Boxing, art, theatre, live music, parties, fine food, cocktails and a fair day are all on the agenda as Sydney’s global WorldPride festival heats up.

There are also opera, cinema, comedy, history and dragon boat paddling events on the action-packed schedule for Sunday.

Organisers of Fair Day at Victoria Park invited punters to “roll up with your dog, your nan and your neighbour as the Mardi Gras festivities begin at our all-day rainbow extravaganza”.

And they did – with entrants in the annual Mardi Gras dog pageant doing their human companions proud.

The 17-day celebration is set to be Sydney’s biggest ‘occasion’ since the 2000 Olympics with 500,000 visitors expected to attend 300 free and ticketed events.

Among those is the play ‘Camp’ by Elias Jamieson Brown that explores the birth of Australia’s “fierce” gay rights movement.

Another is an exhibition titled ‘The Party’ at UNSW Galleries that celebrates the history of LGBTQIA+ nightlife and party culture in Sydney from 1973 to 2002.

There is also plenty of adrenaline-pumping events to attend, including the World Gay Boxing Championships at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

WorldPride 2023 coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first Australian Gay Pride Week, the 45th anniversary of the Mardi Gras Parade and fifth anniversary of the Australian marriage equality plebiscite.