Adelaide Festivals

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:50): I rise today to take the opportunity to discuss Adelaide's music and arts industry. The fact is that we live in a state that is forever growing, not only economically but creatively. In June 2016, Music SA's Live Music Census presented an increase of 14.4 per cent in the number of events or gigs, if I can call them that, if I am still young enough, where they rose to1,101—

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Thank you, the Hon. Ms Scriven—in May 2016 compared to May 2015, where they were sitting at 962 live gigs in South Australia—I used it anyway, Clare. These are great numbers for South Australia. This means that more people are enjoying live music and going out to see more local talented artists. This has a flow-on effect for small businesses, bars and even the artists themselves. According to the previous arts minister, Jack Snelling, the live music scene contributed $263.7 million to South Australia's economy in 2014 alone, and nationally the industry contributed approximately $15.7 billion to the economy and approximately 65,000 full and part-time jobs. This goes to show that there never has been a better time to support South Australian music.

One of the main festivals that supports the music and arts industry in South Australia is the Adelaide Fringe Festival, typically running from mid-February to mid-March, which offers artists a range of opportunities to showcase their talents. In March, we also have WOMADelaide, Adelaide Writers' Week, Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide 500. In July, there is the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and also the Umbrella Winter City Sounds Festival, which has recently returned to Adelaide and finishes on Sunday 29 July. Then, in October, there is the Adelaide Film Festival.

Along with all these festivals, Adelaide has some great venues for local musicians such as the Crown and Anchor, the Wheatsheaf Hotel, known for holding SCALA's Festival of Original Music, which is held from July through to August, and there is also the Grace Emily, the Metro and the Jade Monkey, all which support local musicians and the local musician scene.

The issue we are facing, as you may have noticed, is that the majority of these festivals are in March, otherwise known as Mad March. We have over 10 festivals occurring from late February through to mid-March. There are other festivals that occur throughout the year; however, they do not have the same vibe and exciting atmosphere that Mad March does. During this period, people are out, going to bars and restaurants, hotels get booked out and the city is constantly filled with people, not just on weekends but also during the week because the public has somewhere interesting to go once they finish work for the day. This is because there is more live entertainment and gigs on in the city, such as live shows, street performances, markets and even pop-up food and drink bars. But then the Fringe ends and the city goes back into a festival hibernation.

Of course, local musicians still perform around Adelaide in some of these great live music venues and there are other smaller festivals over the year but there is nowhere near the same vibe and exciting atmosphere as there is during the Adelaide Fringe and the other Mad March festivals. The vast majority of these events are only targeted to specific audiences and a majority of the time these bands and artists are only performing to small audiences. When we think of March we think of a city that is vibrant, colourful, creative, unique and exciting to be in.

I would like to see Adelaide's arts and live music culture further grow and develop outside of Mad March and that period of time so that young talented artists and old talented artists are able to thrive and survive through the peaks and troughs of our live music and arts scene in South Australia. Adelaide has a good base and foundation to work from and with the right catalyst we could grow our music and arts scene outside of Mad March.