A 16 day event will transform Adelaide into a vibrant city hosting more than 150 performances starring more than 425 artists from Australia and worldwide all produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre.
Friday the 10th of June was the great opening of the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The festival was kicked off with a Variety Gala Performance whereby patrons enjoyed a glamorous night filled with local and international stars flaunting their stories and songs. This 16 day event will transform Adelaide into a vibrant city hosting more than 150 performances starring more than 425 artists from Australia and worldwide all produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre.
Festivals are a great way to increase the competitiveness of cities and generate tourists during the slow period.
Minister for the Arts Jack Snelling says, “The Government is pleased to continue supporting Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Each year, audiences embrace the warmth of cabaret in June, as Adelaide Festival Centre and Riverbank precinct come alive for South Australians and visitors to enjoy. Adelaide Cabaret Festival reinforces Adelaide’s reputation as a great festival city and shines a light on our state and city to an international audience.”
The Artistic Directors of the Cabaret (Ali McGregor and Eddie Perfect) have compiled a rich programme, appealing to all ages and people. The kids won’t miss out either with the Festival’s first Family Gala performance, where the whole family has the opportunity to dress up and walk the red carpet.
Ali McGregor (credit Claudio Raschella)
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier says, “Now in its 16th year, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is the largest cabaret festival in the world and a much loved Australian event, attracting audiences from around the country and artists from across the globe. Ali McGregor and Eddie Perfect have curated an outstanding program, packed with music, comedy, satire and film – there is something for everyone.”
“We are delighted with the response of audiences so far, we are 5% up on where we were on opening day of the Festival last year. In fact, we have more in the box office than we’ve ever had at the opening. Audiences are responding really positively to the program so we are all set for a very successful 16th Adelaide Cabaret Festival. So far we have 25 sold out performances including Dita Von Teese, David Hobson and Colin Lane, Sven Ratzke’s Starman, Ali McGregor’s Decadence, Barb Jungr’s Hard Rain, Megan Hilty and Mother’s Ruin.”
The Festival opened with a bang with two of the first weekend highlights very special collaborations with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – The Composer is Dead starring the comedic genius of Frank Woodley and a video-gaming, hilarious performance with Tripod in This Gaming Life. This year visitors can expect to see a high calibre of artists, including burlesque living legend Dita Von Teese in her internationally acclaimed performance Burlesque, Strip, Strip Hooray! Other burlesque performances not to be missed include the brand-new gothic, erotic, airborne variety show The Birds and the comedic genius of slapstick divaAmy G.
Other must-see opening weekend shows include Rhonda Burchmore and Trevor Ashley, bold, brassy, raunchy and raucous in Twins as they pay tribute to the icons of outrageous glitz and glamour, reinventing the likes of Sonny and Cher, Judy and Liza, Kermit and Miss Piggy. If wild rock-und-roll Cabaret is more your thing, Die Roten Punkte is the show for you. Cabaret will be stripped bare as local clown hero Hew Parham washes away your sins in Rudi’s The Rinse Cycle. If you are a gin lover, you can’t miss the world premiere of Maeve Mardsen and Libby Wood in Mother’s Ruin: A Cabaret about Gin.
In another Cabaret first, the festival introduces Movie Nights with the film stars introducing the movies themselves. Get the popcorn ready and see Reg Livermore in Betty Blokk Follies, Michelle Ryan in Michelle’s Story, Ms Lisa Fischer in 20 Feet from Stardom and Sven Ratzke introduce David Bowie’s cult hitLabyrinth.
Other Festival highlights include Artistic Director Ali McGregor in her comedy Decadence and critically acclaimed star of stage and screen Megan Hilty – In Concert. The Festival is concluded with The Last Galah, hosted by Ali and Eddie who pay tribute to Australia’s greatest songwriters, featuring performances by local and international cabaret stars.
On compiling such a diverse program, Co-Artistic Director Ali McGregor says, “Tonight kicks off 16 days of incredible cabaret performance – we have everything from iconic songbook singers to anarchic late-night burlesque and comedy. We are celebrating where cabaret has been, where it is going, as well as where it is RIGHT NOW. There is political satire, storytelling, broadway divas, intimate theatre and even shows for the whole family to enjoy. There’s lots of free entertainment in the Piano Bar in the afternoons and into the night, then our winter garden with an open fire, food stalls, lots of good South Australian wine and bands playing in the evening. The Adelaide festival Centre is the only place to be over the next three weeks!”
Co-Artistic Director Eddie Perfect says, “As cabaret artists from around the country and the globe descend on Adelaide for three exciting weeks in June, I am delighted to show our audiences the best, most diverse and original cabaret being made around the world. In our search for WHAT COMES NEXT, we’ve been delighted and proud to witness how heavy hitting our Australian artists are, taking to this immediate, intimate and highly demanding art form with a proficiency that matches anything seen on stage in New York, London, Berlin, Paris and Edinburgh. Cabaret is not a dusty relic from the past, served up as museum pieces of nostalgia, but a thriving, modern, vibrant art form that speaks to audiences about what it means to be alive right now. We’re certain Adelaide audiences are up for a theatrical adventure and we encourage everyone to take a step outside their comfort zone, to throw themselves into the unknown, to sit in the dark with strangers, to throw themselves into the new, the strange, the complex and the ridiculous, to come up for air and to ask themselves “Right! What comes next?”
Patrons will also enjoy a number of free events throughout the festival including nightly entertainment in the Piano Bar hosted by Trevor Jones followed byLate Night DJs every Friday and Saturday night from 11.30pm as well as Sunday night of the opening weekend.
Patrons would also have the opportunity to experience the Backstage Club – the place where anything can happen… and usually does! Throughout the Festival, patrons can also see Jan Van de Stooland Libby O’Donovan performing their cabaret best as hosts in this year’s Club.
Dr. Mariana Sigala is Professor in Tourism and Director of the Centre of Tourism & Leisure Management (CTLM) at the University of South Australia Business School.
Professor Sigala has a PhD from the University of Surrey as well as a Certificate of Advanced Academic Studies from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc in Tourism Management from the University of Surrey.
Professor Sigala is a widely published authority in the area of Service Operations Management and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications in Tourism and Hospitality. She also has an interest in e-learning models and pedagogies, having published several research studies in these areas. Professor Sigala’s research is multi-award winning featuring several best paper awards in international conferences and academic journals, such as papers published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and the International Journal of Hospitality Management.
Professor Sigala is the current Chair of the ICHRIE Johnson and Wales Case Study Competition and Publication Series . She is also currently the co-editor of the international journal Journal of Service Theory and Practice, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management and the editor of the International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Cases.
Professor Sigala has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Information Technology, Tourism and Travel (IFITT) (as Membership Director); the International Council on Hospitality, Restaurant and Institutional Education (I-CHRIE) (as Research Director, 2008 - 2010); the Hellenic Association of Information Systems (HeAIS) (as Publicity Director); and the Executive Board of the European Council on Hospitality, Restaurant and Institutional Education (EuroCHRIE) (as President, 2004 - 2005).
Professor Sigala joined the UniSA Business School in 2015 and brings more than 13 years of international academic and teaching experience to the UniSA Business School and the School of Management.
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