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The 38th Adelaide Festival has opened today with the festival offering an array of events - 893 artists from 18 countries gathering in Adelaide over the next 17 days. The box office target is $5,186,200 and Adelaide Festival is currently at 91% of target with revenue currently at $4,704,361.  

This year’s program taking place from 3rd to 19th March and features a spectacular line-up of FREE and ticketed events across dance, theatre, visual arts, music, writers, installations and exhibitions alongside Adelaide Writers’ Week and WOMADelaide.

There will be a total of 282 events (includes 160 writers week sessions + kids’ day + YA day), plus 10 free exhibitions and installations with the line-up including eight Australian premieres, 11 world premieres and 17 events exclusive to Adelaide..

New Chief Executive Kath M Mainland and Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie are proud to present AF23, initiated by former Artistic Directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy after six hugely successful festivals. The cutting-edge program celebrates diversity and innovation, and Adelaide’s world leading role as the place where global creative forces converge. 

Ruth Mackenzie, talking about what makes 2023 special, shares “Kath and I are incredibly excited to be here, at the beginning of Adelaide Festival 2023, working with some of our favourite international artists from South Australia and round the world - this Festival is full of inspiration, family fun and surprise. Local, interstate and international audiences have wholly embraced the Festival and we are thrilled with ticket sales which are now at 91% of our target – which is the biggest target to date – so we are on track for an incredible Festival.”

SA Minister for Arts Andrea Michaels MP adds “Adelaide Festival continues to cement South Australia’s reputation as a world-class festival city that attracts tourists from across the world. It is fantastic to hear that 25% of total tickets sold across the festival have been purchased by interstate and international audiences who are headed to South Australia. I encourage everyone to take part in this wonderful festival.”

The Festival  starts in Elder Park at 7.30 tonight with the spectacular FREE opening celebration Spinifex Gum, featuring the voices and harmonies of Cairns-based choir Marliya with the full orchestral forces of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The concert opens with the world premiere of Adelaide’s first Citizens Orchestra, comprising of over 100 community musicians of all ages. Bring picnic blankets and chairs and join with us under the stars as we open the 2023 Adelaide festival.

Also opening on Friday is the world premiere and Adelaide exclusive, Andy Warhol & Photography: A Social Media, at the Art Gallery of South Australia, displaying photographs, experimental films, screen prints and paintings, including his famed portraits of Liza Minnelli, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Two powerful theatre works are already playing; Slingsby’s world premiere The River That Ran Uphill opened on Wednesday and is a first-hand account of 2015 Cyclone Pam which ravaged the South Pacific. On Thursday night the Belarus Free Theatre opened Dogs of Europe, the urgent, landmark work.

Other theatre performances on opening night are: Renowned director Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of bestselling novel A Little Life, tracking the deeply intertwined lives of four men over a period of 30 years; Sydney Theatre Company returning to the glorious Her Majesty’s Theatre with Kip Williams' vivid adaptation of Gothic classic Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; and Windmill Theatre Company with Sandpit Design Studio's world premiere of Hans & Gret.

Spain’s Escolania de Montserrat who are the longest-standing boys’ choir in the world, with an 800-year history, perform in Australia for the first time, exclusively to the Festival. Their performances at Adelaide Town Hall open tonight and run over Saturday and Sunday.

Adelaide Writers’ Week 2023 opens Saturday 4th March with 160 writers from 10 countries.

On Saturday, Kids’ Day and Middle Grade and YA Readers’ Day provide a jam-packed program designed for children and young people including 40th anniversary celebrations for Mem Fox’s Possum Magic.

Invigorating forum Breakfast with Papers with Tom Wright and a panel of informed guests begins Saturday 4th March and continues daily throughout the Festival.

New York Times-acclaimed, Melbourne-based all-woman trio Camp Cope perform their final show ever to open Adelaide Festival’s latest contemporary music venue – Hindley St Music Hall.

At breathtaking Adelaide Hills venue UKARIA on the afternoon of Sunday 5th March, the much-anticipated world premiere of Ngapa William Cooper takes place: created by composer Nigel Westlake with vocalists Lior and Lou Bennett, performed with the Australian String Quartet, celebrating the life of revered Yorta Yorta elder, William Cooper, who in 1938 led the Australian Aborigines League protest against the Nazis’ Kristallnacht atrocities.

The 2023 Festival’s centrepiece, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, opens Wednesday 8th March in the Festival Theatre and features over 170 performers, including 80 Australian singers, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and 36 dancers from Ballett Zürich.

Hindley Street Music Hall will host daring lyricist Julia Jacklin; and the Australian premiere of Pan’s Labyrinth x Sleep D, an unforgettable night of cinema and music played live.

For families, Air Play by USA acrobats Acrobuffos is a joyful, wordless visual poem incorporating flying umbrellas, balloons, snowflakes and the power of air, that speaks to audiences of all ages and will play in the Festival Theatre.

Over 2500 tickets have been distributed to people through two separate Open House programs generously supported by The Balnaves Foundation, whose support since 2017 has totalled over $500,000. Tix for Next to Nix and Pay What You Can are aimed at providing access to flagship Adelaide Festival productions for those in the community who otherwise could not afford to attend.

Tix for Next to Nix – 2897 tickets were set aside at $5 each and made available to registered community groups and healthcare/pension cardholders.

More information at www.adelaidefestival.com.au/

Images from top: Adelaide Festival 2023 Spinifex Gum and the MSO Credit: Mark Gambino; Adelaide Festival 2023 WOMAD Gratte Ciel Credit: Grant Hancock; AAdelaide Festival 2023 The River That Ran Uphill Credit: Emma Luker; Adelaide Festival 2023 Writers Week Credit: Frankie The Creative; Adelaide Festival 2023 AirPlay Credit: Florence Montmare;  

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