Sleaze Ball 2010

First published on 2 Sep 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Over the last three years, Sleaze Ball's themes have seen queer partygoers donning bent circus couture for Zirkus; showing off their religion in super-hugging tights for Villain's Lair; and revealing a little sporty crack via low-riding footy shorts for Game On.

With the announcement of this year's party theme, Decadence, we can only hope for a return to the gritty, dirty and sexier side of this iconic dress-up party that once saw revellers regularly retreating to the dark corners of the Dome for ‘light refreshments'.

While not all party peeps feel the need to garb up in theme, it's been a long-standing tradition that has seen the party through the last xxx years. When it came to designing the poster for the event, Mardi Gras' Jeff McBride turned to artistic wonder-duo, photographer Mat Hornby and über-stylist Matthew Stegh, for inspiration.

"The creatives at Mardi Gras came to us with some visual references and the theme, though left it quite open for us to interpret," sys Stegh. "The definition of 'decadence' is the decay and degeneration of culture. It's dark and negative, therefore it was very important to us not to produce clichéd, negative imagery or imagery that merely referenced a past period."

The result is a series of works that embellish the idea of decadence with a queer slant. Among the various concepts is a scene depicting a buff leather man roping in a muscled Minotaur with heavy chains, and one that portrays a sinister drag queen ripping the beating heart out of a twink's chest. Something for everyone, you could say.

The hand-picked cast for the Decadence series is comprised of celebrated queer identities and performers including Maxi Shield (see p10), Dallas Dellaforce and Sydney Convict's poster boy Stu Fenton to name a few. "We specifically asked performers and community members we respect and admire to inhabit and help realise loose ideas we had for each scenario," Stegh reveals.

For those who have seen this league of extraordinary queers light up bent Sydney's stages over the years, the concept of decadence is not in the least bit foreign to their work.

This year's party occupies a smaller party space excluding the Hordern Pavilion and Royal Hall of Industries. While this has drawn criticism from parts of the community, Mardi Gras' Jeff McBride says the new layout has its benefits. "We decided on the altered Sleaze layout because it gives us so many exciting opportunities while having a bigger capacity than our 2009 attendance. It's enabled us to lower all ticket prices, so that NMG members and anyone under 25 pay only $59 this year."

This year the Dome takes on a decidedly more female tone. Produced entirely by women, the space will be dominated by standout DJs including the incomparable Sveta; Beth Yen; the fabulous Beatrix; and the godmother of house, Kate Monroe.

Across the grounds the Forum will summon a more voyeuristic feel with its design layout and unleashes DJs Adam Love, Eddie Coulter and Say Cheese's Dan Murphy to pump out the house and party anthems throughout the night.

With the DJ talent announced and the traditional unveiling of the posters behind them, the creatives behind Sleaze Ball 2010 are counting on a sell-out response.

For Matthew Stegh and Mat Hornby it's been a job well done. "I think as a community we have a history of reclaiming and harnessing negativity through creativity. We hoped this would place the event and posters within the historical context of MG and Sleaze as being a celebration of our liberation and fight for personal freedom." Andrew Georgiou