New winter festival Illuminate Adelaide announces program highlights for first event

Illuminate Adelaide will feature 150 installations, performances and events, including 41 world premieres, at sites throughout the city from July 16 to August 1.

Light, technology, music and art will bring the city to life when new winter festival Illuminate Adelaide delivers its first event in July.

A 2km long trail of projections, lasers and audio effects in the Botanic Garden, giant light animals at the Zoo and a concert, talk, exhibition and DJ set by dance music duo The Avalanches are among program highlights announced today.

Illuminate Adelaide will feature 150 installations, performances and events, including 41 world premieres, at sites throughout the city from July 16 to August 1.

Airship Orchestra by art and technology company ENESS, which will be part of the City Lights installation for the Illuminate Adelaide festival in July. Picture: Supplied

It will also include a new version of the Festival of Ideas, presented from July 15-18 in partnership with the University of Adelaide.

Illuminate co-founders and artistic directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi said the festival would bring artists and innovators from around the world together with technical teams and cultural partners in Adelaide.

“It’s very different to the other events and festivals on the South Australian calendar and, we think, nationally as well,” Mr Cumberlidge said.

Illuminate Adelaide co-founders and artistic directors, Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi, with the Row installation by Russian collective TUNDRA. Picture: Matt Turner.

In particular, the directors wanted to explore the intersection between art and technology.

“We really wanted to focus on some of the great things that are being made here in SA – the future technology companies that are making incredible work in AI (artificial intelligence) or VFX (visual effects) or the game industry or VR (virtual reality) as well,” Mr Cumberlidge said.

Ms Azzopardi said many of the festival’s works were “experiential” rather than simply visual.

“A lot of the installations or big productions in the Gardens or the Zoo, or the van Gogh Alive, are really about immersing yourself in the work and experiencing it,” she said.

The full program will be released in May.

ILLUMINATING HIGHLIGHTS

Canada’s Moment Factory will create a 2km installation trail called Light Cycles at the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

Light Cycles, Botanic Garden, July 15 to August 1

Canadian multimedia studio Moment Factory has created stage shows for acts from Madonna and Jay-Z to Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish, and will use light, sound, video and special effects to amplify the voice of the natural world.

The Avalanches, Entertainment Centre, July 30

Australian dance music duo Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi will perform new arrangements of their debut album Since I Left You live with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Light Creatures by A Blanck Canvas

Light Creatures, Adelaide Zoo, July 8 to August 1

Kaurna and Narungga man Jack Buckskin, Anangu artist Elizabeth Close, Melbourne designers A Blanck Canvas and animation studio Monkeystack will create a night-time zoo adventure which includes a huge skink, Giant Pandas, giraffes, fish, jellyfish and coral, set off with interactive effects.

City Lights, CBD, July 16 to August 1

Artists and studios will create more than 40 site-specific works including kaleidoscopic projections, immersive inflatable installations, augmented reality and interactive exhibits to transform three city precincts into nocturnal playgrounds.

Van Gogh Alive by Grande Experiences.

Van Gogh Alive, 88 O’Connell St, from June 23

The life and legacy of Vincent van Gogh comes leaping off the canvas in this multisensory, multiscreen tribute by Australian company Grande Experiences which has toured to more than 60 cities around the world.

Free in The Advertiser on Saturday: 28-page Illuminate Adelaide Highlights Program