Once upon a time, Adelaide had the reputation of shutting shop for the winter. However, for the last five years, Illuminate Adelaide has been drawing people out into Adelaide’s chilly mid-winter streets. With a combination of lights, lasers, fires, interactive displays, music, food and dance, the event (or series of events) is a winner in anyone’s books.
This year’s program has just been released and it’s an exciting read.
From Night Vision, the mind-bending experience of an interactive light maze in the Botanic Gardens to a one off drone and light spectacular at Adelaide Oval, the offerings are something special. At the Adelaide Zoo, Universal Kingdom: The Next Era recreates a prehistoric world lit by stunning light installations, with a petting zoo of baby dinos and displays of Triceratops and Pterodactyls, all surrounded ancient fossils.
The extremely popular free city-wide display, City Lights returns, with installations along the length of the cultural strip of North Terrace. The library, museum and university buildings from Adelaide’s East End to the Festival Plaza are lit up with projections, with roving performers and interactive installations. It’s a perfect way for families, young and old to stroll along the avenue and take in the wonder of it all.
Venturing off the path down at Port Adelaide, art group Vitalstatistix have created a site specific installation. Sitting in parked cars by the Port River, an immersive audio work recreates those late night adventures driving late and exploring random, far flung places.
Over at Lot Fourteen, the repurposed Royal Adelaide Hospital site, Base Camp becomes the central pop-up winter village. Food, drinks and cosy firepits make a great place to nestle against the cold. This will be open throughout the Illuminate season. Don’t forget to book a ticket to a 10 minute dance party. The team have also combined the visual and sensory experiences with various food offerings from the Central Market, a sensory odyssey at Chalk Hill Winery as well as the decadent Winter Forest dinner at ILA.
Music lovers are also well catered to. Icelandic experimental techno duo Kiasmos are playing one night only (Friday 18th July) at Hindley Street Music Hall. Kiasmos’ captivating shows have become legendary, with the intensity of their tracks delivering an unforgettable experience that can only be defined as a self-described “emotional rave”.
On Saturday, there is an Access All Venues experience called Supersonic, that lets you choose your own adventure from a range of West End venues between 5pm and 5am. The venues include ACE, Ancient World, ILS, Jive, Lion Arts Factory, Nexus Arts and Mercury Cinema. The line-up includes indie jams, late night techno, music docos in the Mercury. club tunes by Motez and more.
Unsound is curated by the festival directors, Mat Schultz and Gosia Plysa, and has become known for embracing the unpredictable.
The two night event starts on Friday 11th at Lion Arts Factory with artists such Yellow Swans from the US, aya presents ‘Hexed!’ from the UK and Nidia from Portugal.
The Saturday event moves to Hindley Street Music Hall with the legendary Velvet Underground founding member John Cale, Germany’s Wolfgang Voigt presenting the psychedelic trip that is GAS, and UK grunge electronic trio Moin consisting of Tom Halstead and Joe Andrews of Raime performing alongside visionary percussionist Valentina Magaletti. Saturday then slips into Sunday with local and international DJ’s playing late at Ancient World.
Held between the 2nd and 20th July, Illuminate Adelaide will be an immersive celebration of art, light, music, and technology. For tickets and more details, head to their official website.
Headline Photo – Night Vision – Credit: Tyr Liang Xplorer Studio
