It seems like Sydney’s showers will ease a little as this evening’s Mardi Gras Parade begins to sashay down Oxford Street – but even if it buckets down, we WILL march and we WILL party afterwards.

“We’re a resilient group – it’ll take a lot more than a bit of water to keep us away,” laughed Mardi Gras Chair Peter Urmson this morning.

The city has seen on-and-off light showers all day today, but the official Bureau of Meteorology forecast expects the few patchy wet moments to lessen in the evening – there’s now less than 40% chance of rain for the parade.

A celebration of Infinite Love, the parade will begin at 7:30pm this evening. See all the details here in our comprehensive guide to the 2012 Mardi Gras Parade.

The Kylie Minogue K25 float will be a particular highlight – featuring 130 dancers in the biggest float ever seen in the annual march. Meanwhile, Chief of parade Shelley Argent will march with 90 other proud parents of LGBT people from across Australia.

Then the massive Mardigrasland Party begins in the Entertainment Quarter. The event is sold out and now Same Same can reveal that means 16,200 people are set to enjoy the amazing line-up. See our guide to who’s on when and where here.

It’s set to be an explosive night of glitter and costumes. The crew at eBay tell us that 6,700 individual Mardi Gras-themed items were put up for sale in the past week, including books and masks – with total sales of party costumes adding up to $24,852.

Glitter packs for the last week reached sales of $13,911 and a total of 1,754 items sold, while the top glow sticks seller had a total of 65 listings making up for $2,650 in sales for the month. Look out for plenty of winged characters too – there were over 388 listings of Fairy Costumes in the past week.

And don’t forget those all-important Rainbow Flags, which are being seen all over Sydney city – check out our gallery below.

Thanks to Google, here’s Same Same’s complete guide to Sydney Mardi Gras 2012.