Adelaide’s Festival Theatre to close for up to seven months from mid-July

Shows will be redirected to other venues as Adelaide’s Festival Theatre closes for up to seven months for major building works.

Adelaide’s Festival Theatre will close for up to seven months as the next stage of upgrades begin at the performing arts precinct.

From mid-July, the theatre will shut to allow a concrete slab around the southern side to be strengthened as part of the major transformation of Festival Plaza, on the banks of the River Torrens.

Most shows have been redirected to the Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre and the newly redeveloped Her Majesty’s Theatre.

Adelaide Festival Centre has been working closely with producers and artists to secure alternative dates for shows, while any affected ticketholders are to be contacted directly.

The seven-month closure of the Festival Theatre will also allow for internal upgrades, including the refurbishment of dressing rooms and green rooms. Other upgrades to the theatre are being considered during the closure.

Development at Festival Plaza – picture taken in December, 2020. Picture: Emma Brasier

The Festival Theatre will shut for significant concrete reinforcement works.

Adelaide Festival Centre chief executive Douglas Gautier said ceilings in the theatre’s foyers must come off to accommodate the Plaza’s essential concrete strengthening works.

“The advice we are getting is that it’s virtually impossible for audiences and artists during that period with the dust and the noise – it just wouldn’t work,” he said.

The exact dates of the closure has not yet been decided – but it will be from mid to late July until early 2022.

According to the BASS ticketing website, only one show is currently scheduled for Festival Theature during the closure period – a Human Nature concert on August 31.

“Luckily, we have the new Her Majesty’s Theatre, so that helps us a lot because it is a bigger capacity and we are able to move a number of the shows across,” Mr Gautier said. “That has been a godsend in many respects.”

Mr Gautier said once the upgrades are done, the Plaza will become a “gateway” to the entire Riverbank precinct.

“It’s regrettable that we have got to close (Festival Theatre), but we understand there’s a bigger proposition here,” he said.

“We appreciate the support of all our partners, patrons and staff and believe these works will lead to a much better outcome in the long term.”

The approved designs for $253.5 million Festival Plaza project.

It took eight years for Festival Plaza designs to be finalised.

Last June, eight years after it was first proposed, the State Commission Assessment Panel approved designs for a $253.5m transformation of Festival Plaza.

Upgrades include escalators from the Riverbank footbridge and major landscaping.

The construction is part of a wider $600m project, which also includes a planned 27-storey office tower and a 1560-space underground carpark.

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