Royal Croquet Club files application to host month-long 2021 event in Victoria Square

The rebranded Royal Croquet Club, turfed from Adelaide Uni, now wants to return to where it all began.

The Royal Croquet Club, or RCC as it’s now known, could make a return to where it all started – Victoria Square.

The rebranded Royal Croquet Club has launched a bid to return to Victoria Square and the birthplace of the hugely popular festival hub.

In what it has dubbed a potential “homecoming”, the RCC, which parted ways with Adelaide University in November, has lodged an application with Adelaide City Council to once again host a month-long event in the heart of the city.

If approved it would end a four-year absence of RCC from Victoria Square.

The RCC is seeking a temporary licence for one of two month-long events – either from January 15 to February 14 on the square’s northern half, or another from February 19 and March 21 on the south portion, to time with the Adelaide Fringe.

Both options would involve a “re-envisioned RCC”, according to council information, and be “different” to previous RCC events at the public square between 2014 and 2016.

“The scaled down site will incorporate an open-air circus stage, an artistically immersive

creative space and local food and beverage offerings,” project information out for public consultation says.

The venue proposes a stage to be known as The Stables that would operate as a rehearsal and training space during the day and “(be) transformed into a formal performance space at night”.

Ticketed event and concert space Utopia would make a return and the food offering will be South Australian and called Chow Town.

Operating hours would be from noon to 11pm most days, extending to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.

A stage from the Royal Croquet Club which was held at Victoria Square from 2014 to 2016.

The hugely popular month-long open air Adelaide Fringe event attracted hundreds of thousands of punters each year to Victoria Square and Pinky Flat where it relocated in 2017.

RCC posted on its Facebook page on Monday night asking Adelaide if it was “time to go back to where it all began …? followed by #homecoming.

But the page contains no specific details about its Victoria Square ambitions.

The RCC Fringe emerged from the ashes of the Royal Croquet Club which was caught up in the high-profile collapse of its parent company The Social Creative, controlled by entrepreneurs Stuart Duckworth and Tom Skipper.

The duo started the Royal Croquet Club in 2014 in Victoria Square but relocated to the banks of the River Torrens in the face of proposed tougher trading conditions and public angst from bricks and mortar traders who blamed the venue for a drop in their trade.

But it was a disastrous 2016 expansion into China, which involved threats from Chinese government “heavies”, that cost the pair dearly and brought their entertainment empire crashing down.

Former Royal Croquet Club directors Tom Skipper and Stuart Duckworth leaving the District Court in 2018 where they were being sued by investors of their company The Social Creative. Picture: Dylan Coker

Roberto Cardone and businessman Jason Di Iulio took ownership of RCC in 2018 and relocated the event to Adelaide Uni in 2019.

Mr Di Iulio left the RCC in 2019 and sold his interests to Mr Cardone, who operates as sole director of the RCC under the company Momentarily Pty Ltd.

Mr Duckworth is the company’s creative director.

The RCC Victoria Square applications can be inspected at https://yoursay.cityofadelaide.com.au/

Feedback closes at 5pm on December 3 and the council is expected to make a decision on the application at its December 15 meeting.