Confetti, glitter, colour and eye-catching costumes will once again adorn Sydney streets as Mardi Gras promises two weeks of overwhelming joy and connection.

The 2026 event will mark 48 years since the first gay rights parade in 1978, and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras remains one of the world's most iconic LGBTQI festivals.

Next year the theme will be "Ecstatica", a rallying call to gather, connect and march for visibility, inclusion and self-expression.

"The queer community is fantastic at creating new forms of expression and 'ecstatica' is a new word that we have created," Mardi Gras interim chief executive Jesse Matheson told AAP.

"Mardi Gras provides our LGBTQI community with an overwhelming sense of joy and connectivity and this is a theme that is an expression, a feeling

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