As a young, wandering traveller I first visited Adelaide and the festival centre in 1981 on an Aussie pass. Which was a bus pass that let you have unlimited bus travel around Australia, which I used with abandon.
I recall going on a guided tour of the centre and a big craft market in the open air. The glossy brochure has long been lost.
I wasn’t to know at the time, but I made my way back to Adelaide from Melbourne to live.
Now I am a veteran audience member of the festival centre. In fact I am a bit of a venue snob. If it is not on at the festival centre I am reluctant to go near other venues i.e. the Ent Cent/concrete swimming pool.
I have introduced my kids to Something on Saturday craft extravaganzas, moving on up to the State Theatre productions. I too fell in love with the Boy from Oz and will always remember Todd McKenney descending to the stage on that big banana swing. It was a 40 plus degree day in the shade outside, but heaven in the theatre. Todd describing us as ‘so wistful’. More likely eternally grateful for the respite from the gruelling Adelaide summer, and a bit of Peter Allen whimsy and razzle dazzle.
I also loved the behind the scenes voyeur like production of “The Kreutzer Sonata”. Triumph in the face of adversity. Even the rehearsal space is utilized.
There are many other moments to remember. But a highlight was what became a sort of pilgrimage, to the Peter Coombe Christmas concerts. You haven’t lived until you have seen Peter & Co., singing their hearts out for entire families with glorious Aussie Christmas songs. We of course were in the front rows catching balloons.
The festival precincts will no doubt metamorphosise, but the centre has a class and design that is functional and clever. It has the most perfect site for Adelaide nestled by the river and rotunda. It is what I love about Adelaide and has made art that is accessible for everyone.
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