Lady’s Adelaide Festival Guide

Today I want to bring you my Adelaide Festival guide. This annual performing arts extravaganza features music, dance, theater, and more. It’s a great excuse to visit Adelaide, Australia.

Adelaide Festival Guide

Adelaide isn’t the first place most people think of when they plan an Australia trip itinerary. The city is often overlooked in favor of Sydney, Melbourne, the Sunshine Coast, and the Great Barrier Reef.

But every year in late February or early March it comes alive during the Adelaide Festival, and it’s worth a special trip.

How to Get to the Adelaide Festival

Last week I was invited to fly out to Australia with Emirates to experience the excitement for my Adelaide Festival guide.

The trip started off on a high note with a visit to the airline’s lounge at Heathrow. Not only was there food, drink, and WiFi, but there was also a special door within the room from which we were able to board the plane.

Once inside, I got to experience Emirates’ business class on the A380 to Dubai. I knew I was in for a treat when I was greeted by my own personal mini-bar, complete with bottles of still and sparkling water, cranberry juice, and soda.

I also had two TV screens at my disposal, a three-course meal to enjoy, and a bar at the back of the cabin where I could indulge in more food and drink during the flight.

After connecting in Dubai, I had another long-haul leg in business class, this time in a smaller cabin.

While I didn’t have the mini bar at my seat, the journey was just as comfortable and the staff as friendly and attentive. It was a great way to travel to the Adelaide Festival.

The only thing I would have changed about the trip was that the headphone jack was unique to the ones provided by the airline, so I couldn’t use my own (slightly better) set on the flights. Otherwise I couldn’t have been happier.

Where to Stay for the Adelaide Festival

When I arrived in Adelaide, I was met by an Emirates driver and taken to my hotel, the Crowne Plaza Adelaide. I had a comfortable room and I loved how centrally located the hotel was. It was the perfect place to stay for the festival.

Adelaide Festival

From the Crowne Plaza Adelaide I started my three-day exploration of the city for my Adelaide Festival guide.

The urban area was small enough that I could walk to all the performance venues and the famous Adelaide Festival Fringe.

The main festival hall was home to my first Adelaide Festival event, Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Hoy.

It was a stunning show put on by a Spanish company, and it featured a wide range of traditional and contemporary flamenco dancing and music.

Throughout the evening I was impressed by the range of the performers’ repertoire and the energy with which they performed every number.

The following day I returned to the festival hall for a completely different kind of Adelaide Festival performance.

A Game of You was an interactive performance piece by Ontroerend Goed, a Belgian company that put individual audience members in the spotlight.

Without giving too much away, it was a creative way to teach people about themselves while also revealing the limitations of learning a lot about another person in very little time.

My third Adelaide Festival performance was by Banana Bag & Bodice, a company that hailed from my home state of California.

Set in a large hall at The German Club, Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage was part musical, part critical analysis, and all humorous. It was an entertaining deconstruction of one of the oldest epic poems in English history.

My final show was back at the Adelaide Festival Centre. It was as different from the others as they’d been from one another.

The Australian State Theatre Company’s The Kreutzer Sonata was a one-man adaptation of Tolstoy’s novella by the same name. Set to Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, it was a haunting, powerful piece about love, jealousy, and revenge.

Adelaide Festival Fringe

When I wasn’t attending official performances for my Adelaide Festival guide, the Adelaide Festival Fringe entertained me.

At the end of bustling Rundle Street, the parklands were filled with Gluttony and the Garden of Unearthly Delights.

Both had carnivalesque atmospheres and were home to small venues dedicated to showcasing the works of all kinds of performers.

Similar to Edinburgh’s famous Fringe festival, it had a great atmosphere and drew crowds every day and night.

Adelaide, Australia

Outside the Adelaide Festival and the fringe, I got a chance to see some of the city itself.

From the Art Gallery of South Australia to the bustling Adelaide Central Market, I had no problem filling my time between shows by seeing the highlights of the city.

I also loved the great shops and restaurants on Rundle Street and the beautiful botanical gardens.

Adelaide Festival Guide

My time in Adelaide ended the same day the festival did. It felt fitting to say good-bye as the city was striking its sets.

But next year’s dates are already in the calendar. If the shows are anywhere near as world-class as this year’s, they should be going in my calendar, too. And yours. I hope this Adelaide Festival guide has convinced you of that.

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