The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an

arts festival An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry and isn't solely focused on visual arts. Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, lite ...

, takes place in the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural event in Australia. The festival is based chiefly in the city centre and its parklands, with some venues in the inner suburbs (such as the

Odeon Theatre, Norwood Norwood is a suburb of Adelaide, about east of the Adelaide city centre. The suburb is in the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, whose predecessor was the oldest South Australian local government municipality. History Before British colonis ...

) or occasionally further afield. The Adelaide Festival Centre and

River Torrens The River Torrens , (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the ...

usually form the nucleus of the event, and in the 21st century

Elder Park Elder Park is a public open space in the city of Adelaide, South Australia on the southern bank of the River Torrens and that is bordered by the Adelaide Festival Centre and North Terrace. The park is named after the Elder family who wer ...

has played host to opening ceremonies. It comprises many events, usually including

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music,

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

, literature,

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

and

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

. The four-day world-music event,

WOMADelaide WOMADelaide is an annual four-day festival of Music, Arts and Dance, which was first held in 1992 in Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia. One of many WOMAD festivals held around the world, it is a four-day event that presents a diverse selec ...

, and the literary festival,

Adelaide Writers' Week Adelaide Writers' Week, known locally as Writers' Week or WW, is a large and mostly free literary festival held annually in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Considered one of the world's pre-eminent literary events, it forms part of the ...

, form part of the Festival. The festival originally operated biennially, along with the (initially unofficial)

Adelaide Fringe The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, ...

; the Fringe has taken place annually since 2007, with the Festival of Arts going annual a few years later, in 2012. With all of these events, plus the extra visitors, activities and music concerts brought by the street-circuit motor-racing event known as the

Adelaide 500 The Adelaide 500 (also known as the VALO Adelaide 500 for sponsorship reasons) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars held on the streets of the east end of Adelaide, South Australia between 1999 to 2020 and again from 2022. It is someti ...

, locals often refer to the time of year as "Mad March". The festival attracts

interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

and overseas visitors, and generated an estimated gross expenditure of million for South Australia .

History

The Adelaide Festival began with efforts by Sir Lloyd Dumas in the late 1950s to establish a major arts festival that would bring to

world-class cultural exhibitions. In 1958, Sir Lloyd organised a gathering of prominent members of the Adelaide business, arts and government community. The proposal for an event similar to the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

was supported and the first Festival Board of Governors was formed. The event began to take form when Sir Lloyd partnered with

John Bishop John Marcus Bishop (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian, presenter, actor and former footballer. Bishop formerly played football as a midfielder for Winsford United F.C., Crewe Alexandra F.C., Runcorn F.C., Rhyl F.C., Witton Al ...

, Professor of Music at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

. The two gained the support of the Lord-Mayor and Adelaide City Council and a financial backing of 15,000 pounds. A number of leading businesses sponsored the first festival, including '' The Advertiser'', the

Bank of Adelaide The Bank of Adelaide was founded in 1865 in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was incorporated by an act of the Parliament of South Australia. The original directors of the company were Henry Ayers, Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, Robert ...

, John Martin & Co., the

Adelaide Steamship Company The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company and later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods b ...

, and

Kelvinator Kelvinator was an American home appliance manufacturer and a line of domestic refrigerators that was the namesake of the company. Although as a company it is now defunct, the name still exists as a brand name owned by Electrolux AB. It takes its ...

. The inaugural Adelaide Festival of Arts ran from 12 to 26 March 1960 and was directed by Bishop with some assistance from Ian Hunter, the artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival. There were 105 shows covering almost all aspects of the arts. In its first year, it also spawned the Adelaide Fringe, which has grown into the largest event of its kind in the world after the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. The Adelaide Festival continued to grow in successive years with the support of the

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

. It developed a number of incorporated events including

, Australia's original literary festival;

, the world music festival; and, the

Adelaide Festival of Ideas The Adelaide Festival of Ideas (AFOI) is a festival held in Adelaide, South Australia since 1999, usually biennially. It aims to foster the public promulgation, discussion and critique of culturally and socially relevant ideas from around the wo ...

. The Adelaide International was a curated international contemporary

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

program held in partnership with the

Samstag Museum The Samstag Museum of Art, also known as the Samstag Museum, was opened in October 2007 as the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, in the Hawke Building of the CityWest campus of the University of South Australia (UniSA). The museum is named in ...

from 2010 to 2014. After some difficulties under the directorship of

Peter Sellars Peter Sellars (born September 27, 1957) is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where ...

in 2001–2, it was once again regarded as very strong, with its reputation intact as the pre-eminent event in the country, by 2006. The Adelaide Festival moved from a biennial to annual event from 2012. David Sefton was appointed as artistic director for a three-year tenure in 2013, then extended for another year. The 2013 program included for the first time, a three-night "festival within a festival": ''Unsound Adelaide'' presented international artists playing multi-dimensional electronic music. Neil Armfield and

Rachel Healy Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

were appointed in 2015 and took over from Sefton as co-artistic directors from the 2017 festival, which included the landmark opera production of

Barrie Kosky Barrie KoskyBarrie Kosky's name is sometimes misspelled as Barry Kosky, Barrie Koski, Barrie Koskie. (born 18 February 1967) is an Australian theatre and opera director.Kosky also plays the piano, as he did in his production of Monteverdi's '' P ...

's ''Saul''. Their contracts were extended twice, and due to finish with the 2023 festival. However, the 2021 and 2022 festivals were affected by frequently changing restrictions imposed by the government due to various waves of the

COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Timeline 2020 On 11 March, the SA state government announce ...

, which was challenging for the organisers, and also Armfield had some health issues. In March 2022 it was announced that

Ruth Mackenzie Ruth Mackenzie is an artistic director of theatres and arts festivals. She has worked extensively in the UK and Europe, and was responsible for the London 2012 Festival. In 2022 she was appointed as artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of ...

would be taking over from 2023, although Armfield and Healy had already confirmed or organised most of the major events for the festival. McKenzie has extensive international experience, including as director of the

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archit ...

and

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first taking ...

, and overseeing the cultural program for the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, the

London 2012 Festival The 2012 Cultural Olympiad was a programme of cultural events across the United Kingdom that accompanied the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics. The Olympic Charter, the set of rules and guidelines for the organization of the Olym ...

Governance

In 1998 the Adelaide Festival Corporation was established as a statutory corporation by the ''Adelaide Festival Corporation Act 1998'' (AFC Act), reporting to the Minister for the Arts. From about 1996 Arts SA (later Arts South Australia) had responsibility for this and several other statutory bodies such as the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

and the Art Gallery of South Australia, until late 2018, when the functions were transferred to direct oversight by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Arts and Culture section. There is a governing board which reports to the minister. the chair was Judy Potter. Artistic directors are appointed on fixed contracts for one or more years. Former chief executive Elaine Chia departed in November 2021, with Kath M. Mainland being appointed from April 2022. There is a separate director of Writers' Week.

Funding

In June 2019, it was announced that the Festival would receive in annual funding over the following three years, to help "continue to attract major performances and events". Funding is mainly from government sources, but, as a charitable body, the festival also attracts private donors within Australia and internationally. During the tenureship of Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy as co-artistic directors, donations to the festival increased from around a year in 2017 to A$2 million in 2022.

Past festivals

Neil Armfield and

hold the record for the most stints as director, with six festivals under their belt. There were no directors for the festivals of 1966 and 1968, with an advisory board taking on the responsibility.

' brief directorship of the 2002 Adelaide Festival remains the most controversial and he was eventually replaced by Sue Nattrass.

References

External links