Adelaide Festival Centre Anniversary – Motion

Wednesday 13 September 2023 

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (11:47): It is my pleasure to rise and speak in support of the amended motion. I have spent so many hours at the Festival Centre over the years, enjoying theatre, dance, music and art exhibitions. It all started on 2 June 1973, a night when a full house packed the Festival Theatre for the first time as the theatre was officially opened by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at a gala performance of act 2, scene 1, of Beethoven's opera Fidelio and 'Choral' symphony. 

Of course, the Festival Theatre is just one part of the centre, with the Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre, Artspace Gallery and Terrace completing the centre. I was at the Space just last Saturday night to enjoy the fantastic State Theatre production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. Next, I am looking forward to the State Theatre's production of The Dictionary of Lost Words, a play based on local author Pip Williams' novel. 

I am particularly keen to see Tilda Cobham-Hervey perform in that production. She is a South Australian whom I have been following since her years at Cirkidz and her first film production as a teenager in 52 Tuesdays. I am also looking forward to seeing Brett Archer back on the stage in one of the lead roles in this theatre production—though I do know that, given he has grown a moustache especially for this production, his partner Elisa is particularly keen for rehearsals and performances to be finished. 

I do have some favourite memories of the theatre, including The Australian Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, Something on Saturdays with my daughter Lucy—we spent so many of her childhood years in the foyer of the Festival and then watching a production—and my time working for Cirkidz in the crew at the Space Theatre. 

Our push for a new arts venue began in the sixties, as our internationally renowned Adelaide Festival of the Arts started to outgrow the city's existing venues. The Adelaide Festival Theatre Act 1964 provided for the erection of the Festival Theatre building. As other members have stated, it was originally going to be on the site of Carclew in North Adelaide, but Liberal state Premier Steele Hall decided, after a visit to the Royal Festival Hall in London, that it would be located on its current site. 

When Don Dunstan became Premier in 1970, he expanded the idea into a Festival Centre, incorporating multiple smaller venues, like the Playhouse and the Space. It was funded by a mix of state and federal funding and a public appeal that was oversubscribed within one week. South Australia was progressing at a great pace under the leadership of Premier Dunstan, with Aboriginal land rights first recognised, homosexuality decriminalised, the first female judge, the first Minister for the Environment appointed, antidiscrimination laws enacted and our beloved State Theatre Company established. What a fabulous time for South Australia. 

Today, more than one million people a year visit the centre to attend the Adelaide Festival and witness performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, Australian Dance Theatre, Brink, Restless Dance Theatre, Slingsby, Patch Theatre, and No Strings Attached, which all have their home at the theatre. The centre is also home to the highly successful Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival and OzAsia. 

In 2017, an Ernst and Young report found that the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust contributed more than $160 million in economic and social impact and led to the creation of 1,076 jobs in Greater Adelaide in the space of just 12 months and I am sure that part of the economic impact is the thousands of interstate and international visitors who visit the centre each year, in addition to those who come to WOMAD, the Fringe and our galleries and museums. 

However, of course, the arts are not here purely for economic impact. We have an opportunity to share our stories through the arts to understand our world and better connect with others. I look forward to watching hundreds more performances over the coming years at Australia's first capital city multipurpose arts centre and I look forward to many more South Australian firsts, especially in the arts.