David Sefton appointed RCC Fringe artistic director

Working with creative director Stuart Duckworth, one of the original founders of the then Royal Croquet Club, now at the events management company Momentarily, Sefton will help program and realise the event in its new home at the University of Adelaide.

Hinting at the festival’s program, Sefton says RCC Fringe would seek to retain the musical and artistic performances that made it so popular, but also push for an accessible, contemporary program and be “more things to more people”.

“RCC Fringe is evolving into something way beyond anything that could ever be staged in a circus tent,” Sefton says in a media release. “The extraordinary campus and venues of the University of Adelaide open up a whole new world of possibilities for a genuinely great, compelling, accessible, contemporary program.”

Further, RCC Fringe’s food offering will change, as the event aims to move “way beyond the traditional pop-up food trucks”.

Having programmed major contemporary arts events internationally and in Australia, including a succession of Adelaide Festivals that prized new and experimental works over the traditional repertoire that the festival is widely known for, Sefton appears well placed to push RCC Fringe forward.

After years of tumult over its effect on Victoria Square, and financial woes that saw the original Royal Croquet Club owing millions, the festival rebadged and changed ownership as the RCC Fringe.

The partnership between RCC Fringe and the University of Adelaide was announced earlier in the month, prompting questions about how the event would be realised in the midst of the university’s sitting term, and student orientation week.

RCC Fringe will take place next year at the University of Adelaide from Friday, February 15 until Sunday, March 18, with its program released in December this year.

rccfringe.com.au