ADELAIDE FRINGE FEBRUARY 20 - MARCH 22. 2026

 

Adelaide Fringe 2026. Adelaide and Touring regional South Australia. February 20 - March 22

Bookings: www.adelaidefringe.com.au Phone: 1300 621 255

Tara MacLeod  Acting Director and CEO of 
Adelaide Fringe 2026

Exciting is Tara MacLeod’s favourite word. And with good reason. The former Executive Director of Operations  and Finance at the Adelaide Fringe has been appointed Acting Director and CEO of the 2026 Adelaide Fringe following the departure of long term CEO Heather Croall AM. “It’s a dream come true.” says MacLeod. After an illustrious career in events and as CEO of the Port Adelaide Football Club for 13 years and director of the Adelaide Film Festival, MacLeod jumped at the chance to work at the second largest Fringe Festival in the world. As a former Australian Girls Choir member MacLeod has long held a passion for the arts and as Head of Operations at the Fringe she has been passionate about the Fringe’s role to embrace all members of the community, both nationally and internationally. “We are ready to welcome you to a more inclusive and diverse Adelaide Fringe than ever before” MacLeod writes in her introduction in the 173 page Adelaide Fringe guide. This includes a greater number of shows that enable people with disabilities and special needs to participate fully in what the Fringe has to offer.

Garden of Unearthly Delights

 I browse in amazement at what the Fringe does have to offer. Just when you might think that the Fringe could not get any bigger, the statistics surprise. In 2026, audiences will be able to choose from over 1600 shows held in almost 600 venues.  Each year the guide makes it possible to choose shows by dividing the events into colour coded genres.  These are Cabaret, Circus, Comedy, Community Events, Dance, Eat and Drink, Film and Digital, Interactive, Kids and Family, Magic, Music, Theatre and physical Theatre, Variety, Visual Arts and Design and Workshops and Talks. Festivalgoers will also be able to visit the usual Hubs, including the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony in the East Parklands and the Royal Croquet Club in Victoria Square. Stand up comedy is at the Rhino Room and high quality theatre from Australia and overseas is on show at Holden Street Theatres in suburban Hindmarsh. After being closed for renovations for some years Adelaide’s First Nations Hub, Tandanya will reopen with performances, exhibitions, workshops and talks. There will also be aboriginal culture tours in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.  MacLeod cannot contain her excitement in her account of the ambition and vast outreach of the festival. Venues, libraries and city spaces will also erupt with the vast array of activities and events in the 2026 Fringe. And it is not reserved for the city of Adelaide as MacLeod explains. “One of our priorities is to expand our programmes in the regions. Our programme extends well beyond the CBD.”

With so much on offer, I wonder how the Fringe could take on any more initiatives. However, I am used to new administrative and artistic initiatives being introduced to make the Fringe more accessible, inclusive and audience and artist friendly. MacLeod is eager to tell me of the latest introduction to the already enormous programme with its tentacles reaching out as far as Whyalla in the North, Eyre Peninsula in the West, Mount Gambier in the South and a host of country sites throughout the state.

“Immersive Worlds is our new signature project.” MacLeod says. “It’s  a new thing for us. It means that our signature project gets out to the regions and people can consume that from Mount Gambier to Whyalla and then back to the CBD. It really does allow us to be more accessible. It’s really exciting that people who have access needs can access Fringe more than they have ever done before. “Immersive Worlds will take place in the Fringe’s newest venue, Olympic Hall, and will take audiences “From Deep Sea to Deep Space  and all the Natural Wonders in between”

Marcel Cole as Charlie Chaplin in
Smile - The Story of Charlie Chaplin

Passion exudes from MacLeod as she describes her commitment to accessibility. “One of my passions and what I’m excited about is the roll out of our action plans for disability access. We have a goal to make the Adelaide Fringe one of the most accessible festivals in the world.” To this end, MacLeod has initiated collaboration with Working with Autism SA and partnership with SA Care. The autism Bus will also provide audience members with the disability to relax during what can be an overwhelming experience.

As well as access, MacLeod believes that the Fringe has a huge responsibility to the artists and carries on Croall’s initiatives to give box office back to the artists and promote the work of artists from all over the world through the Fringe’s Honey Pot marketplace. And so the Fringe really does become a cultural event for a global and local, national community.

So, how does one navigate such a vast event and make the choices to see shows  from as far afield as Europe and Asia or as close as homegrown performances? MacLeod offers some very pragmatic advice. “Grab your favourite beverage, whether that be a glass of pinot noir or a nice cup of tea and a hot coffee and sit and work your way through it. If that isn’t the thing you want to do, we’ve really developed our website so that you can jump on and use all the filters that we have. We have the most amazing filters and you can really pinpoint the things that you want to see. It’s very easy to do it that way. It’s also a good way to take a risk on a few things.  It’s a big guide. It can be overwhelming; that is why it may be easier to go through the filters on the website: www.adelaidefringe.com.au “

Sarah Stewart presents Wedding Ring, SuffeRing

Executive Assistant Lauren Finch sends me the list of ACT participants. An impressive list of over 20 performances include ACT performers. Two notable shows are Sarah Stewart’s knockout comedy Wedding Ring,SuffeRing and Marcel Cole’s multi award winning show Smile- The Story of Charlie Chaplin. Other shows listed cover the genres of comedy, cabaret and theatre and physical theatre.

MacLeod would like to see artists getting more people along to their shows and for people to buy tickets to the shows that they want to see and then one more for a show that they may not know or had not planned to see. “Take the risk because that is what Fringe is so magical for. You can really experience some wonderful shows and some amazing artists that you might not have met before had you just gone back to the same people you had seen before.

That’s where an open access Fringe comes into its own. There are so many things to see and we just say to people. Buy that one more ticket. Take a risk.”

And for the future? What is shaping the vision for the Fringe Festivals of tomorrow? “The younger generation is really forging the path in technology and we ask what is feeding these young people in the coming years?” MacLeod says. “Immersive Worlds becomes really important. How do we facilitate the art for a group of people who have grown up with screens and phones? And want to be totally immersed in what they see. Moving forward is great but we cannot deny that people love escapism and they love to get away from what is happening in the world. It can be really overwhelming sometimes what’s happening in the big wide world and what Fringe allows is for you to come in and escape all that. I think there’s a huge part to play for the arts in the way that the world is evolving now.

We have an opportunity to develop the wonder and the joy in life every day that maybe we’re losing a bit of the sight of. So I think I don’t see it going backwards. I think people will need and want this so much more in their lives. That is a really important and wonderful thing that we can do!!

Adelaide Fringe

February 20 – March 22 2026

Adelaide and country South Australia

Bookings: www.adelaidefringe.com.au Phone: 1300 621 255