Adelaide Fringe 2020.
Artistic Director and CEO Heather Croall. Principal Sponsor Bank SA. Adelaide CBD, Environs and South Australia Regions. February 14 – March 15 2020. www.adelaidefringe.com.au
Preview by Peter Wilkins
Anyone who has ever jostled their
way through the crowded footpaths of Rundle Street’s East End in Adelaide will
remember the buzz of the Fringe. Anyone who has stood on the long queue to see
their favourite late night show in the bustling Garden of Unearthly Delights
will know that there is no better place to be than Adelaide during Fringe time.
Of course the Fringe is not alone in the festive month of March. There is the
Adelaide Festival, located primarily at the Adelaide Festival Centre. There is
the Writer’s Week in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden behind Government
House. And there is WomAdelaide between the Botanic Gardens and the Zoological Gardens. But the Adelaide Fringe is much much more,
stretching its inspirational feast of artistic events far and beyond the CBD.
Throughout the state, satellites of Fringe events enliven Adelaide’s suburbs
and regional centres as far apart as Mount Gambier in the south and Port Augusta
in the north. Artists of all kinds flood the myriad of strange and wonderful
venues with comedy, theatre, music, dance, community arts and free events for
the entire community.
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| Heather Croall. Artistic Director and CEO of the Adelaide Fringe |
This year, the Adelaide Fringe
celebrates its Diamond Anniversary, sixty years of bringing the community
together with a plethora of cultural delights to tempt every palate and excite
every taste. A magnificent coffee table book, published to celebrate the sixty
glorious years of this phenomenal festival reveals each year in glossy
reminiscence. From its humble beginnings as an adjunct to the prestigious
Adelaide Festival, intent on giving a voice to local artists, while the
Festival attracted primarily international visitors the Fringe has grown to
become the largest festival in the Southern Hemisphere and second only to the
Edinburgh Fringe. Visitors, including artists, directors, administrators and
entrepreneurs travel from across the globe to immerse themselves in the four
weeks of the Fringe, and many shows over the years gain international standing
as a result of their Fringe season. Crowds flock to venues like the Garden of
Unearthly Delights, Gluttony and the Royal Croquet Club, or seek out original
theatre works at Holden Street Theatres, The Bakehouse and Joanne Hartstone’s
productions like the acclaimed The Girl
Who Fell From the Hollywood Sign in the Botanic Gardens.
True to its origins and affirmed
by Father of the Fringe, the late Frank Ford OAM, the Adelaide Fringe has
remained an open access festival, extending an invitation to anyone who would
like to showcase their work. 7000 artists make their way from all corners of
the nation and the globe to participate in this amazing festival. While some
may find their way to the established venues, many will seek out unusual spaces
in which to present their work. One such surprising venue is the tunnels
beneath Adelaide’s old and charming Treasury Building now housing the Adina
Apartments. In Rundle Mall in the heart
of Adelaide’s CBD, street performers will entertain the passers-by with feats
of daring and physical prowess. Buskers will fill the air with music and song
and for four high octane weeks, Adelaide will explode with talent and first
class entertainment.
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| Gravity and Other Myths |
“It’s a springboard, a launching pad’” says Artistic
Director and CEO, Heather Croall of her fifth Fringe Festival. “I think it’s
too easy for people to think of our open access model that it wouldn’t be excellent work. It’s not as
highbrow as the curated festival, but artists are presenting excellent work at
the Fringe much of which does end up at curated festivals such as physical
theatre group Gravity and Other Myths
which appeared in last year’s Adelaide Festival and has toured internationally
to resounding success.. “The fact that the Fringe is an open access model does
not reduce the brilliance of the work.” Gravity
and Other Myths will return to perform at the Fringe again this year.
“Programmers from around the nation and the world see the Fringe as a great
place to be discovered for bookings in the future and a fabulous place to find
audiences and a wonderful experience to be a part of and around their peers”
says Croall.
