Adelaide Festival: 44 events, 8 world premieres and 12 Australian premieres in one extraordinary season
From Britain’s indie music legends to contemporary Korea and Parisian music halls, Bach to Japanese electronica, and South Australian roller derbies to America’s Deep South, Adelaide Festival’s opening weekend starting Friday 27 February kicks off 17 days of remarkable international theatre, opera, dance and music.
Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM said: “Adelaide Festival is Australia’s preeminent international arts festival bringing the world’s greatest directors, actors, singers, conductors and choreographers exclusively to Adelaide. The work of these artists invites us all to step beyond the everyday into wildly theatrical worlds and provocative ideas.
From our free opening concert in Elder Park with iconic band Pulp to intimate, soul-stirring works, expect audacious and moving theatre, breathtaking music, and large-scale moments of adrenaline from France, Germany, China and Korea that you will remember for decades — the kind of shared experiences only live art can deliver.”
OPENING WEEKEND KEY EVENTS
Elder Park will come alive with a free concert by legendary rock band Pulp! Gates open at 5pm with DJ Craig providing the tunes before the concert begins at 8:30pm. Jarvis Cocker and his longtime bandmates bring a mix of favourite anthems (Common People and Disco 2000) and new tracks from their newest album More.
Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard has undergone Simon Stone’s masterful adaptation and directorial vision, with an updated setting of modern-day South Korea for this timeless play of unrelenting social change. Fresh from rave reviews of its Hong Kong and Singapore seasons, award-winning actors Doyeon Jeon (Cannes Best Actress) and Haesoo Park (Emmy-nominated star of Squid Game) star alongside an all-Korean ensemble and on a stunning large scale, architectural set.
Adelaide company Slingsby complete their fairytale trilogy over three consecutive Adelaide Festivals with A Concise Compendium of Wonder, re-interpreting Hansel and Gretel, The Selfish Giant and The Little Match Girl in their purpose-built, secret-filled building, The Wandering Hall of Possibility at Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Grammy Award-winning American soprano Julia Bullock pays tribute to legendary 1920s singer and activist Joséphine Baker in Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, directed by former Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Peter Sellars. In addition, Perle Noire’s composer (2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music winner Tyshawn Sorey), will perform a one-night-only piano concert Alone at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Tryp is a celebration of progressive contemporary music featuring headline acts Boris and Merzbow (Japan), Barker (UK/Germany), DJ Haram (USA) and many more, taking place at Hindley St Music Hall on Friday evening and Adelaide University Cloisters on Saturday afternoon.
Hot from wowing audiences at Sydney Festival, Mama Does Derby is presented by Adelaide’s own Windmill Production Company and co-created by Clare Watson and Virginia Gay. Featuring a stellar acting cast alongside South Australian roller derby league members and a live band, take a seat trackside for this hilarious and heartfelt story of a mother and daughter who move to a new town and need to make their own fun.
Édouard Louis’ unflinching and sensual autobiographical work about queer resilience, History of Violence, in the hands of one of the world’s most provocative and influential directors, Schaubühne Berlin’s Thomas Ostermeier, with an outstanding ensemble of actors from Germany.
France’s Ensemble Pygmalion makes its long-awaited Australian debut with three programs over six concerts featuring the music of Bach, Monteverdi and Rossi and directed by its lauded founder Raphaël Pichon.
In two electrifying dance works, Adelaide’s Australian Dance Theatre presents Faraway, a dark, dreamlike tribute to the shadows we must all evade by lauded choreographer Jenni Large, and Re-shaping Identity unites five regional Chinese dancers from different backgrounds including Tibetan, Yao, Uyghur and Han to share and transform their traditional dances into contemporary expressions of joy and liberation.
UK virtuoso violinist Anthony Marwood and Helsinki-born pianist Olli Mustonen hold artistic residencies. Marwood will perform two separate concerts with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and Mustonen will play an intimate, weekend-long cycle of thirteen of Beethoven’s spellbinding Piano Sonatas, culminating in an exclusive duo performance that sees Marwood and Mustonen share the stage for the very first time, with Shostakovich’s mysterious Sonata for Violin and Piano.
Master yidaki artist William Barton joins the legendary Brodsky Quartet, traversing time and cultures to blend First Nations wisdom with the rich textures of European chamber music.
The Art Gallery of South Australia hosts the free-entry 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Yield Strength, which is a demonstration of how materials, selfhood and society are tested and transformed, under pressure.
Light Square’s ILA Gallery hosts Manifest Destiny: Alex Frayne’s photographic journey across America’s West, Deep South and Bible Belt, accompanied by moving images by video artist and cinematographer Capital Waste, set to an electro-pop soundtrack by Empire of the Sun’s Donnie Sloan.
Commissioned Ngarrindjeri and Buandig artist Sandra Saunders retells the story and tribulations of the building of the bridge to Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) through painting and wireworks, alongside major new works by twelve Indigenous female artists at the free-entry ACE Gallery.
In between shows and after every performance, celebrate at CODA, the new destination Adelaide Festival bar on Festival Plaza, at the heart of the Festival’s main performing arts programming at Adelaide Festival Centre. Open from 5pm until late and with free entry, tasty food and drinks, it’s the spot to discuss and debate after a show, meet local and international artists, or get the night started.
Audience members aged under 40 can purchase $40 tickets to the majority of ticketed performances in the program, as part of Adelaide Festival’s commitment to making art financially accessible to as many people as possible.
Discount ticket schemes for those facing a financial barrier include continuing established Festival initiatives Tix for Next to Nix and Pay What You Can, and inclusive equity program for category 1 – 4 schools, Festival Connect, thanks to the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, Waternish and Adelaide Festival Benefactors.
This morning, the South Australian Government also announced its support for a landmark presentation of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, directed by internationally renowned theatre-maker Romeo Castellucci, as part of the 2027 Adelaide Festival.
With this announcement, audiences wishing to plan ahead to the 2027 Festival can diarise the Australian premieres of two operas already confirmed for the program in its opening weekend from 25 February: AIDA, Franco Zeffirelli’s grand spectacular direct from Verona; and Bluebeard’s Castle, which will mark the first large-scale professional staging of the opera in this country.
The 41st Adelaide Festival runs from Friday 27 February – Sunday 15 March, 2026.
TICKETS – www.adelaidefestival.com.au or 1300 393 404.
