The Mardi Gras annual parade, Bad Bunny and Grace Jones will headline a bumper nightlife lineup in Sydney on Saturday that will draw more than 350,000 people and test the city’s security and transport systems.

Sydney’s Mardi Gras showpiece, its sequin-spangled parade, will transform Oxford Street with 170 floats, 10,000 marchers and 250,000 spectators, its organisers estimated on Wednesday.

On the same evening, avant garde pop diva Grace Jones is expected to play to 6,000 people in the Opera House forecourt. Meanwhile, fresh from Super Bowl stardom, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will perform for 40,000 people at the Olympic Park’s Engie Stadium. A further 15,000 Hilltop Hoods fans will attend a concert at nearby Qudos Bank Arena.

In the city’s south-west, more than 50,000 people are expected to head to Lakemba’s night markets in celebration of Ramadan.

For the first time outside New Year’s Eve, the metro will run all night – the initiative is being touted as the Mardi Gras Express – as well as limited 24-hour services on trains and light rail.

_{Sign up: AU Breaking News email}

The New South Wales minister for tourism, Steve Kamper, said there was “something for everyone” on Saturday.

“It’s been a huge start to 2026 in Sydney, with Ed Sheeran already playing to a sold-out Accor and an incredible Sydney festival, and this weekend is going to be another blockbuster,” he said.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras CEO, Jesse Matheson, said safety was the festival’s priority and that organisers looked forward to “delivering a powerful and joyful celebration this Saturday”.

He said organisers worked year-round with agencies and NSW police, and that he was “focused on ensuring the parade is a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for our community and allies”.

The gay community was on Wednesday rocked by news of Sydney gay and bisexual teens being lured and then physically attacked by Islamic State-inspired individuals, as reported by the ABC.

A NSW police spokesperson said the force had supported the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade for many years and that officers would “conduct a high-visibility operation to ensure the safety of participants, attendees and the community across the event”.

Police said officers from the public order and riot squad, would be patrolling the event, “however there is no specific, active or imminent threat”.

Businesses, bars and venues have been granted extended operating hours, and on Thursday it was announced that the parade route, stretching from Hyde Park down to Moore Park, had been added to Australia’s National Heritage List.

Brenna Hobson, the director of programming at the Sydney Opera House, said the weekend – and Grace Jones’s show – were “going to be historic”.

“What a massive swathe of major international cultural moments happening all across the city with Mardi Gras up the road and Bad Bunny in the stadium.”

With a cloudy day forecast, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Robert Urbaniak said there was “a chance of showers any time on Saturday, but nothing too heavy”.

“There shouldn’t be too many surprises, but unfortunately it won’t be a sunny day,” he said.

More than 50,000 people are expected at Lakemba’s Ramadan night markets on Saturday, a Canterbury Bankstown council spokesperson said.

Police said the markets, like other Ramadan events, had long been supported by the force and that officers were liaising with community leaders to keep people safe.

“To provide reassurance to the Muslim community, there will be additional police resources, including under Operation Shelter, deployed to religious and community sites and events based on community needs and risks”, police said.

The Olympic Park precinct is designed to cope with crowds of up to 80,000, while spectators at Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display last year numbered more than 1 million.

Transport for NSW urged people to plan their travel ahead of time.