ADELAIDE FESTIVAL EVENTS

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for the Arts. How successful was this year's festival period in Adelaide?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:26): Listen to it again, Madam Speaker, they just can't help but knock every single thing that ever happens in this state. I do thank the member for Ramsay—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —for her question, and I acknowledge her interest in the arts. As all members would understand, the Adelaide Festival and Fringe have brought vibrancy once again to our city over the last month. The 2012 Adelaide Festival program has been acknowledged by many critics and by the general public as one of the best in many years.

The Festival reached its $2.6 million box office income target before opening night and achieved a total box office income of more than $3 million for the 53 ticketed events. So, congratulations to Paul Grabowsky and his team. The Festival program included 386 performances, with 37 world premieres and 14 events which were exclusive to the city of Adelaide. It is anticipated that, once all the calculations are made, attendances will exceed 245,000. There were 65 sold-out performances. A total of 1,332 artists were involved, including 626 South Australians.

The outdoor late-night venue Barrio on the Festival Centre's plaza achieved an estimated 35,000 attendances to its marketplace, bars, stage and dance floor, plus programmed nightly entertainment. For those of you who got there you will realise what a great success it was. More than 5,000 people attended Ennio Morricone's outdoor concert on opening night. I am told that the maestro was so pleased with the performance of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the chorus that he wants to return to perform again in Adelaide. I, for one, will be very pleased to hear him. It was fantastic.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Va bene!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It was fantastic; va bene! The Art Gallery of South Australia's 2012 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art has had more than 39,000 attendees. That exhibition is ongoing, and if members and others have yet to attend I recommend it to you. The state government now contributes a total of $8 million per festival, making it, I understand, one of the most highly funded Australian festivals, and from this year on it is an annual event.

The 2012 annual Fringe once again was the biggest ever Fringe on record, featuring more than 4,000 artists in 923 events. Accessible ticket prices, an increase in artist registrations, brilliant new venues throughout the city and free buses, which connected them, and the quality and diversity of the shows all contributed to this fine result, which confirms the Fringe as Australia's largest arts festival. The 2012 Fringe concluded with approximately 367,000 tickets sold, a 10 per cent increase on the 2011 ticket sales, with an approximate value of $9 million, and pretty well all of that goes into the pockets of artists. That is compared with 2011's dollar value of just over $8 million.

Final attendance figures and economic benefits for both the Fringe and Festival will be known when the results of respective independent market research studies are collated and made available. I can assure the house that I will be letting you know when they are there.

The SPEAKER: I just remind members, there is background noise when you are talking amongst yourselves and it may be picked up by the microphones and transmitted out for the world to hear, if anyone is listening. So, just be careful of your conversations. The Leader of the Opposition.