(Adelaide) Fringe Festival

Day Six of the 2019 A-Z Challenge during the month of April. The challenge is to post six days a week, Sunday respite from writing or catching up with other participants and their posts. Each of the twenty-six days represents a letter of the alphabet and while each post stands alone they form part of a loose theme reflecting our retirement trip around Australia: Our Big Fat Aussie Road Trip.

February – March this year, the Adelaide Fringe Festival ended on a triumphant note having brought artists from around the world to prticipate in the month long festival celebrating all things Fringe. The Fringe now runs concurrently with the Adelaide Festival, a more eclectic mix of classic music, ballet and plays.

South Australia is known as the Festival State with good reason. For 31 days the city becomes a place of phantasmagorical activity and colour, pulsating into the early hours, resting during siesta to return late afternoon and do it all again.

This year we were in the right place at the right time and managed a two week stint in Adelaide during the Fringe. As I mentioned before the Adelaide Festival kicked off, part-way through the Fringe, with a free night of classical music and a multimedia extravaganza hosted by National Geographic. The Adelaide Festival Orchestra was exceptional, the photography superb and score was entitled Symphony for our World.

Since the original symphony’s first staging in San Francisco last year, it has been performed around the world by different orchestras, conductors and choirs, set to big-screen projections of the greatest film and images from National Geographic magazine’s 130 years of nature photography.

Adelaide Now

We arrived early with our picnic baskets, found a patch of grass and settled in for the evening. It was an excellent start to our fortnight and probably the most polished performance we experienced. But let’s talk about the Fringe that hosted some of the most bizarre and outrageous acts, justifying its title – The Fringe.

The ethos of the Fringe is anyone who wants to have a go is welcome, it’s an all inclusive programme of artists across multiple entertainment disciplines who share their talent.

As intriguing and entertaining as The Fringe was this is not where one comes for a classical and cultural feast (you go the Adelaide Festival for that). Rather, it is a month of snacking around numerous acts that range from circus and comedy, from magic to sheer quirk. Prices are pitched for everyone to afford and the shows kept to an hour.

Adelaide becomes a creative soul’s happy place with 1, 326 shows across 517 venues. True to its manifesto, The Fringe takes a large number of shows to outlaying regions where entertainment hubs hosted the crowds.

Soaking up the atmosphere in The Garden of Unearthly Delights

Paint & Sip Evening playing Acrylics.

One of the venues in The Garden of Unearthly Delights

Our first meal of Japanese dumplings. Delicious.

“Adelaide has become synonymous with one of the premier Fringe festivals in the world and, last year, attracted more than 20,000 interstate and international visitors who spent a record $29.5 million while they were here,” Mr Ridgway said.

“Not only does this bring an added energy and vibrancy to the city, but the positive economic impact extends far beyond the shows and artists to our hotels, restaurants, cafes and shops.”

Adelaide Fringe Chair David Minear said the Fringe was revered across Australia and internationally as “the people’s festival”.

“The Adelaide Fringe puts a bright, vibrant and positive face on Adelaide and South Australia for 31 glorious days and nights,” Mr Minear said.

The Adelaide Fringe