Organisers fear end of long-running Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival amid funding scare

The future of a racy South Aussie festival is at risk with organisers fearing it will be forced to fold.

Adelaide's Cabaret Fringe Festival may have performed its final act. Picture: Supplied

The future of a long-running Adelaide festival is under threat with organisers fearing it will be forced to fold as its main funding source runs dry.

Cabaret Fringe Festival treasurer Lauren Thiel told The Advertiser the 2025 season, which finished earlier this month, may have been the last because a three-year Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) grant arrangement had ended.

The grant provided $45,000 a year – a significant sum for the small festival that draws 2000 to 6000 annual attendees.

“I think people would be surprised by how much time, energy, money it takes to actually put on a festival. Without significant support … these sorts of small festivals are near impossible to run,” Ms Thiel said.

The “Cab Fringe” was conceived in 2001 by Frank Ford, the founder of the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

His vision was for a “non-curated”, experimental alternative to the city’s main cabaret festival.

Adelaide's Cabaret Fringe Festival Board member Paul Boylan, performer Leather Lungs and producer Simone DiSisto. Picture: Supplied

Ms Thiel said the festival was an incubator for talent in the cabaret and live music scene, offering a space where it was “safe to fail, safe to try something weird, safe to put on one show or 10 shows”.

“If we look at the usual measures of impact of a festival, we may not measure up necessarily, but if we look at the stories that get told, the careers that get built, the community that is fostered, and also that broader economic impact of bringing people into the city during winter, then I think we really do measure up and we are a really important festival.

A performer at a part Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival. Picture: Supplied

“We really hope that either there will be new grants that become available or another financial commitment by government or a major corporate sponsor or partner.”

It comes after organisers of another small festival, the Adelaide Beer and BBQ Festival, said its 2025 event, which took place in May, would be the last.

Founders Gareth Lewis and Aaron Sandown said they could not “see a way forward” for the event “in the current landscape, in its current format” after its cost increased between 30 and 40 per cent since 2022.