A sneak peek of the SBS Mardi Gras float

The countdown is on!

Source: SBS

Tucked away in a secret Sydney warehouse, teams of brilliant creatives are busy working around the clock to serve up an incredible display of light, love, and glitter for tomorrow night's Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Given that it's the parade's highly-anticipated 40th anniversary, we at SBS wanted to honour how far Australia's LGBTIQ+ community has come since 1978, while acknowledging the distance still left to go.

That's why the theme of this year's SBS float is... 40 years and growing!

It took a lot of teamwork to bring our plans to life. Source: SBS

Florals for Mardi Gras, groundbreaking! Each of these colourful flowers were hand-cut from sheets of perspex and stitched together. Source: SBS

Leaves looking for a home - excuse the rogue glitter! Source: SBS

Tomorrow night, a giant magical tree surrounded by leaf-waving, lantern-carrying dancers will make its way down Oxford street.

Let there be light! Source: SBS

Handmade love-heart lanterns. Source: SBS

Moving away from last year's science vibe, we wanted to take a step outside and lean into nature...

From little things... Source: SBS

... big things grow! Source: SBS

We really wish we could show you more, but we want to keep some of the magic up our sleeves for tomorrow night.

40 years and growing! Source: SBS

The 40th Annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will air on Sunday, March 4 at 8:30pm on SBS.

SBS Radio 3 will join forces with Australia's premier gay and lesbian community radio station, JOY 94.9, for a Mardi Gras weekend simulcast, which can be accessed via the SBS Radio mobile app, digital radio and around Australia on digital television.