Ten years ago the Adelaide Fringe Festival was a fantastic local event with great artists and nice venues, injecting a lot of unique energy and fun into the East End. Today the Adelaide Fringe Festival has more than quadrupled in size. With over 1200 acts and multiple large venues throughout the city as well as the many smaller performance spaces, thousands of people flock to the city every night to enjoy this now mega spectacle.
The second largest annual arts festival in the world runs for four weeks from February to March. Adelaide comes alive with Fringe. Decorations and performance artists litter the streets, whilst the warm summer weather entices people to enjoy the venues late into the night every night.
The Garden of Unearthly Delights has been a mainstay of the Fringe for years. Located in the eastern Park Lands, the Garden hosts some of the main Fringe venues as well as a variety of food and drink stalls, and is a great area to hang out before or after a show.
Artists spruik their shows as you walk past, with many selling tickets for as little as $6. These shows are usually 20 – 30 minutes in length and can be anything from comedy to cabaret to freak show.
The Garden food venues also draw people in, even if they don’t have tickets to a show. Pigs roast on spits, sangria is served from one food stand with a conveniently placed tapas truck next door, and everyone eats at tables and chairs scattered across the grass.
The Fringe also draws people to the many restaurants throughout the city. Rundle street is packed with diners enjoying Adelaide’s delicious cuisine late into the night.
After dinner wander along North Terrace and view the Fringe Illuminations that light up the Museum, Art Gallery and Adelaide University Buildings.
As Adelaide Fringe has grown, other events have gravitated towards it. During the summer months Adelaide is now jam packed with arts, music and sporting events. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Womadelaide Music Festival and Clipsal 500 Adelaide are just some of the events that crowd for space from February to April.
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