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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-22 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE FESTIVAL OF ARTS

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (14:34): My question is to the Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts. Minister, what was the economic impact of the 2010 Adelaide Festival of Arts?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:35): I do indeed.

Mr Williams: You're really across the important things. A $400 million blowout in your department and you don't know about it.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Look, if you'd like to ask me another question about the health portfolio, deputy leader, then go ahead. I was asked a straight question—was it true that a certain set of figures were the case—and I said that when I have the information I will provide it to you. It is a reasonable thing, I would have thought. If you have other questions, deputy leader, please ask away. I am very comfortable to talk about our record in health funding, as I am in relation to the arts.

The SPEAKER: Could you answer the question, please, minister?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I was inadvertently distracted by interjections on the other side. They're naughty people, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: You're naughty to respond, minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Adelaide Festival of Arts celebrated, as members would know, its 50th anniversary in 2010, and the state government provided once-off additional funding of $1.775 million to the Festival Corporation to allow it to mark this very special occasion. These additional funds allowed the Festival to provide a free opening weekend spectacular family event at Victoria Park to reprise and adapt the Northern Lights initiative that saw our beautiful public buildings in North Terrace illuminated and to present an enhanced Indigenous dance and music program.

Artistic Director Paul Grabowsky and the Adelaide Festival team, led by Kate Gould, who is an excellent public servant, brought together an impressive program of opera, theatre, music, dance, literature and visual arts that attracted huge audiences. The economic impact survey of the 2010 Festival reveals that there were an estimated 66,000 ticketed attendances and 600,000 attendances at non-ticketed events. An amazing 70,000 people attended a sensational opening weekend pyrotechnic performance called A Little More Light.

The total attendance of 666,000 for all events was up from 458,000 in 2008, so there was a massive increase in people participating in the Festival of Arts. The survey gauged total visitor numbers to Adelaide for the Festival as 13,662, slightly up from the 13,602 in 2008. Based on face-to-face interviews with these overseas, interstate and intrastate visitors, the survey calculated that the overall economic impact to our city and to our state was $13.645 million. Northern Lights proved to be the most popular special event for the group, with 73 per cent of those interviewed indicating that they had attended it. WOMADelaide was the most attended music event (23 per cent) and Circus Oz was the main family event attended with 10 per cent attending that.

Thirty per cent of surveyed Festival visitors indicated that they were staying in Adelaide for more than seven days and 77 per cent indicated that they were not staying any nights elsewhere in Australia on this visit. For the majority of respondents (54 per cent), attending Adelaide Festival performances was the main reason for visiting South Australia. According to Festival patrons, an overwhelming majority of 92 per cent indicated that they were likely to attend the Adelaide Festival in the future; 92 per cent said that they were likely to come back.

The main purpose of a festival, of course, is to entertain, to thrill, to challenge, to delight and to encourage us to reflect on the world in different ways, and the 50th anniversary Adelaide Festival certainly did that. I think members will agree with me that the 2010 Adelaide Festival was an artistic success and a fitting 50th anniversary celebration, particularly through its inclusion of a range of impressive Indigenous performances and exhibitions, the inaugural Adelaide International exhibition that was developed in collaboration with five of Adelaide's contemporary arts organisations, and the successful extension of WOMADelaide to a four-day format.

The Adelaide Festival, coupled with the Adelaide Fringe's 705 events and $35.1 million in estimated ticket, entertainment and accommodation expenditure, shows the significant cultural and economic benefit of these festivals to South Australia. While many did not believe making our much-loved WOMADelaide and Fringe festivals annual events would work, both have continued to grow in size and popularity and have only boosted our identity as the Festival State.

I am looking forward to the Adelaide Festival going annual from 2012 and all the cultural and economic benefits from this that will flow to our state. I congratulate everybody involved in the fabulous Festival, particularly Paul Grabowsky and his team but also those who worked on it in a variety of ways both as paid staff and volunteers and, of course, the sponsors who helped make it such a great success.

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