Full Adelaide Festival Line Up Announced

In February and March every year Adelaide becomes Rad-delaide (official name). It's an explosion of arts, culture and music with The Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Writers' Week, DocWeek and WOMADelaide.

Of course the V8 Clipsal 500 Adelaide is also on at the same time, but those punters tend to hang out on the other side of the park - with everyone joining together at the Garden Of Unearthly Delights (Rundle Park) with varying levels of success.

The Adelaide Festival runs Friday 1 March to Sunday 17 March. This year is David Sefton first, this charismatic man has a background and interest in contemporary music and the program reflects this. Sefton was previously head of contemporary culture at London's Southbank Centre.

Most of the pieces in this program are Australian Premieres with many being exclusive to Adelaide… Best start booking flights.

MUSIC:

The team at the Adelaide Festival have launched an immense program for their 2013 festival this evening that encompasses drama, dance, music and countless other artistic disciplines. So immense is this program that we're just going to get right down to business.

PAUL KELLY & NEIL FINN:

Honestly, if you need this one explained to you then you should seek help. Two of the best songwriters on the planet and two that we could not live without are teaming up for a special free show in Adelaide's Elder Park to kick off the festival. Paul Kelly and Neil Finn as the sun is setting on a lovely Adelaide afternoon; what could be better?

BRASSLAND:

The Brassland label founded by brothers Aaron & Bryce Dessner (yes, them of The National) and writer Alec Hanley Bemis is home to a number of very interesting, forward thinking musical artists. For Adelaide Festival in 2013, a series of these acts will perform exclusive concerts which will no doubt be enthralling, thought provoking, entertaining and enlightening.

What's even more interesting is that many of these Brassland artists will perform alongside various configurations of the Adelaide Art Orchestra. These artists include: Doveman (aka Thomas Bartlett), This is the Kit, Jherek Bischoff, Buke & Gase, Deerhoof, Bryce Dessner and Clogs, led by Aussie Padma Newsome.

UNSOUND ADELAIDE:

If you're more electronically inclined with regards to your music taste then Unsound Adelaide could be for you. Basically it looks to bring together some of the world's most advanced electronic musicians and set them to stunning visuals.

The acts on board for this include: Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) with Tim Hecker, Robin Fox, V/VM, Biosphere, Lustmord, The Caretaker, MFO, Emeralds, Actress, Demdike Stare, Pole and Adelaide's own Zephyr Quartet. Also on the cards for the Unsound event is Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason's live performance of their reimagined soundtrack for Solaris with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, featuring film manipulations by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson.

COLLABORATIONS:

Collaboration seems very much at the heart of this year's music program and, besides those already mentioned, there is a series of match ups that sound as if they will be truly amazing. Kronos Quartet and Bryce Dessner will perform a new collaboration they have been working on, Kronos Quartet will also team up with the legendary Laurie Anderson (though we knew that already) the previously mentioned Zephyr Quartet will perform the music of JG Thirwell's Manorexia.

The legendary Van Dyke Parks is back in Australia for the Adelaide Festival and he will deliver a performance that sees him go through his extensive songwriting history, performing classic tunes in collaboration with a series of artists. The only one announced thus far is Silverchair's Daniel Johns.

On the classical side of things, guitarists Karin Schaupp and Pavel Steidl will team up to perform together for the first time, as will Moravia fiddler and singer Iva Bittová and the revered Los Angeles-based quartet Calder Quartet. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Chamber Singers, led by UK conductor Robert Ziegler, will perform the score of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

SEVERED HEADS:

Legendary Australian electronic music group Severed Heads are one of the pioneering acts in their style; that cannot be denied. The band created an incredible body of music since their 1979 inception and, while they have split a couple of times over the past decade only to get back together, they say that this forthcoming Adelaide performance will be their last ever. With support from the one and only DJ Atom™, this promises to be a night that no fan of classic electronic music will want to miss. As well as performing with his regular act, Severed Heads front man Tom Ellard has conceived Hauntology House, an interactive music toy that will serve as Adelaide Festival's first ever online festival experience.

THEATRE:

DOUK-RAI:                                             

A piece created by a group of artists on a remote island off Timor-Leste. Theatremakers, Black Lung Theatre, Musicians Galaxy and Filmmakers which included Amiel Courtin-Wilson whose film Hail was just released in cinemas.

In Melbourne, the East Timorese rock stars Galaxy played an inner-city house party see the below images taken on the night by Sarah Walker:

Sure to be an Adelaide Festival highlight, a very important piece of theatre.

