Adelaide Festival announce bumper 2018 lineup

After setting new attendance and revenue records in March, the Adelaide Festival’s Artistic Directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy’s unveiled a bumper 2018 program.

The 48 shows cover music, theatre, opera, dance, film and visual arts.

The music component includes:

The first and only appearance in Adelaide in 38 years by the formidable Grace Jones.

Kate Miller-Heidke joining forces with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

A live preview of the debut album by Spinifex Gum, the groundbreaking collaboration between The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl and Marliya – an ensemble of 18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait teenage singers from Gondwana Choirs.

The Australian debut by Grammy-winning rising jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Events at the floating Riverbank Palais on River Torrens include Grizzly Bear, UK electronic music duo Mount Kimbie, soul funkster Lee Fields. Archie Roach, Vikki Thorn of The Waifs, Lior, queer icon Perfume Genius and The Cat Empire’s trumpet-playing vocalist Harry James Angus.

Acts for WOMADelaide include Avalanches and Dan Sultan along with tourists Rodrigo y Gabriela (Mexico), Anoushka Shankar (India/UK), Havana Meets Kingston (Cuba/Jamaica), Kamasi Washington (USA),Tinariwen (Mali), and Architects of Air (UK),

At UKARIA and also for one night at Adelaide Town Hall, classical composer Nigel Westlake’s radiant music and Lior’s soulful voice come together in Compassion, an uplifting concert which unites Islam and Judaism.

The Balanescu Quartet Retrospective, London-based but Romanian to the core, combines jazz, classical and world influences, and have collaborated with Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush and Stateless alongside classical collaborators.

Full list is on the festival’s website.

Healy and Armfield say of the program, “In 2018 we have programmed works of mighty scale and whispering intimacy — all of them fired by an ambition to enthral, challenge, awe and inspire.

“Works by the finest artists in the world today; works you will remember for the rest of your life.”

2018 will make the duo’s second programming of the festival.

Their first, in March, proved to the most successful of the festival’s 57-year history.

Box office takings were up 44% from the previous year5 to over $4 million, and a 25% triumph from the record set in 1992.

More than 284,000 attended over the 20-days, which featured three world and 17 Australian premieres, and 180 sold-out performances.