The 2016 Adelaide Festival Of Arts (AFOA) is the fourth and final for Artistic Director David Sefton; and with the mix of pyrotechnics, dance history, theatre, music and visual arts, it’s sure to be a stellar send-off.
The festival will showcase works that have been four years in the making, art that David has seen develop from an idea into a full-scale project. “It's good to have had at least four years to be able to develop some of the things, because there's quite a few things in this festival that have taken four years. Or conversations that will have lasted five years by the time the shows happen... I’m very happy with how it's all gone and very happy with how it's going so far for next year,” he says.
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It goes without saying that David has collected a stack of memories over his time at AFOA. “What's been a particular triumph is that we've been able to really flesh out the music programme, and the big free programme. We've had events with 20 plus thousand people. Large scale visual art works like ‘Blink’ last year, the outdoor installation,” he reflects.
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Adelaide is no stranger to arts festivals, but as David points out, the Adelaide Festival Of Arts forms part of the city's cultural identity. “I think there's no arguing – even the other states will stand up and admit this – it's known as the arts festival of Australia; and has been historically for many years. Yes, all the other states now have arts festivals. But this was the first major international festival, and remains the one out in the world that most people tend to know about, just because of that history.
“I think, therefore, there is an engagement locally with the festival. Because it's seen as part of the state's identity. I think people look at the festival as being one of the things people are proud of in both the city and the state.”
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David also believes that Adelaide’s layout as a city has a lot to do with the success of the festival and what makes it such a popular event among locals. “It’s a time when the city really comes to life, that’s driven by the festival being at the core. It's something that, because it also becomes the size of the festival versus the size of the city, it's engaged with by the city.
“You really can't miss it. It's quite hard to pull that off in a city the size of Sydney or London, where the city is much more spread out. With Adelaide, it's kind of quite condensed city centre, with this huge amount of activity going on over the course of three to four weeks.”
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If you’ve never been to the festival before, but are thinking about attending this year, David has some sound advice for you. “I would advise people to get their tickets early, because even though it's still a long way off, a lot of these shows are selling out and will sell out! I would advise people to act swiftly; I think it's going to be a huge year for us in every possible way, and I know that it's already selling out the doors.”
Adelaide Festival Of Arts runs 26 February - 14 March.
