There wasn't much glitz and glamour on display when Sydney's first Mardi Gras took place 40 years ago.
"It was something that was meant to be a fun event and it turned bloody awful," recalls Diane Minnis.
Rugged up in winter woollies, Ms Minnis was among several hundred gay and lesbian activists wandering down the city's busy Oxford Street in a late night march marking the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York.
With one foot in a plaster cast thanks to a motorbike accident, Ms Minnis was ambling along chatting happily with friends as they headed towards Hyde Park.
"It was quite fun to be strolling down Oxford Street," she says.
"Because it was winter we had on our usual daggy attire and weren't dressed up."
Mardi Gras has evolved from its "bloody awful" beginning in 1978 into a major tourist attraction. Source: AAP
But the relaxed mood quickly turned to chaos when police stopped the crowd and a flat-bed truck carrying a speaker blaring out gay liberation anthems as they approached the park.
As some of the crowd began being pushed around by police, many linked arms and marched up William Street to Kings Cross where officers started brutally grabbing people and throwing them into paddy wagons.
"It was scary and very traumatic really," says Ms Minnis, who huddled in a shop doorway with a friend as police arrested 53 people.
Ms Minnis believes if it hadn't been for the unexpected violent clash that night, there might not have been another Sydney Mardi Gras.
Since the first Mardi Gras on June 24, 1978 the march has evolved into a world-famous event held every March, when tens of thousands of people flock to Sydney to celebrate the LGBTQI community.
Mardi Gras Source: Jeffrey -Feng Photography
This Saturday, a record 2300 participants and 200 colourful floats will take part in the 40th anniversary parade, with 500,000 onlookers expected to take in all the glitz and glamour.
Among those leading the parade will be the "78ers", a group of about 250 people from that first Mardi Gras.
"I think it will be quite emotional," says Ms Minnis.
"A lot of people are coming this year who haven't been for a long time, some not since very early on."
Back in 1978 homosexuality was illegal in NSW and those who were arrested at the first Mardi Gras had their names and occupations published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It took until 2016 for the NSW parliament, police and SMH to apologise.
