Adelaide Festival of Arts

Ms COOK (Fisher) (14:39): My question is for the Minister for The Arts. Minister, how are preparations coming along in the lead-up for the weekend start of the Adelaide Festival of Arts?

The SPEAKER: The cultural attaché.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:39): I thank the member for Fisher for her passionate advocacy for our arts community. While the Adelaide Fringe is underway, it is time to step it up a notch for the Adelaide Festival, Australia's best artistic festival, kicking off this Friday night. Over the weekend, we heard that the Festival had already made history, breaking the $3 million box office mark, making it the most financially successful festival in 20 years.

While we expected Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Saul to sell out, the Festival has been blown away, with Betroffenheit, The Drunken Botanist, and the Chamber Landscapes mini-festival, curated by Anna Goldsworthy and hosted at the Ukaria Cultural Centre at Mount Barker, also selling out. Although the Festival showcases some of the best arts and culture from around the world, it is good to know that some of our local favourites will also be standing out over the next couple of weeks.

The ASO and State Opera have been working tirelessly with the team from Saul to bring together what promises to be an incredible operatic masterpiece. The State Theatre have bumped in and are putting together the final touches to their production of The Secret River, which premieres at the Quarry in the Anstey Hill Recreation Park this evening. The Secret River, I’m pleased to say, is the highest grossing production and fastest selling show in the company’s history.

It would be remiss of me not to mention local acrobatic troupe, Gravity and Other Myths, who, after getting their start at Cirkidz and performing sell-out shows on the fringe festival circuit for the past two years, will be making their Festival debut, performing Backbone in the final week of the Festival. The other local company which I’m incredibly excited to see in the Festival program is Restless Dance, who are performing their new show, Intimate Space, at the Hilton Hotel. Intimate Space promises a festival experience that you don’t want to miss.

Last night, the Festival held the soft launch of their incredible new venue, the Palais, which at night looks stunning and, together with the Royal Croquet Club and the Adelaide Oval, makes the Riverbank Precinct a truly magical Festival hub. The Palais kicks off officially on Sunday night, with arguably one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Neil Finn, playing a free concert on the Palais and across Elder Park.

This year has seen a changing of the guard at the Festival, with new directors, Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy, a new chair in Judy Potter, and a new chief executive, Sandy Vershoor. They, together with the board and the staff, have delivered a fresh and exciting program. We should consider ourselves fortunate to experience it over the next two weeks. Can I wish the team all the best and encourage all members of the house to get along to what promises to be an incredible Adelaide Festival of Arts.