Read our interview with Director Thomas Wright before the Melbourne season:

Running Thursday 28 February to Monday 4 March, Queens Theatre, Playhouse Lane.

KAMP: Australian Premiere/ Exclusive to Adelaide.

Thousands of eight centimetre tall puppets spring to life amid a scale model based on Auschwitz-Birkenau. From Dutch Theatre Company, Hotel Modern who is known for blending visual art, drama, music and film, this piece uses miniature cameras to film the puppets. This ground-breaking theatrical piece premiered in 2005 this is the first time it's coming to Australia.  

Running Tuesday 12 March to Sunday 17, Space Theatre.

*each show features at thirty minute post show Q & A session.

NOSFERATU - Australian Premiere/ Exclusive to Adelaide.

A new adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula written and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna. Performed in Polish with English surtitles and a new score composed by American experimental composer, John Zorn.

Running Wednesday 13 March to Saturday 16, Dunstan Playhouse.

MURDER:

An adult puppet show about our obsession with murder, inspired by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds ninth album, Murder Ballads. Sinister looking puppets will tell the confessions of Stagger Lee and Nellie Brown. A new work by Erth (Creators of the Dinosaur Petting Zoo) but this is far from a kids puppet show.

Running Wednesday 6 March to Sunday 10, Queens Theatre, Playhouse Lane.

*Already announced but the Adelaide Festival will be the first to have the National Theatre of Great Britain's production of One Man, Two Guvnors which will tour the country.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

The Stanley Kubrick masterpiece is just as known for its soundtrack as its impact on science fiction film history. The recently restored film to be accompanied by a live performance of its original score by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 60 voiced Adelaide Chamber Singers. To get you sci-fi fanatics even more excited, here's the trailer for the 1968 film.

Running Friday 8 March and Saturday 9 March, Festival Theatre.

VISUAL ART:

LAURIE ANDERSON ICE BLOCK:

Laurie Anderson will in Adelaide for the music program but will also exhibit her visual art from the 1970's to now. This collection, features installation works that bookend her career, including the iconic Duets on Ice to be performed live by Anderson on Friday 1 March for the opening evening of Adelaide Festival.

Think… Ice Blocks…Music…Laurie…Melting….Live

Running Friday 1 March to Tuesday 19 Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art.

TURNER FROM THE TATE:

Turner was one of the most renowned romantic landscape painters of all time. This is a massive collection of his life's work from the Tate Britain.

Running Friday 8 February to Sunday 19 May, Art Gallery Of South Australia.

DANCE

FLAMENCO HOY - Australian Premiere/ Exclusive to Adelaide

Carlos Saura, director of films Blood Wedding and La Caza, has directed a dance piece for the Adelaide Festival. Featuring twenty Spanish artists dancing the Flamenco watch the video from the New York Season.

The below quote from quite possibly on of Spain's greatest artists, Lorca on theatre and performance is one many a thespian has stuck to their locker.

"Publish? I don't publish my plays... Plays are made to be felt in the theatre. They should last as long as the performance does, that's enough... That is what makes the theatre so lovely: as soon as it is created, it disappears." - Federico García Lorca

Running Friday 15 March to Saturday 16, Festival Theatre.

6000 MILES AWAY – Australian Premiere

A trilogy program choreographed by Mats Ek, William Forsythe and Jirí Kylián which will be performed by French ballerina, Sylvie Guillem who is one of the top-ranking female dancer in the world. 

William Forsythe's, Rearray, created especially for Guillem, is a duet peformance. Swedish choreographer Mats Ek's new solo for her, Bye, is set to Beethoven's final piano sonata. Jiří Kylián's work, 27'52", performed by dancers handpicked by him.

Running Friday 1 March to Monday 4, Festival Theatre.

WHAT THE BODY DOES REMEMBER - Australian Premiere/ Exclusive to Adelaide

Wim Vandekeybus, is in Australia for the first time. This Belgian contemporary chorographer and filmmaker will remount his infamous work that was first performed in 1987.

Running Thursday 7 March to Sunday 10, Dunstan Playhouse.

FILM

DOCWEEK:

A week of screenings, master classes and artist conversations with 30 handpicked documentaries. A highlight will be an in conversation session with Oscar winning documentary makers, D.A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. Who made Don't Look Back and The War Room (both will screen).

Watch Trailer for Don't Look Back:

View the full program here.

Running Monday 25 February to Sunday 3 March, Dunstan Playhouse.