ADELAIDE FESTIVALS

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:08): My question is directed to the Minister for the Arts.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Ashford, would you like to start your question?

The Hon. S.W. KEY: Could the minister outline the highlights of our recent exciting array of festival activities in Adelaide? As I understand it, he probably participated in a number of them as well.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. Might I suggest that that question is out of order as it contains comment.

The SPEAKER: I think most questions nowadays do contain comments. I think the member may have embellished on her original question that she wrote earlier. The Minister for the Arts.

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) (14:09): I must say, the question took me somewhat by surprise—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —but I am pleased to answer it. Also, just to comment on those interjections before, I understand the succession is being arranged—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —for the member for Norwood, the 'Marshall Plan', or the member for Stuart, 'The Pellekaan Brief'. Apparently, it is one of the two. Now, like many thousands—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: And, hearing from the deputy leader, who only managed to get three votes and wasn't sure how he himself voted, raises important questions, but anyway. Like many thousands of others over the long weekend in mid-March, I visited Adelaide's world music, arts and dance festival, WOMADelaide, where our Parklands hosted magical music, arts and dance from around the world.

In just under two decades, WOMADelaide has created a unique must-experience event on Australia's cultural calendar. It has galvanised Adelaide's reputation as a leader in arts festival presentation, combining the special qualities of our very liveable city with the diversity of cultures and performances from around the world. WOMADelaide featured an extraordinary installation theatre of Le Phun from France, and they worked for the week leading up to WOMAD on constructing a massive, surreal, vegetable world that was an off-stage highlight of the festival. In fact, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition could well have been part of it.

WOMADelaide has also continued to enrich the cultural life of young South Australians through an annual schools dance and music workshop. This year it was again held at the Gilles Street Primary School, with the Rango, a spectacular act playing ancient spiritual music with instruments from Sudan and Egypt. WOMADelaide Foundation also continued to expand its commission of original Aboriginal artworks of Sacred Stories of Australia on massive flags, created in association with Better World Arts.

Strong ticket sales (locally and interstate) vindicated the bold move to continue the new four-day festival format. The move to a four-day schedule last year, in addition to it having been made an annual event, has resulted in a surge of attendances, estimated at more than 89,000, with over 50 per cent, I am told—over 50 per cent of these attendees—being visitors to our state. Now that would mean that, in terms of all of the events we have, the proportion of people coming in from interstate or overseas is higher for WOMADelaide than any other event that the state government stages in this state. And so the 89,000 attendance, with 50 per cent coming from visitors, is impressive by any measure, but even more so when compared to last year's attendances of over 80,000, which was an all-time record.

I am not going to go through the entire program, because the last thing I would ever want to be accused of is delaying question time, but I recently announced that a new annual complementary event to WOMADelaide, Earth Station, will be held in the Adelaide Hills from 21 to 23 October this year. This event, which is both a forum and a festival, will build on WOMAD's environmental sensitivity by exploring and celebrating ideas for sustainable life.

Set in Belair National Park's Long Gully precinct, it is expected to become a national and international focus for environmental science and art. So that is a new annual festival—not exactly a second WOMAD as it has a different theme. There will be forums, guest speakers (international and of national standing) on environmental issues, workshops, plus amazing world music again.

Of course, March included the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, which, once again, demonstrated that it is now a world-class event, thanks to director Katrina Sedgwick, of course backed by a great board. Again, from its opening night, with the screening of the insightful Mrs Carey's Concert to the difficult subject matter in Snowtown and the closing night screening of Mad Bastards and all the film-related activities in between, the festival was a huge success. I can inform the house that box office takings were up on the 2009 festival by 16 per cent, and the overall attendances across the festival program were up by 22 per cent.

I can also update parliament on the huge success of the Adelaide Fringe. Preliminary figures indicate that the Adelaide Fringe sold more than 334,000 tickets through FringeTIX. This is an 11 per cent increase on the record-breaking 2010 figures. More than 60,000 people are estimated to have attended the combined events of the reprogrammed Fringe Parade.

Also, on a final festival note, I am delighted that David Sefton has been appointed by the Adelaide Festival Board to be the Artistic Director of the 2013 Adelaide Festival (which will be the first annual festival) and continuing with the 2014 and 2015 events. Mr Sefton brings an impressive breadth of experience and dynamism to this important role. He has been Head of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank and, most recently, Executive and Artistic Director of UCLA Live, the performing arts program of the University of California in Los Angeles. David Sefton is no stranger to the major international festival scene and he takes up his new role in May 2011, an exciting time of change and growth in the Adelaide Festival's history. I am delighted at this appointment and look forward to welcoming Mr Sefton and his family to Adelaide.

Again going back, I want to commend the Minister Assisting in the Arts on his recommendation that we go annual with the Fringe. People said, the critics said, the naysayers said, that it would not work, and in fact it has gone on to be a bigger and better event. With my decision to make WOMADelaide annual, people also said it will not work, people will not want to come here if it is an annual festival; it is annual, it is an extra day and a night, now it is going to be twice a year, and it is getting bigger and bigger. I am sure that the minister and I will find that going annual for the Adelaide Festival after more than 50 years will also be an outstanding step forward for the arts in South Australia.