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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-06-23 Daily Xml
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CABARET FRINGE FESTIVAL

The Hon. T.A. JENNINGS (15:55): I rise to speak about the arts in South Australia. Many members in this place would be very proud of this state's tradition in the arts, and I believe that it is certainly one of our great defining features. At the moment we see not only a cabaret festival taking place but also a cabaret fringe festival. It has a few more days to go, but it has been running since 1 June and finishes on 27 June this year. It is now in its third year, with 40 shows across 12 venues. Organisers believe that, in fact, it is the second largest cabaret festival in the world—of course, following the Adelaide Cabaret Festival itself.

The Cabaret Fringe Festival had its first year at La Bohème on Grote Street in 2008. By the second year, in 2009, there were 32 shows over five venues; and, in 2009, 45 per cent of tickets were sold through BASS and 10 shows were sold out, with most shows enjoying 75 per cent of ticket sales. Clearly, there is an interest in the cabaret fringe offerings. That festival has grown at a rapid rate, and I pay tribute to the youngish Adelaide people who have run this festival off their own bat without any government support and who have made a great contribution to the culture of this state.

They have complemented the Adelaide Fringe Festival beautifully, and they have given local artists a great opportunity to perform for Adelaide and interstate audiences, and probably also international audiences. The beauty of the Cabaret Fringe Festival is that cabaret is accessible, challenging and intimate and connects the audience and performer like no other art form. I also had the great privilege of attending a performance of Why Muriel Matters at La Bohème, and I would say that was also a packed house and a great example of the strength of the Cabaret Fringe Festival.

It was one of the 40 shows on this particular program. Members would know about it because we have heard a lot about Muriel Matters today, although we have not heard very much about her for the past 100 years. She was an Adelaide born suffragist who was the first woman to speak—although not on the floor of the parliament—while chained to the grille of the parliament at the House of Commons. I pay tribute to Frances Bedford, the Hon. Gail Gago, the Hon. Stephanie Key and members of Muriel's family who made sure that we will not forget why Muriel matters.

I also point to some wonderful ongoing local community arts around Adelaide. Members may not have heard of the Renew Adelaide group, which is based on a Renew Newcastle project which renewed empty spaces particularly in the city of Newcastle and which is looking to do the same in Adelaide. Again, these are largely youngish people who are setting up arts venues and putting on performances, again, without much assistance from any government authority. Part of Renew Adelaide is the Format Collective, and I advise members that they are located at 15 Peel Street, if they would like to drop in. They have a wonderful array of zines there, and they also put on an array of shows.

They house the Act Now Theatre for Social Change, they put on radical craft-a-noons and they have a hacker space. Basically, they provide a meeting place for science, technology, computing and artistic minds. They even play handball in the forecourt of their venue. Turning that space into a regular performance and rehearsal venue is their dream but, of course, they face problems with council approval and they have a lack of disability access. These things, of course, require time, money and, I think, government support. At the moment they are managing to pay their rent through left-over bar proceeds from the two-week event they held as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

I congratulate them for their great work. I would love to see them being able to turn their space into a much more disability access friendly and ongoing venue. Another venue that has been a feature of many Adelaide fringes is the Tuxedo Cat. Members may not be aware but in 2008, on the rooftop of 19 Synagogue Place, we saw the Tuxedo Cat start up, and then in the 2009 fringe. It sold approximately 2,100 tickets in 2008 with 70 performances of nine acts with a capacity at each of those performances of 70 people. In 2009 it had one performance space and a combined total of 156 performances by 12 acts.

Time expired.

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