Adelaide Festival

The tour starts at 3.30pm on Friday 1 March, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Adelaide.

The tour ends after breakfast on Saturday 9 March, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Adelaide.

Meet your tour leaders Peter Rose and Christopher Menz and your fellow travellers at the hotel at 3.30pm for an orientation tour of Adelaide. Later, we enjoy a welcome drink, followed by dinner in a well-known local restaurant. Overnight Adelaide (D)

This morning we begin with Writers’ Week sessions. After a picnic lunch in the gardens, we enjoy the afternoon sessions. This evening we take in our first festival performance, a once in a lifetime event with the Grand Dames of Letters at the Adelaide Town Hall. Overnight Adelaide (B, L)

Performance I
Venue: Adelaide Town Hall
Title: Grand Dames of Letters
Company/ Performers: Dame Mary Beard, Anne Enright, Jane Smiley & Elizabeth Strout

We head to the Adelaide Hills, to visit The Cedars – the estate of artists Hans Heysen and his daughter Nora – where more than 200 of their original artworks are displayed. Here the studios where Hans and Nora worked and the charming arts and crafts residence of the Heysen family combine to offer one of the best historic artist house-studios anywhere. After a light lunch, we return to Adelaide for this afternoon’s performance of Guuranda, told through an effortless weave of dance theatre, puppetry and song. Guuranda tells us stories of a people and place that teach us about being human, that teach us as much about our present as our past. Overnight Adelaide (B, L)

Performance II
Venue: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Title: Guuranda
Company/ Performers: Jacob Boehme (Director), featuring Narungga Elders, Narungga Songman Warren Milera and Songwoman Sonya Rankine, supported by the Narungga Family Choir

After a talk in the hotel, we make our down North Terrace this morning to the South Australian Museum. Here we’ll be joined by an Indigenous guide for a tour of the museum’s collection of artefacts from Central Australia and the Top End, considered amongst the best in the world. Later, we stroll further down North Terrace to the Art Gallery of South Australia to enjoy lunch and view the special Festival exhibition, 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum. Curated by José Da Silva, Inner Sanctum will offer a snapshot of contemporary Australia that is both reflective and hopeful. Overnight Adelaide (B, L)

Our day begins with a visit to the Botanic Gardens, before we make our way to North Adelaide for a guided tour of Fermoy House. This extraordinary museum houses one of Australia’s finest collections of 18th- and 19th-century European fine and decorative art, assembled over 60 years by late the David Roche. There will be some time this afternoon to attend a Writers’ Week session. Overnight Adelaide (B)

Today we enjoy another full day at Writers’ Week sessions and have a picnic lunch in the gardens. This evening we experience the Festival’s centrepiece production, Igor Stravinsky’s magical work The Nightingale and Other Fables. Returning to the Adelaide Festival for the first time since 2018, acclaimed Canadian director Robert Lepage brings his brilliant imagination to Stravinsky’s exquisite music through acrobatic shadow play, Taiwanese hand puppets and Vietnamese water puppetry. Overnight Adelaide (B, L)

Performance III
Venue: Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Title: Igor Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Fables
Director: Robert Lepage Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with Adelaide Festival Chorus

A relaxed day to follow last night’s wonderful performance begins at Samstag Museum of Art at the UniSA campus, followed by a visit to the Jam Factory – a series of contemporary studio spaces which champion craft and design in daily life. From here we head into the Adelaide foothills for lunch in one of Adelaide’s fine restaurants, Magill Estate Kitchen. In the evening we take in an Australian premier performance directed by Barrie Kosky, The Threepenny Opera. With its legendary songs and story about love, betrayal, business and morals, Kosky creates a hauntingly enjoyable production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s famous “play with music” with the Berliner Ensemble. Overnight Adelaide (B, L)

Performance IV
Venue: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Title: The Threepenny Opera
Director: Barrie Kosky, Berliner Ensemble

This morning we head to the Art Gallery of South Australia to view the William Morris Collection. We’ll then make our way to Elder Hall for a chamber opera performance of Is this the gate? In the later afternoon, we return to the Festival for a private reception followed by our final performance of Who Killed My Father, a touching performance of anger that is transformed into compassion. We conclude the evening with a post show drink in the hotel’s elegant Atrium Lounge. Overnight Adelaide (B)

Performance V
Venue: Elder Hall
Title: Is this the gate?
Company/ Performers: Nicholas Lens (composer), JM Coetzee (Libretto), presented with support from JM Coetzee Centre

Performance VI
Venue: Dunstan Theatre
Title: Who Killed My Father
Company/ Performers: Eduard Louis Theatre

The tour ends this morning after breakfast. (B)