Adelaide Fringe

Mr DULUK (Waite) (14:41): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please update the house on the 2019 Fringe festival?

The SPEAKER: The arts attaché and Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:42): Thank you very much, sir. I would like to thank the member for Waite, who is a great supporter—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —of the arts. Although, like me, he doesn't have much of a—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —fringe left, he does love the Adelaide Fringe. As we all know, arts festivals don't get much bigger than they do here in Adelaide, and the Adelaide Fringe is now the largest annual arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere. This is something every single South Australian should be immensely proud of. When we look at the 2018 annual report, we read that 700,000 tickets were sold, and I have no doubt that the 2019 Fringe will be even bigger and even better. In fact, I was at the program launch last week and the program itself is 8 per cent larger than it was in 2018. More than 7,000 artists will be performing next year at 1,326 shows and nearly 500 venues across our state. This is truly remarkable and something we should be very pleased about.

One thing I will say is that sometimes arts festivals just repeat what they do every single year, but nothing could be further from the truth at the Adelaide Fringe. In fact, there are 450 new events or programs running this year that will be making their debut. That is something to be immensely proud of.

Just a couple of highlights: I can inform the parliament that on 15 February next year the Fringe will get underway with an incredible ceremony called Tindo Utpurndee, or Sunset Ceremony, a celebration of Indigenous heritage and the deep cultural significance of the land through song and dance. I am particularly looking forward to this. Rundle Mall will be busier than usual because there will be a series of Fringe events scheduled to take place: street performers, workshops, special guests and public artwork displays centred around the Gawler Place canopy.

There will be some of the favourites returning to the Adelaide Fringe. I am happy to announce that there will be events like Barbu from Cirque Alfonse, Club Briefs and Cirque Africa, which were some of the most popular shows and performances at last year's Fringe and which will be returning. If you didn't see them last time, you can come and see them or maybe just go a second time. There are lots and lots of new programs, as I said—450, to be precise.

I am very pleased and proud to be announcing that the South Australian government will be making a financial contribution to a new event called Yabarra, which is going to be performed by Karl Telfer in conjunction with illuminart and Novatech in South Australia. I think this will absolutely be spectacular. It will be along the banks of the river, and I think this will be something that all South Australians will really look forward to attending. It will be a free event, so I encourage people to get along.

This year, the state government again supported the Adelaide Fringe in abolishing inside fees to artists, putting their money back into the artist's pocket, which I think is an outstanding way to make sure that this event does remain very much uppermost on the artists' agenda worldwide.