The Festival Theatre reopens this weekend with two new entrance areas featuring reinstated significant artworks. The venue will be hosting a series of live performances and entertainment as well as a dramatic light show.
Pick your team, dress in your club colours and head to the Adelaide Oval to watch a game of Australian Rules Football (AFL). Or try out RoofClimb for something more adventurous.
1. The Big Picture
Adelaide is a city that loves art and this is evident in the many sculptures, murals and installations that can be found around the town. Visit the laneways around the East End for some street art, or head to Rosina Street Car Park where thousands of toy cars have been stuck to the wall.
From February to mid-March, the city goes a little crazy during the Fringe Festival. It’s a month of cabaret, comedy, circus, miming, theatre and almost every other kind of human performance expression you can imagine.
This year the festival has a couple of pop-up cinemas that are worth checking out. For example, the Mercato in Adelaide Central Market shows movies on an old-school screen while also serving up classic cocktails and a curated menu of local produce. Then there’s the Rooftop Cinema with views over the city, parks and even Adelaide Oval – perfect for a post-film drink or two. This is an experience you won’t want to miss!
2. The Garden
The Garden, a play by the English poet Andrew Marvell, suggests that true contemplation is possible only in the green shade of a garden. It also argues that a life of action is futile and that men should spend their time enjoying the pleasures of the senses and the company of friends.
This off-season pop-up event at GU Film House is an opportunity to see two Australian films in a very different way: Top End Wedding, starring Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Taylor as a couple who travel through the Northern Territory for a last-minute wedding; and Sophie Hyde’s Animals, about best friends who are forced to reassess their relationship when work and new love get in the way.
Beer Theatre is a new form of accessible theatre, designed to bring the arts out into public spaces. Mummy is a short, funny show that runs for only thirty minutes—perfect for theatre newbies and pub goers alike. It’s performed by a local cast featuring familiar Adelaide faces, including Nicole Rutty, Bronwyn Ruciak and Sue Wylie. The show is presented by Butterfly Theatre and is directed by Dave Simms.
3. The Green Room
When it comes to the great outdoors, you don’t have to leave Adelaide to find something spectacular. Take a leisurely stroll to Waterfall Gully, Mount Lofty or Morialta Conservation Park or go on a more adventurous hike in the hills. You can also head to Kangaroo Island where you can spot wild koalas and penguins on the beach or at Seal Bay, or explore Flinders Chase National Park and admire the Remarkable Rocks.
When the Ain’t Rights crew wake up in a cornfield with their van out of gas and the local skinheads looking to pick them off one by one, they know it’s not going to be a good day. But before the violence escalates to guns, machetes and dogs trained to eat human flesh, Mr. Saulnier’s script gives their plight a scruffy comic flavor.
The Adelaide Film Festival is presented annually in mid-October by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACT). It was founded in 2003 under the title “Adelaide International Film Festival”. AACT CEO Mat Kesting took over as festival director in 2015. The event’s other major yearly events include OzAsia, showcasing theatre, dance and music from Asia; AVCon Anime & Video Games, with its incredible cosplay competition; and Tasting Australia, an eating and drinking extravaganza.
4. The Big Screen
Adelaide’s rich culture shines on the big screen all year round. From internationally acclaimed theatre productions to world-class music and spectacular dance, renowned writers and striking visual arts displays. Plus, events often overlap so that you can double up for twice the fun.
In XANADU DRIVE-IN, charming Adelaide and her spendthrift brother get the attention of slick Connor, who’s a man of action but also takes note of her interests and dreams. So when he finds out she’s engaged to her brother, he sets out to wreak his revenge.
Playwright David Williamson’s classic satire about the infighting of an Australian Football League club gets turned on its head with an all-female cast in this timely new production by local independent theatre company Isthisyours? at Space Theatre. This off-season event runs until Saturday.
5. The Moonlight Cinemas
The days of watching movies in a theater while sipping wine and eating a box of popcorn are long gone – but that doesn’t mean the cinema isn’t still an enjoyable outing for movie lovers. And when it’s summer in Adelaide, the best way to see a movie is outside, under the moonlight.
Australia’s favourite open-air cinema is back, running through January in the lush Botanic Park. The lineup features advance screenings, new releases, and cult favorites. You can splurge and reserve a bean bag in the Connoisseur Lounge, or BYO blanket, chair, cheese platter, and pillows and claim your spot on the grass.
The program varies city by city, but highlights include Cruella and Black Widow, as well as the stage-to-screen musical Dear Evan Hansen and the family friendly Clifford the Big Red Dog. Plus, there are two new Australian films: Top End Wedding, a comedy about a last-minute wedding in the Northern Territory, and Animals, director Sophie Hyde’s film about friends forced to renegotiate their relationship. Check the Moonlight website for specific dates and times.