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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-05 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE FESTIVAL EVENTS

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (14:24): Can the Premier inform the house about the success or otherwise of Adelaide's Mad March events and their economic impact for South Australian business?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:24): I thank the honourable member for her question. Mr Speaker, anybody looking at Adelaide—in fact, there was a fantastic view over Adelaide from the top of Mount Lofty; you could have actually looked over Adelaide and seen that the whole of Adelaide was lit up with—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Not even a smile. Everyone was lit up with the fact that Adelaide was going off over this weekend. It was a fantastic weekend of activity. The Adelaide Fringe is now two weeks into its extended four-week session, which this government delivered. As it always does, the Fringe has been filling our city streets and creating business for South Australian cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs.

The newly-extended Fringe has been an extraordinary success. Ticket sales are up more than 11 per cent on last year, and 126 sessions over the weekend were essentially sold out, with each session selling more than 95 per cent of its ticket allocation.

The weekend also saw the Clipsal 500 and the start of the Adelaide Festival. I was fortunate enough to be in Elder Park on Friday night, along with 25,000 fans that came in. They were very happy to be there, and you had to get in early because it was obviously a great free concert with Paul Kelly and Neil Finn.

The concert really epitomises, I think, the approach that the new festival director, David Sefton, has taken; he wants to reach out to more South Australians, and I think it was a wonderful gesture to put on a free concert on the first night. I think it has created a sense of this festival already being a success before it started. I am also advised that ticket sales are well ahead of last year's sales at the same time. I also spent some time at the track, experiencing this year's V8 Supercars, and—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —what an event it was. What an event it was. Was the member for Finniss there? No, he wasn't? Anyway, he was invited, but he may have chosen not to go. It had—

The Hon. J.R. Rau: He was working on the farm.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right, on the farm. It was a great event, bringing together, obviously, massive crowds, perfect weather, some great acts, and a sell-out day for the first time in the history of Clipsal: 95,000 people on the Sunday; it was a great event. Two hundred and eighty thousand people attended over the four days, which is a record only beaten in the pre-GFC days—I think on the 10th anniversary, March 2008. So, it was a great performance.

While I didn't make it there—although, those opposite, some of them may have made it down to Soundwave, where Metallica were a hit. There were 40,000 people pouring into Bonython Park to see a hard metal—

The Hon. J.R. Rau: Heavy metal.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Heavy metal. 'Hard core metal', it says here.

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: Hard volume!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right. I want to acknowledge all of the people that make these events a success, because there is an enormous number of volunteers that actually swarm around these events. When I was down at Clipsal, I met a number of St John's volunteers, who do a great job down there. There are volunteers at every one of these events that make it such a successful event.

The BankSA survey last week revealed that there is a growing confidence in South Australia, and I think it was reflected in the ticket sales we are beginning to see in this March period. So, it is with great pleasure that I invite all South Australians to get along to the remaining events in March. There are so many fantastic things to get involved in.

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