Illuminate Adelaide

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Will the government continue to support the outstanding Illuminate festival next year and into the future? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I seek to explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The Illuminate festival currently underway, launched by the Premier last Friday, is in the second year, as I understand it, of a three-year funding agreement with the state government. My question relates to whether the government will deliver on the third year of the funding agreement for next year's festival and, indeed, whether the government is going to deliver ongoing support for the festival thereafter, or is at least giving consideration to doing so.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:53): I thank the deputy leader for this question. I think Illuminate is fantastic and so does the Premier, and we were very excited to announce on Friday the start of Base Camp. I had the opportunity to go on Saturday with my son and, yes, we will be continuing to support this fantastic event and thank you for the opportunity to let me talk about it.

Base Camp will be going for the whole of July, and I encourage you to go along. Light Cycles starts, back by popular demand—it was a runaway hit last year—and will return to the Adelaide Botanic Garden. It is the Australian first production from the Montreal Studio Moment Factory and it transforms the greenery at the Adelaide Botanic Garden into an after-dark immersive experience. It connects guests to the natural world. I understand that last year it was sold out and I welcome it coming back again.

For the same period of time, from 7 July, Light Creatures will also be available. I encourage everyone to book your tickets and go along. Of course, that is a celebration of conservation and explores the historic precinct, looking up close in an immersive experience at the Zoo. It is seeing our very own Zoo in a different way. It is a nocturnal adventure and it's back bigger and better than ever.

Of course, one of the key areas of Illuminate this year, given the van Gogh experience that many people went to, is the opportunity from Ouchhh Studio. They are Istanbul-based visionaries and have collaborated with NASA and with CERN and this immersive work they are going to present in Adelaide, opening from Saturday 16 July, is the first place in Australia where it will be seen. I think that is a really exciting thing because we are going to see something called Wisdom of AI Light and it is a connection of art, music and AI.

We all know that here in South Australia we lead some of the work in AI and we continue to see how we can welcome the wider South Australian community and interstate guests to see how we can all appreciate that.

Illuminate is not just in Adelaide; we have it in Renmark, Victor Harbor and also Mount Gambier. In late June, I was in Renmark to see In Depth, amongst other things, and it was fantastic. The Renmark Club told me they sold out of schnitzels on opening night. Everyone was packed out in the Riverland, and they really enjoyed having that. That was called In Depth in Renmark from 3 June to 2 July.

In Depth was a large-scale multimedia event by Craig Walsh, with local artists and community members with sound and lighting and it transformed the River Murray after dark. I have to say that, when I spent time in the Riverland, people kept talking about it and they said, 'I'm going to take my family' or 'The family just went.' It was fantastic to have it.

The Digital Garden will be in Mount Gambier from 5 to 21 August. This is the second time it has been in Mount Gambier. It was incredibly popular last year and it is great to support it again. The highlight of the Digital Garden will be an interactive installation by Jen Lewin Studio titled The Pool. Then it moves on to the Harbor Lights in Victor Harbor on 26 August to 11 September. Again, Craig Walsh will be providing Monuments, which is an experience there as well.

I think we have always focused on filling out the calendar and Illuminate does just that, and we support it this year and next year as well.