This year Croall with the
assistance of a grant from the South Australian government has intervened
positively to allow more aboriginal artists to be represented in the Fringe.
There has always been a First Nation element from as far back as the sixty year
old origin of the Fringe. This year for the first time, the Fringe has created
a First Nation Hub that is absolutely full of aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander shows at Tandanya, Australia’s first cultural aboriginal institution,
established in 1989.
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| Yabarra Dreaming in Light |
Each Fringe features a signature
project and for the Diamond Anniversary year the Fringe has created Yabarra Dreaming in Light. “We have created an immersive projection piece that is all around you
in the Tandanya Gallery. It is like walking into an aboriginal Dreamtime. You
have the Milky Way and the stars above you. You have the flora and the
fauna all around you. Footprints of
animals along the ground entice you to come in and wind spirits blow in the
distance. It’s magical. It’s amazing!” The installation is free but visitors
will need to book a time slot guaranteed to blow everyone away with its cutting
edge technology.
The 2020 Fringe will officially
open on St. Valentine’s Day with a sunset ceremony in the picturesque Millawirraburka
Rymill Park in Adelaide’s East Parklands. “It is fitting that we are opening on
Valentine’s Day.” Croall says, “because the Fringe is the Festival of Love with
everyone coming together and opening night is the perfect Date Night with your
friends, with your partner, with the earth and with everybody. Lots of people
tell me that they met their life partner at the Fringe!”
As an open access festival, the
Fringe will always represents a large number of views. “The way we see the world
is an important part of democracy.’ Croall says. “It’s a really important part
of any democratic society to have a strong arts scene with vibrant cultural
elements around us that we can all be part of and that is why I think the
Fringe plays such an important role in our lives. That’s why the love is so
deep.”
The political shift will be
reflected much more in the vast programme. The Fringe has always offered a
strong commentary on the world around us in its comedy shows, cabaret and
theatre. This year will be no different. With 1200 theatre shows to choose from
let alone all the other free and ticketed events, audiences could be excused
for feeling overwhelmed by the choices presented. It is something that Croall
is acutely cognisant of. “We’ve devoted resources, time and planning to make
the programme easy to navigate for all the different tastes. There’s a lot of
Fringe lists on our website. Media commentators will pick their top shows. Like
artistic directors before her, Croall offers similar advice to visitors to the
Fringe “Go to see something you’ve heard of but I always like to say go
and see something you know nothing about. Take pot luck because that’s often the
show you’ll be talking about.”
The Fringe website is obviously
the starting place for people who are hoping to select things to see and do.
Those who may be visiting Adelaide for a short time can focus on the listed
dates and choose their favourites without having to navigate the entire guide.
“ Jump onto our website and if you already know the dates that you can come
then don’t search the entire programme, just limit the search to the dates that
you’re coming so use the filters on our website to monitor your own curatorial
prowess. You can just put the genres that you’re interested in or just put the
dates that you want. Limit the number of shows you’re viewing and start to pick
through and choose your favourites. It’s a really great tool with Fringe
favourites. There are so many elements of the Fringe to just lap up while
you’re here . The lovely balmy nights we have obviously help. It’s something
that people comment on a lot. They don’t just go and see the shows but also
make a night of it, sitting out at a piazza style restaurant on the street, or
simply having a drink under the gum trees and the starry skies”.
Croall’s passion for her fifth
Fringe is palpable. She claims that it is the inclusivity of the Fringe that
still gives her that special buzz. “It really does move me how inclusive it is.
It is not an exclusive event. It has no elitism. There is room for every
artist. There is room for every audience member and we know that the impact
that inclusivity has on people is huge. People tell me all the time, ‘The
Fringe changed my life.’ That’s amazing.
It really moves me”
Adelaide Fringe. February 14 –
March 15 2020
Fringe Tix Call Centre: 1300 621 255
Adelaide Box Office: +61 8 8100
2000
