People like to bash Adelaide. Ooh, look, I’m sending a black postcard to my Sydney friends with the tagline “Nightlife in Adelaide”. Tee hee.
But if you can find a city with more to do in the next couple of weeks, I’d be surprised. What’s on? Honestly, what’s not? Here’s just a quick sample of what’s showing.
Adelaide Arts Festival. The fest starts this Saturday, February 26 (with a free pyrotechnics show) and includes Adelaide Writers’ Week as part of its program. Wrap your mind around that. The Sapphires, the tale of Australia’s answer to The Supremes, looks like a winner.
And one of the big-ticket shows, the English National Opera’s version of Le Grand Macabre, György Ligeti’s anti-anti-opera about the apocalypse, is worth a look. In fact, Andrew Clements’ Guardian review of the show emphasised its speccie visuals: “This production is all about the set, a gigantic revolving figure of a n-ked women on all fours, whose orif-ces and detachable n-pples and limbs provide endless scope for exits and entrances.” Goodness. It also has a car horn prelude.
Adelaide Fringe Festival. Has already started. Goes til March 14. I’m particularly taken with the Cirque de Gymnastique, which features circus routines inspired by the music of ABBA. Mamma mia! (I tried to think of a pun here, honestly I did). Or how about Bogan Bingo (on tonight and tomorrow night).
Womadelaide. Australia’s hottest (sometimes a little too literally) world music festival runs March 5 to 8 in the Botanic Gardens. The program can be found here. The biggest crowd pleaser? Likely to be nine-piece rumba-flamenco fusion act Ojos de Brujo. They’re heading to Melbourne and Sydney too.
There are still some cheap flights to be found for Adelaide, but not many. So act quickly if you want to be part of the Adelaide action, before they turn the lights off.
Seen a good show? Heading to something in Adelaide? Let us know!
Radelaide!