ADELAIDE FESTIVAL OF ARTS

Ms FOX (Bright) (14:46): Will the Premier tell the house about the opening of one of Adelaide's signature festivals this Friday night?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:46): This is an important question on a topic that is an integral part of Adelaide's cultural identity. The 25^th incarnation of the Adelaide Festival of Arts opens this Friday night; so it is 50 years of festivals. This is the 25^th festival, and from Friday there will be 80 events and 280 performances involving more than 715 artists from 28 countries. In addition, 65 per cent of the program is exclusive to Adelaide and two-thirds of the events are either international or international and Australian collaborations. From opera to visual arts, music to theatre and film, dance to the renowned Adelaide Writers Week (which features such luminaries as Ian McEwan), as well as WOMADelaide (which is now an annual event), the Adelaide festival is one of the world's premier broad-based multi-arts festivals.

Under the direction of Brett Sheehy, it promises to be a festival of truly international proportions and one of the most unforgettable. The festival's sales figures demonstrate this, with tickets selling exceptionally well. Currently, we are approaching $1.9 million worth of sales. The level of interest reflects the quality of the performances on show, with artists of the calibre of Ornette Coleman and Phillip Glass. In addition, there is prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem and Kathak contemporary dancer Akram Khan, as well as the Emanuel Gat Dance Company and The Age I'm In, with the latter two performing in the new refurbished auditorium of the Dunstan Playhouse. I thank the Treasurer and I hope he will go and have a look at the difference a few million dollars makes to the interior of the Dunstan Playhouse.

Two of our festival's centrepiece performances are the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Tim Supple's glorious subcontinental adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is vivid, exotic and spectacular and which includes an array of different artists from Sri Lanka and India. Actors, dancers, musicians and martial arts performers will come together to create a stunning and compelling piece of theatre.

As I have previously informed the house, bringing these two sensational performances to Adelaide became possible when Festival chairman Ross Adler and artistic director Brett Sheehy came to me to propose that, with an additional sum of $500,000 and by bringing these two performances to Adelaide, the 2008 festival would become more than an exciting Australian arts celebration: it would become a truly international event—and I thank the Treasurer for enabling us to achieve this. I know his commitment to the arts is second only to his commitment to the environment, as the Port Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary testifies. I suggest that these two performances are not to be missed; so with tickets selling as well as they are, members will need to get in quickly.

Another production of mammoth proportions will be Ainadamar—a newly commissioned production of the double Grammy Award winning opera. With some of the original Grammy Award winning cast members and directed by Graeme Murphy (one of the Australia's leading dance and opera directors) this production is destined to be the future of opera. In true Latino style, Ainadamar will take one on an 80-minute rollercoaster ride of drama and passion, and promises an opera experience unlike anything one has seen or heard before. The story of the life of Spain's revered musician, playwright and poet Garcia Lorca, is brought together in this opera by the hottest new composer on the international music scene, Osvaldo Golijov. Few new opera productions are now produced in this country, and we are privileged to host such a major coup at this year's festival. With only three shows, I advise all members to make sure that they do not miss it.

This Friday, 29 February (a day that only comes around every few years—in fact, every fourth year, because it is actually leap year, and I am sure there will be all sorts of proposals), Adelaide's cultural boulevard will burst into life with the opening of the 2008 Adelaide Festival of Arts. In 2006, we had the awe-inspiring public performances of Dancing Sky from northern Italy to open the festival—a free show that brought young and old to the banks of the River Torrens in record numbers to watch in wonder as the sky above them came to life. Now, in 2008, what a treat we have in store.

Our iconic cultural institution buildings lining North Terrace will be the canvas for what will be a spectacle of light. Amazingly beautiful at the best of times, the Art Gallery, the Institute Building, the Mortlock Chamber of the State Library, the South Australian Museum, Elder Hall, Bonython Hall and the Mitchell Building of the University of Adelaide will dazzle as they are painted with a spectacular array of colours and patterns of light. From 6pm on Friday night, North Terrace between Kintore Avenue and Pulteney Street will be closed to traffic to make way for the major event that follows. This will be simply stupendous. Please enjoy our great festival.