Today, the notion of winter will be completely transformed when Illuminate Adelaide officially opens with a month-long program showcasing Australian premieres and Adelaide exclusives, celebrating the captivating fusion of art, light, music and technology.
Illuminate Adelaide Co-founders and Creative Directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi said: “We are delighted to be back with our third program, once again showcasing a diverse and engaging season of the world’s best, cutting-edge art and sound.
“We are proud to have transformed winter nights in South Australia and this year we expect to welcome over one million attendees into the city”.
The innovative program boasts the widest collection of immersive experiences of any Australian major event, in a range of ticketed and free events across the city.
Running from 28 June to 30 July, the third iteration of Illuminate Adelaide promises to entice locals, interstate and international visitors to the city as it brings the streets of Adelaide to enthralling life.
Featuring a remarkable showcase of works from 142 artists – 29 local, 43 interstate and 60 international creatives – Illuminate Adelaide’s 79 installations and 2080 scheduled performances and sessions ensures there is something to entice visitors of all ages.
Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi said: “Our focus is to bring to Adelaide world first experiences, including the centre piece of this year’s event, Mirror Mirror.
“An Australian premiere and Illuminate Adelaide exclusive from Montreal-based pioneering multimedia company Moment Factory, Mirror Mirror guarantees surprise and complete delight.“
Using cutting edge technology, the immersive experience takes visitors on a thrilling journey through a playground of their wildest dreams. In a choose your own adventure style format, audiences explore the possibilities of their own imagination via a series of vivid interactive installations.
Presented in the newly expanded Illuminate Pavilion at Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga, Mirror Mirror features a series of installations that alter with each interaction, ensuring all who step inside its dreamlike surrounds have a unique but equally surreal experience as they tap into the beauty and mystery of the human mind.
After captivating audiences in previous years with their sensational sell-out show Light Cycles, Moment Factory’s Resonate is the brand new multi-sensory digital art experience at Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Featuring six newly designed installations spanning a 1.7km night-time trail, Resonate will reveal the garden’s lush natural environment in a whole new way.
With an impressive line-up of performers and artists, Illuminate Adelaide’s 2023 music program showcases a diverse range of genres and styles: from ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Yothu Yindi celebrating their 30th anniversary for a one night only concert as part of NAIDOC week, to the triumphant return of KLASSIK underground to blur the lines between classical music and visual art; and from the 10th anniversary of experimental music champions Unsound Adelaide, to the new-age electronic and orchestral sounds of American genre prodigy Oneohthrix Point Never; and from the dreamy electronica of UK’s Tourist to Australian rapper DOBBY in his Illuminate Adelaide debut, bouncing between piano, drums, and drum pads to showcase his signature ‘drapping’ style.
Live at the Lab is back with a distinctive music program across four weekends, where light and sound will converge with some of the most cutting-edge new music locally and from around the globe.
South Australian Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison said: “It is terrific to welcome back Illuminate Adelaide, as the innovative festival shines a light on our boutique capital this winter.
“There is no excuse to stay indoors this winter, as Illuminate Adelaide offers an impressive month-long program of Australian premieres and Adelaide exclusives including immersive displays, state-of-the-art technology, bold musical acts, and more.
“This is another world-class event showcasing South Australia on the world stage, continuing our state’s blockbuster events calendar, which has helped drive our visitor economy to hit an all-time record high.”
Celebrity chef and Adelaide darling, Poh Ling Yeow makes her return to art for Illuminate Adelaide with her signature subject, The Girl displayed as part of City Lights on Rundle Street and a solo exhibition at Light ADL.
Exclusive to Adelaide, UK creative geniuses Architects of Air invite audiences to step inside the ARBORIALIS luminarium over three weeks this July. The latest mesmerising installation from Architects of Air’s ‘luminarium’ series of experiential inflatable mazes is a labyrinth of colour and light that can be experienced by day and night, in the heart of Adelaide’s East End in Rymill Park/Murlawirrapurka.
Illuminate Adelaide’s free city-wide centrepiece City Lights is back with a new series of immersive installations, artworks and large-scale activations set to turn Adelaide’s most iconic streetscapes into a night-time adventure of colour and sound. With more than 40 free works over the 17 days including the school holidays, it promises a new program of boundary-pushing local and international artists reimagining laneways, street-fronts and open spaces across the city in three precincts: North, East and West.
A highlight includes a premiere projection work on the iconic façade at Government House, Into The Light, celebrating some of South Australia’s most innovative women, while Augmented Revolution sees contemporary First Nations artists leveraging the emerging technology of AR as a storytelling platform, curated by Dearna Newchurch.
Light Creatures returns for its third iteration of experiencing Adelaide Zoo after dark. New to the suite of interactive works, lanterns and illuminations is the giant Golden Falcon, clawsome crabs, Evolution – a thrilling projection through time, taking place in the historic rotunda – and the tiger cubs, who will be playing hide and seek.
In a world premiere event, Illuminate Adelaide has commissioned Shifting Perspectives, a mesmerising and immersive study of light and darkness, shape and movement, perception and reality, from celebrated Australian company, Restless Dance Theatre.
Adelaide’s celebrated creative hive The Mill presents Make|Shift @The Mill, an immersive and experimental exhibition of thought-provoking projection art by six boundary-pushing South Australian multidisciplinary artists.