hurricane Helene on March 24, 2025, in Asheville, North Carolina. AFP/Getty Images "There were different weather events—the fires in Hawaii and Los Angeles. All very different. Katrina was singular in many ways, but we've seen the same contours: a weather event exacerbated by man‑made environmental impacts, an infrastructure unfit to sustain it, and harm that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. As severe weather worsens with climate change, this will only continue unless we center the needs of the most vulnerable before the storm," Curry warned. Curry added that, while Katrina's impact is New Orleans‑centric, similar inequalities plague other communities—like the predominantly Black "Cancer Alley" upriver, where higher-than-average cancer rates have been blamed on factory pollution, or neighborhoods saddled with heat‑intensive data "server farms" and tainted water. "Katrina's story just has so much to teach us about related issues that are continuing to happen today. I hope people wake up," she added. Highlighting this point is footage of President George W. Bush flying over the apocalyptic scenes of New Orleans. The series cuts in near‑identical footage from 1965's Hurricane Betsy—when the Lower Ninth Ward was submerged similarly—yet that time President Lyndon Johnson came immediately, and emergency operations began at once. Curry notes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose response was heavily criticized, has since learned from Katrina and adjusted policies to better serve those most vulnerable before a storm. But today the agency faces significant financial cuts, and its survival hangs in the balance as political pressures threaten to dismantle the system altogether. Yet the bigger story Curry wants to tell—decades on from disaster—is one of community. "Even in the most inhumane conditions, when all of these systems had failed and civil society broke down, these people did not lose their humanity. They held onto it, expressed it through care for one another, and used whatever agency they had to maintain the tight bonds of kinship and community that characterize New Orleans."
