Fringe springs surprise dates for 2021 by breaking away from Adelaide Festival for the first time
In an unprecedented move, the Fringe has announced it will break from the Adelaide Festival’s timeline and go its own way.
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In an unprecedented move the Adelaide Fringe Festival has this week announced it will continue for a week after the Adelaide Festival.
In 2021, after many years in lock-step, the dates for the Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide Fringe have gone their own way.
The Adelaide Festival will run from February 26 to March 14 in keeping with its usual date range, but the Adelaide Fringe has moved back a week and will now overlap the Festival at both ends.
It will run from February 19 to March 21.
Fringe director Heather Croall pointed out that the Fringe had a history of being held well into late March, particularly in its earlier years.
“Every few years the Fringe dates reset to ensure that it doesn’t start too early in the high February heat,” she said.
She said that to account for the uncertainties around COVID-19, the Fringe would also be pushing back its deadlines for registrations by a month.
Rumours of the change have been circulating for weeks, but the Fringe website was only updated with the new dates this week.
The new dates will see the Fringe fit more closely to the Melbourne Comedy Festival schedule, which starts just four days later.
Some comedians, particularly on international circuits, have in the past complained about the 10-day lay-off between the end of the Adelaide Fringe and the beginning of the Melbourne Comedy Festival in late March, though others prefer to have a rest between engagements.
Of course, this year, the Adelaide Fringe was unaffected by the COVID-19 virus, while the Melbourne Comedy Festival was cancelled altogether.
In 2021, the success of the Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival and WOMADelaide will depend upon the international COVID-19 situation.
Arts industry people say the triple whammy of Mad March in Adelaide is likely to be Australia’s first large scale arts event after the lockdown.
While all three festivals have confidently stated their dates for next year a range of contingencies will have to be taken into account, and they might change or cancel the events.
Co-director of the Adelaide Festival, Rachel Healy said she was still chewing through the various implications of the Fringe’s change in dates, particularly as a matter of logistics.
She said they had been fortunate to have been able to travel before the coronavirus lockdown to see many of the Australian and international shows programmed for 2021.
She and Neil Armfield had thought 2020 was a challenging festival to program.
“But it turns out that was just a rehearsal!” she said.
“We are working closely with the South Australian Government to explore new processes that will keep artists and audiences safe and ensure the 2021 Adelaide Festival returns with a bang,” she said.
They include regular testing of overseas acts in the months before their departure for the Festival.