Clipsal 500 noise intrudes on Ennio Morricone Adelaide Festival concert

A SCHEDULING mix-up led to Clipsal 500 race noise intruding on the Ennio Morricone concert at Elder Park last night, prompting the personal intervention of Premier Jay Weatherill.

A SCHEDULING mix-up led to Clipsal 500 race noise intruding on the Ennio Morricone concert at Elder Park last night, prompting the personal intervention of Premier Jay Weatherill.

After the celebrated composer took up his baton in front of 5000 people in Elder Park, at the Adelaide Festival's gala opening, noise from the racetrack affected the performance for 40 minutes.

Mr Weatherill, who was at the concert, directed his office to contact Clipsal organisers to halt racing.

He said he understood an agreement had been reached by former premier Mike Rann's office, in conjunction with the Festival and Clipsal, that there would be no noise to interfere with the concert.

The concert started at 7.30pm - but the widely publicised Clipsal schedule shows that its final event of the evening, the Carrera Cup, was scheduled to finish at 8.15pm.

"It is disappointing that such a world eminent artist's concert was disturbed in this way," Mr Weatherill said.

"However, the concert has been superb and the crowd clearly appreciated Ennio Morricone's music, the ASO and the choralists."

The concert was moved from Saturday to Friday night in an effort to avoid a clash with the main race days of the Clipsal, and the Soundwave heavy music festival.

Audience members said Mr Weatherill was clearly angry at the race noise.

A group of state and federal Labor ministers were also in the audience and David Sefton, who will be festival artistic director from 2013, was clearly less than impressed.

A spokesperson for V8 Supercars said they had no control over the race schedule at that time of night - while a spokesperson for the Clipsal 500 organisers said they were not aware of any discussions about not racing at the time of the concert.

Six of Morricone's soloists joined the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Festival Chorus on iconic themes from cinematic history.

Among the works Morricone performed were The Ecstasy of Gold  from The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Abolisson  from Queimada  and Gabriel's Oboe  from The Mission.

For festival artistic director Paul Grabowsky, a noted film composer in his own right, it was a special moment to see one of his idols on stage.

"I am thrilled that Maestro Morricone is part of my final Adelaide Festival," Mr Grabowsky said.

"Bringing him to Australia is the culmination of seven years hard work."

Among the works Morricone performed were The Ecstacy of Gold  from The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Abolisson  from Queimada  and Gabriel's Oboe  from The Mission. 

Later, audiences congregated at Barrio, a new late-night club on Hajek Plaza, adjoining the Festival Centre.

Barrio, designed to look like a shanty town, has six different themed bars and last night featured performances by Grammy Award-winning Latin pianist Eddie Palmieri and New York band Sway Machinery.

"Barrio is all about little pockets of entertainment and very eccentric happenings," said Festival special events producer Geoff Cobham.

"So people will have very intimate experiences within a large space.

"There will be lots of small, one-on-one experiences that will all add up."

Barrio will house ticketed music performances from 7pm and open its gates to the public from 9.30pm each Thursday to Sunday, until March 17.

Performances of Gardenia, Raoul, Proximity, Malmo  and The Ham Funeral  were also part of last night's opening.