New SATC campaign called Bloom featuring new major events around South Australia in spring

The Premier has announced a new festival called Bloom that includes an expanded Adelaide Rally – but, Paul Starick asks, do voters just want the Adelaide 500?

An international music festival and a revamped motorsport event are part of a new campaign highlighting South Australia during spring.

The packed annual program, called Bloom, will also feature a Barossa food and wine festival and an Adelaide Oval concert starring Kate Ceberano, David Campbell and Anthony Warlow. There are also plans to return the Christmas Pageant to the city’s streets.

For motorsport lovers, an expanded Adelaide Rally – formerly the Adelaide Motorsport Festival – will be held in the East End, along with a round of the Australian Superbike Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Australian Superbike rider Daniel Falzon (representing the Australian Superbike Championships), clown Flynn Hawkey (the Pageant and Royal Show), Ruth Blythman (Barossa Contemporary: Festival for the Curious) and drag queen Kristina International (Feast Festival) with a Pagani Huayra worth $6.5 million (the Adelaide Rally) Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Adelaide-era F1 cars drive along Wakefield Street through Victoria Square in the city as part of the old Adelaide Motorsport Festival. Picture: Tom Huntley.

They join a slate of existing events between September and November, including the Royal Adelaide Show, Bay to Birdwood, OzAsia, CheeseFest, Feast Festival and the Christmas Pageant.

At Thursday morning’s launch, Premier Steven Marshall revealed he was hoping to return the pageant, which usually attracts more than 300,000 spectators, to the CBD streets in November.

“I know a lot of people were really disappointed they didn’t have the street parade last year,” he said.

“All I can say at this stage is that we are working with SA Health... we’re really keen, if we can get it to go ahead, to go ahead in a more normal format. I think people love lining the streets.”

Last year, Covid-19 restrictions meant the annual festive season event was held at twilight at Adelaide Oval.

The new two-day Harvest Rock festival, from the owners of popular Australian music events Falls Festival and Splendour in the Grass, will debut in November next year in Adelaide’s city parklands.

Art lovers can also enjoy IMMERSE, a virtual reality show featuring high-end technology and music in Light Square.

Mr Marshall said it was spring’s “time to shine” in SA, with Bloom set to boost tourism numbers around the state.

“Springtime is when Adelaide is in full bloom, so it is the perfect time to hold more events, more often,” he said.

CheeseFest is back in October – Sean Baxter, Never Never co-founder and brand director at McLaren Vale, with Kris Lloyd of Woodside Cheese Wrights. Picture: Matt Turner.

“Four new festivals and a whole range of expanded and existing events held through the season from Adelaide to the Barossa and the Riverland – our state’s spring calendar is more exciting than ever.”

But opposition tourism spokeswoman Zoe Bettison said there was nothing new in the announcement.

“We need more events to create and support jobs – not a rebadging of events that have been around for years,” she said.

This year’s Bloom will also include a two-day preview of the Barossa Contemporary food, wine and arts festival will be held in October, with a full event to take place next year.

“It will blend the Barossa’s current identity as a breeding ground for artisanal food and wine with thought-provoking experiences that will challenge and excite people’s perception of the region,” co-founder and festival director Zac Tyler said.

Is the new Bloom-fest a real Adelaide 500 replacement?

Analysis – Paul Starick

State pride was savaged when Adelaide lost the Formula One Australian Grand Prix to Melbourne in the mid-1990s – there was a clamour for revenge against the thieving Victorians.

No one event could directly replace the Grand Prix, so the-then premier John Olsen opted for some smaller ones, most notably the Adelaide 500 Supercar race and cycling’s Tour Down Under – both first staged in early 1999.

More than 22 years later, Premier Steven Marshall – also the Tourism Minister – seems to have taken some event strategy advice from Mr Olsen, now the Liberal Party federal president.

Having in October last year controversially culled the Adelaide 500, Mr Marshall has not sought to replace the race with a single major event.

Instead, he has unveiled smaller attractions, such as the Illuminate Adelaide light show and, on Thursday, a series of events under the Bloom label.

Mr Marshall is pitching Bloom as “four new festivals and a whole range of expanded and existing events, from Adelaide to the Barossa to the Riverland”. It includes an expanded Adelaide Rally – formerly the Adelaide Motorsport Festival – in the city’s East End in late November, and a round of the Australian Superbike Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park from September 24-26.

This risks underwhelming motor racing fans, in particular, many of whom remain dismayed at the snap decision to rob them of Supercar action on Adelaide’s renowned street circuit.

Supercars drivers James Courtney, Todd Hazelwood, Scott Pye, Chaz Mostert and Jack Le Brock with their team colours ahead of the 2020 Superloop Adelaide 50. Supplied by Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

This creates another opportunity for Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, who has committed to returning Supercars to Adelaide if Labor wins next March’s state election. However, the Labor leader’s task is complicated by Adelaide 500 overpasses, grandstands and other infrastructure being sold off. This makes his vow to return Supercars in some way resemble former federal Labor leader Kim Beazley’s ill-fated GST rollback promise.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas signs an MOU with Supercars CEO Sean Seamer to bring back the Superloop Adelaide 500. Pic: Supplied

A two-day international music festival in the city parklands will debut in November next year – let’s hope international borders are open by then.

Expanding events to the world-renowned Barossa wine region and the Riverland seems an obvious step. For Mr Marshall, it has the added benefit of bolstering Liberal Schubert candidate Ashton Hurn (his former media adviser). A two-day preview of the Barossa Contemporary food, wine and arts festival held in October, with a full event to take place next year, can’t hurt the profile of a Barossa candidate Mr Marshall is keenly supporting.

The Covid-19 pandemic has starkly transformed major events, from the Olympics to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Having worn considerable heat over the Adelaide 500’s axing, Mr Marshall’s challenge is to explain his changed strategy and sell it to a sceptical public ahead of the next election.

He might strike it lucky – Mr Olsen was roundly criticised for lacking ambition by forging the Adelaide 500 and Tour Down Under, but both grew into spectacular successes.

Or Mr Malinauskas might tap into a desire for a return to pre-pandemic normal and motivate motorsport fans to vote for Supercars to return to city streets.

In a world gripped by Covid-19, future trends in major events are more uncertain than ever. Illuminate Adelaide has been popular, even after a statewide lockdown and dismal weather.

The state must take every opportunity to seize an advantage, even as outbreaks grip eastern states. Like the Tour Down Under, time will tell whether Bloom blossoms or withers.