Adelaide Festival 2014 Program Announced

With a theme focused on South Australian history, the 2014 Adelaide Festival will present a program of over 50 events in music, theatre, literary, visual arts and dance over 17 days from Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 16. In place of Barrio for 2014 will be Lola’s Pergola – a celebration of the extraordinary in our very own backyard. Located on the Torrens riverbank, Lola’s Pergola is the festival’s ultimate quarter acre block, the centrepiece being the stunning supersized shady pergola under which long communal tables will be laden with the finest food, wine and ales South Australia has to offer. Entry will be $5, or free before 8pm. Next year’s music program will also push the boundaries, with the 2014 Festival to deliver a series of marathon concerts across four evenings in Zorn In Oz, helmed by USA’s maverick composer John Zorn. The series will feature 40 of his finest New York collaborators, including Mike Patton, Bill Laswell, Marc Ribot and John Medeski. The opening night party on Friday, February 28 at Elder Park will feature performances from soul legend Charles Bradley and ‘80s calypso party-starters Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Other highlights of the music program include radical Israeli maestro Ilan Volkov, UK act The Tiger Lillies and the return of electronic mini-festival Unsound Adelaide, which will feature Morton Subotnick, Nurse With Wound and Gardland. On the theatre front, next year’s festival will include the exclusive Green Porno from screen icon Isabella Rossellini (ITA/USA), Tony Award winner Denis O’Hare (USA) (True Blood), and the epic and exhilirating six-hour Roman Tragedies from the Netherlands. Israel’s world-renowned Batsheva Dance Company headlines the dance program, returning to Adelaide for the first time since their Australian debut in 1996. The colossal visual arts program will present work from more than 40 artists and collectives, including the premiere of the seven-part film River of Fundament by award-winning artist and partner of Bjork, Matthew Barney, and the Adelaide Biennial: Dark Heart, which will see the arrival of Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale. It is also a stellar year for Adelaide Writers’ Week with headline guests including Wild Swans author Jung Chung (CHI/UK), celebrated contemporary writer Margaret Drabble (UK), the influential Christian historian Diarmaid MacCulloch (UK), creator of No 1 Ladies Detective. adelaidefestival.com.au