Regular Events

Readings and Storytelling

There’s been a recent resurgence in the evenings of readings in Kaurna Yerta / Adelaide. They are a great opportunity to hear new work, and if you need to test new work you

Dog-Eared Readings

Ern Malley

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Poetry and Spoken Word

Kaurna Yerta / Adelaide has a thriving poetry and spoken word scene, with many monthly or other regular events.

The Wheaty is host to a monthly poetry reading series, No Wave. In its current iteration No Wave is guest curated by a different poet each month. It’s a slightly mysterious, slightly elusive event with not much information besides a listing in The Wheaty’s wheaty mail (sign up here), facebook page and this page here. However, I know many of our finest poets hold this night dear so if you like poetry it’s worth seeking it out.

Mixed Creative have a new, monthly open mic night for poets, called Voice Box;

the long-running Poetry at the Pub at Gawler is one Sunday per month;

Mixed Bag host open mic, writing sessions and new material nights.

ActNow Theatre and Writers SA produce Soul Lounge, an open mic night providing a safe space for people of colour. There’s a great article about it here.

Festivals and Major Events

Adelaide Fringe The year kicks off with the biggest festival in the state, the second-biggest fringe festival in the world. I don’t always love the bigger is better, biggest is best nature of the fringe, but it has changed my life, so I kind of take the good with the bad. It makes a lot of noise with circus and burlesque and comedy, but dig into the program for some wonderful theatre and lots of storytelling. The comedy is still lots of big names from television and radio, but there are also many experimental formats which are often real gems.

Adelaide Festival Lots of theatre, and of course the literary event of the year with Writers’ Week

Salt Festival

History Festival It’s often overlooked by artists, but this is a great opportunity to present new work. You’ll have to have a show or program that fits in with the theme, which can make it tricky, but it’s worth keeping in the back of your mind. I had a show, ‘Weird Adelaide’ inspired by Barbara Hanrahan and the gallery owner suggested History Week. It opened my work up to a whole new audience.

Dream Big Children’s Festival Maybe the only festival in the state that everyone under the age of fifty would have at least one memory of.

Cabaret Festival A subset of theatre, but I’m including it because it’s got lots of scripted storytelling. And if I’m including the festival, I can’t not include the Cabaret Fringe Festival.

Nature This festival includes a stack of writing workshops, poetry open mics, and readings in beautiful places.

OzAsia For my money, this is one of the most interesting programs of the year with a really great range of events, including a literary program.

Tarnanthi Primarily a visual arts festival centred around the Art Gallery of South Australia, but in 2023 it also included some paid writing commissions for First Nations writers in partnership with Writers SA.

Feast Like other festivals there’s always some good theatre and literature in the program. Another good opportunity for artists looking for an alternative to fringe’s enormous program