Metal Vikings & Other Highlights Of The Adelaide Cabaret Festival

The charm of Adelaide Cabaret Festival reaches far beyond its program and the theatres it resides in; Celtic metal, onstage insulin shots and thought-provoking street art destroy Daniel Cribb's preconceptions of the city.

Coffee brings people together – or at least people who are half-asleep at airports. Stirring two sugars into the world's most expensive coffee, a conversation is sparked up with a fellow Adelaide-bound traveller. He's headed to South Australia to catch up with friends and is quick to make a remark about the city's nightlife. It's an interesting misconception, and Adelaide seems to get somewhat of a bad rap when it comes to the perceived vibrancy of its nightlife in comparison to the rest of the country.

Perhaps being labelled the City Of Churches sees a younger audience switch off. One thing's for sure: whatever Adelaide does, it does religiously and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is testament to that. Into its 14th year, the festival consumes the city for three weeks in June, and this year's saw Kate Ceberano round out her three-year tenure as artistic director, helping coordinate 470 artists in over 170 performances.

Admired comedic actor Kathy Najimy is first on the schedule with the debut of her semi-autobiographical solo stage show, Lift Up Your Skirt, at the iconic Festival Theatre. You might know her from her extensive film career – most notably Sister Act, Hocus Pocus and Rat Race. To this writer, it's as the voice of Peggy Hill in King Of The Hill that Najimy takes the cake. Talking a mile a minute, the show begins with Najimy lying on a table, recreating a moment in her life in which she was mid-colonoscopy while having a casual conversation with life-long idol Bette Midler. Darting between comedy and serious content stemming from her involvement as an activist, it is an emotional one-sided conversation breaking down the argument against gay marriage followed by an onstage insulin shot for her type one diabetes and musical number Skinny Arse Diabetes that truly showed the diverse nature of the Hollywood personality's skillset.

It seems one of the goals the Adelaide Cabaret Festival had when choosing their program was to ensure its attendees were thrown into the deep end. Her Majesty's Theatre plays host to Paul Capsis' Little Bird, which is on show for the entire festival's duration. Multi-award winning playwright Nicki Bloom has constructed Little Bird perfectly for Capsis, and sees the one-man musical drama use simplicity to great effect. Subtle changes in lighting, the occasional prop, and songs by Cameron Goodall (The Audreys) and Quentin Grant (When The Rain Stops Falling), all come together to create the perfect playground for Capsis to bring the twisted fairytale to life.

Both Lift Up Your Skirt and Little Bird are mentally exhausting and energising at the same time. Maybe a quiet drink somewhere would be a nice way to round out the evening? Nope. A Celtic metal show at a nearby venue concludes that night's festivities. You don't have to enjoy metal to find comfort in a room full of metalheads dressed like Vikings going insane to heavy music backed by fiddles – all on a Thursday night.

One of the great things about Adelaide's city is its size. Walking is often the most convenient mode of transport and perhaps why street art plays such a big part in the city's aesthetic. Local, well-respected street artist Fredrock really shines at the back of music venue Jive and the mural wall in the venue's car park is now dubbed the Wall Of Fame.

Scattered throughout the city are various black and white sketches accompanied by handwriting. Most people walk by, paying little attention, but if you look closer, they tell interesting stories. Street artist and arts writer Peter Drew spent the past seven months gathering 36 sketches and brief stories from seven asylum seekers, living in Adelaide, who came by boat and were detained upon arrival. At the end of May/start of June he blew them up and plastered them around the city for a project titled Bound For South Australia. Ali Rezai, who contributed 20 drawings to the project, details intimate details of his journey to Australia, and in one, draws his mother crying as she says goodbye. Being illegally installed, some have already been removed.

It's a little odd going from thought-provoking street art back to the Festival Theatre, but makes you appreciate the Cabaret Festival all the more. Back at the main hub, Ceberano is casually walking around the foyer, no doubt soaking up the success of her final year as artistic director. Najimy rushes past, heading to one of the venue's smaller rooms. “Thank you! Best show I've ever done,” she says of a passing compliment about her work on King Of The Hill.

Everyone's hustling to Space Theatre, which is set up like a jazz lounge and awaiting the arrival of Cecilia Low for her new show, They Say She's Different, which made its debut last night. With '70s funk rock fuelling a musical recreation of the life of Betty Davis, sitting down almost seemed criminal. One hour seemed far too short a time – and not just because Low is trying to cram 20 years of history, giving great detail into Davis' relationships with once-husband Miles Davis and close friend Jimi Hendrix.

The premiere at Adelaide Cabaret Festival is in preparation for Melbourne Fringe, and it seems a lot of new shows are trialled in Adelaide. The city's architecture may be old – in '64, the underground sandstone cellars and tunnels of my hotel were used by The Beatles to escape fans – but its cultural relevance is far from outdated; it's leading the world in many ways, as evident in events such as the Cabaret Festival.

Daniel Cribb was flown to Adelaide as a guest of South Australian Tourism Commission.