Mardi Gras Party Was Almost In The Toilet

This year’s Mardi Gras Party was a total sell out success a week before the doors even opened.

The entertainment was world class. The scramble for tickets in the lead up was something we haven’t seen in years.

But according to the Sydney Morning Herald, a drastic issue with the toilets almost left the party up to its waist in… well, shit.

When the toilets in the Hordern Pavillion apparently began “erupting” just days before Mardi Gras Party was set to happen, the venue operators called in a plumber. When they realised that this was no ordinary plumbing blockage Sydney Water sent engineers over to see what could possibly be causing the problem.

The sewer that runs beneath the Hordern and the Royal Hall Of Industries is huge – big enough to carry waste from the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Football Stadium, from Fox Studios, not to mention homes in Paddington as well. Experts couldn’t work out what could possibly be blocking it. A camera was sent up the pipe and they found that the sewer was filled practically to the top with concrete. Lots of it. 13 tonnes of the stuff – an entire cement mixer truckload. In fact, the blockages ran for 140 metres in two sections.

Sydney Water were left with no other option but to install 400 metres of bypass pipes so that the party could go ahead.

A Sydney Water spokesperson told the Herald that the cement must have been illegally dumped by “some moron”. Believe it or not, all these months later Sydney Water is still working on removing the blockages using high pressure hoses – jackhammers couldn’t be used because the pipes are too old and fragile. They say that the cost of removing the concrete could go well into six figures.

Thanks to quick thinking and fortunate timing the party did go ahead. But things could have turned out very differently indeed.

Source - Samesame.com.au