Adelaide Festival 2024 is gearing up to be an extraordinary celebration of arts and culture, and what’s even more exciting is the array of free events that festival-goers can enjoy. With 15 diverse events spanning installations, exhibitions, forums, and music, there’s something for everyone to revel in.
Here’s your guide to the free events that promise to make your Adelaide Festival experience truly memorable.
Create4Adelaide Exhibition
Kicking off the list is Create4Adelaide at the Bicentennial Conservatory of exciting new works created by young people to tackle the climate emergency. Create4Adelaide is the culmination of a year-long project led by young people with the support of Adelaide Festival and Sabir. Launched during the 2023 Festival, this participatory project brought together young people across South Australia and beyond to respond creatively to climate change priorities.
The artworks featured in the Create4Adelaide exhibition have been chosen by young people from the hundreds of contributions submitted to the project. The chosen works highlight the concerns of young people, their commitment to combatting climate change and their boundless creativity.
Thursday 29th of February – Sunday 17th of March
Bicentennial Conservatory, Adelaide Botanic Garden
Floods of Fire
Head over to the University of Adelaide for Floods of Fire, a two-day festival within a festival, which celebrates the creativity and stories of people living in South Australia and finds our collective voice to confront one of the most significant challenges we all face today: climate change.
Floods of Fire connects our different cultural stories of creation to our natural world and extreme weather events. It marks one of the largest collaborations in South Australia’s history between citizens, artists, scientists, communities and partner organisations.
Two out of three of the Floods of Fire events are free.
Floods of Fire: Our Voices, Our Dreams
Saturday 16th of March, 2pm – 6pm
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide
Floods of Fire: Our Citizens’ Orchestra
Saturday 16th of March, 7:30pm
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide
Time to Talk
Engage in thought-provoking discussions during the Time to Talk series spread across Adelaide. These forums are a unique opportunity to share ideas, perspectives, and insights on a variety of topics, fostering intellectual exchanges that are bound to leave a lasting impact.
Our Climate, Our Future
Our Climate, Our Future will delve into ideas explored through Adelaide Festival’s Create4Adelaide initiative. Listen to testimonies from young activists and artists, then take a seat at the table for open conversations about climate commitments with young people, artists, economic decision-makers and society as a whole.
Tuesday 5th of March, 10am
Noel Lothian Hall, Adelaide Botanic Garden
Blak Futures: First Nations Artistic Directors’ Roundtable
In a revolutionary moment for Australian dance, First Nations Artistic Directors of multi-year funded dance companies will gather together on Kaurna Yerta to think, dream and plant the seeds of the future.
Sunday 17th of March, 12pm – 1:30pm
The Odeon, Norwood
I’ll Be Your Mirror Exhibition
Laurie Anderson is working at the cutting edge of new arts technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Her exhibition I’ll Be Your Mirror premiered in 2023 at Moderna Museet Stockholm, featuring work generated by AI Laurie Anderson and AI Lou Reed. For Adelaide Festival, the exhibition will also feature Scroll (2021), an AI-generated version of the Bible created by Laurie Anderson and first shown at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
I’ll Be Your Mirror and Scroll were created using AI software developed by the Australian Institute of Machine Learning and the Sia Furler Institute for Laurie Anderson during her tenure as the world’s first AI Artist in Residence at the University of Adelaide. She is now using the software to write the lyrics for her multimedia work Ark, which will premiere in Manchester in 2024.
until Sunday 17th of March, 10am – 5pm
State Library of South Australia, Adelaide
GONDWANA VR: The Exhibition
The South Australian Museum invites you to immerse yourself in the world’s oldest tropical rainforest with GONDWANA VR: The Exhibition, a multi-sensory installation contracting 100 years of climate data into a single day.
Like the Daintree Rainforest itself, GONDWANA VR is a system of possibilities powered by climate data. Weather, seasons and biodiversity shift as visitors navigate a vast map of ancient trees, rugged mountains and idyllic beaches populated by rare animals and birdlife. But a broader narrative stirs below: the rainforest is deteriorating. The only salve to its decline is people – the more time an audience spends in GONDWANA, the more resilient the forest becomes.
In addition to the ongoing exhibition, the Museum will present an extended 48-hour cycle of GONDWANA VR: The Exhibition from 8-10 Mar, a special overnight showing allowing visitors to fully immerse themselves in the installation.
until Sunday 17th of March
South Australian Museum, Adelaide
Inner Sanctum
The 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art offers an encounter with artists and poets interested in the human condition. Inner Sanctum unfolds across exhibitions, performances and talks that explore our engagement with the world and each other.
Curated by José Da Silva, Inner Sanctum offers a snapshot of contemporary Australia that is reflective and hopeful. It provides a setting where art and poetry enliven the social imagination and help us understand the complexities of human experience. Here, the idea of an inner sanctum illustrates the private or sacred spaces we create and the faculty of imagination that allows us to see culture and society differently.
Friday 1st of March – Sunday 2nd of June
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Neoterica
Neoterica brings together new works from 20 mid-career artists in South Australia in a celebration of their enduring contribution to our visual arts landscape. The works in Neoterica reflect each artist’s own concepts and ideas across photography, painting, performance, sculpture, installation, video, ceramics and mixed media.
Friday 1st of March – Sunday 14th of April
Adelaide Railway Station, Adelaide
Adelaide Writers’ Week
Adelaide Writers’ Week takes place in the heart of Kaurna Meyunna Yerta – Tartanya (red kangaroo place) on the banks of the Karrawirra Parri (red gum forest river). The main program of events is free to attend and is held outdoors in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden and Torrens Parade Ground, located between King William Road, Victoria Drive and Kintore Avenue in Adelaide.
This year’s theme is The Past is Not Another Country. Contrary to the L.P. Hartley aperçu that “the past is a foreign country”, the past is very much with us, shaping both our collective experience and our most intimate relationships. Novelists, poets and writers from across the world once again come together to reflect on the lessons of history, make sense of the present moment and imagine a future that just might hold the promise of hope.
Saturday 2nd of March – Thursday 7th of March
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, Adelaide
Little Amal in Adelaide
A refugee child arrives in Adelaide. She is tired, hungry, a little frightened. How do we welcome her?
Little Amal is a 3.5-metre puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl who has become a global symbol of human rights. She began her journey in 2021 walking from the Syria-Türkiye border to the United Kingdom. Since then, she has travelled to 15 countries, been welcomed by two million people on the street and connected with tens of millions online. Little Amal comes to Australia for the first time at the Adelaide Festival 2024.
Friday 15th of March – Sunday 17th of March
Various locations across Adelaide City
Adelaide Festival 2024 offers an incredible array of free events that cater to diverse interests. From immersive exhibitions to engaging forums and literary explorations, there is no shortage of opportunities to be inspired and entertained. Mark your calendars, gather your friends and family, and get ready to immerse yourself in the vibrant cultural tapestry that the Adelaide Festival promises to weave.
