New Mardi Gras has today announced a new fundraising event on the Halloween weekend: Trick or Treat: The Hallowe’en Ball.

 Casting a spell over The Dome (Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park) and surrounds on Sat 30th October, Trick or Treat is set to see an array of extravagant costumes ranging from the terrifying to the titillating, with music and design to keep you up all night.

“The Hallowe’en Ball” is an important new fundraiser for Mardi Gras – who have a history of producing quality community events and thrilling parties for over 30 years. Under the auspice of Executive Producer Katrina Márton, it marks a move by New Mardi Gras to engage some of our finest creative minds such as Ignatius Jones in the development of new fundraising events to support the organization into the future.

Ignatius Jones is one of the world’s leading event directors. He has just returned to Australia after having directed the Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the Opening Ceremony of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo – the two largest events of any kind taking place this year. Earlier in his career, Ignatius created the Sydney New Year’s Eve Celebrations, which he directed from 1996 to 2002, including the spectacular Millennium event, for which he put the largest light-sculpture ever attempted — Eternity – on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He was a key part of the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies’ Directorial Team, and is the only person ever to have the directed ‘opening night’ of a nation – as the director of the Independence Ceremony of East Timor in 2002.

“Not only is Mardi Gras immensely important to the story of human rights in Australia, but many of the people who now run the largest events in the world got their start creating the unique, life-altering political theatre that informed the great years of Mardi Gras,” said Ignatius Jones.

“Those skills came from our community, and it is that talent, enthusiasm and style that we will harness to make the Hallowe’en Ball a signature event on the Sydney calendar. A new kind of party, the likes of which we haven’t seen before!”

“Trick or Treat: The Hallowe’en Ball” also marks the reunion of Márton and Jones, who together produced and directed the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Sydney Gay Games that were called “a triumph… thoughtful, historic, stylish and jubilant… an absolutely fabulous night.” (Bryce Hallett, SMH). Both have also taken lead roles in the world renowned Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations as Producer and Director respectively.

“I am absolutely thrilled to work with Ignatius again, and to set the benchmark on a new event for us. He brings an exceptional talent and vision, combined with a collaborative spirit which makes him a joy to work with,” said Katrina Márton. “We will be engaging some of our most talented creative minds to establish the Hallowe’en Ball as one of Sydney’s premier boutique events. We are honored to have Ignatius apply his unique creative signature to our inaugural Hallowe’en Ball”.

Ticketing information and more details will be released in the coming weeks. Check back for further details…