What is the Adelaide Fringe?
The Adelaide Fringe is an open-access arts festival held each February and March in Adelaide. It is often described as the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than a thousand events across the city.
The Fringe began in 1960 as an alternative to the Adelaide Festival, giving artists who were not part of the official program a chance to perform. It is open access, which means any artist can register a show without being selected by a curator.
The program includes comedy, cabaret, theater, music, circus, visual art and family shows. Performances take place in theaters, pubs, parks, pop-up venues and even private homes.
The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Some of the most popular venues are temporary festival hubs, such as the Garden of Unearthly Delights in Rundle Park and Gluttony in Rymill Park. These hubs feature tents, food stalls, bars and many small stages.
The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and sells hundreds of thousands of tickets each year. It brings significant tourism spending to South Australia.
Adelaide's late-summer festival season, sometimes called Mad March, includes the Fringe, the Adelaide Festival, WOMADelaide and the Adelaide Cup horse race, making the city especially lively at that time of year.
Did You Know?
The Fringe opening parade along King William Street draws large crowds.