The innovative program boasts immersive experiences, world premieres and Adelaide exclusives in a range of ticketed and free events across the city including world renowned, multimedia studio Moment Factory who will showcase two new experiences - Resonate in Adelaide Botanic Garden and Mirror Mirror in the Illuminate Pavilion on Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga. The creative geniuses Architects of Air introduce an Australian exclusive with Arborialis and the celebrated, free city-wide centrepiece City Lights returns with 40 new installations and projections. Music also takes centre-stage for Illuminate Adelaide with a bolstered 2023 program including genre defying visual series KLASSIK underground, electronic music event Unsound Adelaide as well as dedicated concerts at Hindley Street Music Hall by Yothu Yindi, Oneohtrix Point Never and Tourist.

Taking place from 28 June – 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 a bright and intriguing light this winter.


Co-founders and Creative Directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi said: “We are once again transforming winter nights and after the overwhelming response to our 2022 program, we are delighted to announce an expanded, curated program of experiences, installations, and performances showcasing the very best examples of the convergence of art and technology our city and the world has to offer.


“We look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of South Australians and visitors to our state into the city and we are excited by the prospect of people gathering to connect with one another to celebrate art, light, music and technology.”


South Australian Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison said: “I am really excited to see Illuminate Adelaide come to life again this winter and be embraced by South Australians and visitors alike, cementing its position as a major event in the annual calendar and a successful city-wide celebration.

“South Australia’s favourite winter event saw a record 1.2 million attendances last year and helped drive the highest ever spend for a July in the city, with an estimated $365 million spent across shops, cafes, restaurants and hotels in the CBD and North Adelaide during the month.”


In an Australian premiere and Illuminate Adelaide exclusive, the Montreal based, pioneering,
multimedia company Moment Factory will feature two new works, Resonate and Mirror Mirror.


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 retuning to Adelaide Botanic Garden. Featuring six newly created installations spanning a new 1.7km night-time trail, Resonate will reveal the garden’s lush natural environment brighter, bolder and more immersive than ever.


Using cutting edge technology, Mirror Mirror will be a journey through the possibilities of your 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.


With an impressive roster of performers, Illuminate Adelaide’s 2023 music program promises to be one of the most exciting yet, showcasing a diverse range of genres and styles - from ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Yothu Yindi, the triumphant return of KLASSIK underground, and the 10th anniversary of Unsound Adelaide, to the experimental sounds of genre prodigy Oneohthrix Point Never, as well as the dreamy electronica of UK’s Tourist.


In a special NAIDOC week celebration and for one night only, Australia’s most renowned and iconic rock band Yothu Yindi is set to take the stage at Hindley Street Music Hall to celebrate their 30th anniversary.


The Hindley Street Music Hall will also host two entrancing electronic music concerts, from Brooklyn-based Oneohtrix Point Never and Tourist, the stage name for English electronic musician and producer William Phillip.


Taking the stage at Nexus Arts, rapper DOBBY will bounce between piano, drums, and drum pads to showcase his signature ‘drapping’ style (rapping & drumming combined).


After an unforgettable debut season in 2022, Tahlia Petrosian’s renowned international concert series, KLASSIK underground returns to the Dom Polski Centre for an encore season with two riveting Australian-exclusive concerts – each an experimental classical performance combined with boundary-pushing live visuals from Australia’s foremost digital artists.


KLASSIK undeground’s Friday concert features a first-class, seven-piece all-Australian ensemble in Reverberating Rhythms – a hand-picked program of works by world renowned musicians matched with blazing live visuals by video artist, Tim Gruchy.


Then on Saturday night, Shifting Sounds takes audiences on a thrilling journey with select members of the famed Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig accompanied by Joli Boardman’s brilliant visuals.


Also at the Dom Polski Centre for its 10th showing in 2023, is another Australian exclusive Unsound Adelaide. As a city heralded globally for its commitment to live music, Adelaide will be eager to re-embrace Poland’s international celebration of cutting-edge experimental and electronic music – and a decade later, that pulse is beating louder than ever.


International highlights from this year’s Unsound program include the stripped-down dub-techno beats of Space Afrika (UK), lush ambient creations by Sofie Birch matched with Antonina Nowacka’s indelible vocal melodies (DNK/POL), rapper bbymutha (USA) and many more.


At Live at the Lab, a distinctive music program will feature each weekend across four weeks. In this
special co-curated program with Illuminate Adelaide, light and sound will converge to present some of the most cutting-edge new music locally and from around the globe with the full program being announced in June.


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 17 days, it will be a new program of boundary-pushing local and international artists who will reimagine laneways, street-fronts and open spaces across the city in three precincts: North, East and West.


Highlights include flower-power flourishing in the North precinct with Electric Dandelions, by LA’s Liquid PXL, is a towering, sculptural floral field that awakens at night to put on the ultimate fireworks display, while Trumpet Flowers from Sydney-based Amigo & Amigo invites audiences to create their own floral symphony or simply enjoy the score as they explore a super-sized musical jungle of light, colour, and sound.


Government House will also open its gates for the duration of City Lights for a special premiere work titled Into The Light, projected onto the building’s iconic façade and highlighting a selection of South Australia’s most innovative women, while New Light - a collaboration between Australian Network for Art and Technology and Adelaide Festival Centre’s Moving Image Program - returns to King William Road with original works from rising First Nations creatives Chantel Bates, Elizabeth Close and Jonathon Saunders.


Adorning various facades of the vibrant East End is a precinct-wide exhibition of exquisite original artworks by Adelaide’s own Poh Ling Yeow. Each stunning piece by this multi-talented powerhouse is a mesmerising portrait of Poh’s signature subject, The Girl.

Light Creatures also returns for its third iteration of Adelaide Zoo after dark. New to the suite of interactive works, lanterns and illuminations is the giant Golden Falcon, clawsome crabs and Evolution - a thrilling projection through time taking place in the historic rotunda.


In a world premiere event, Illuminate Adelaide proudly commissions Shifting Perspectives, a mesmerising and immersive study of light and darkness, shape and movement, perception and reality - and the latest work from celebrated Australian troupe, Restless Dance Theatre.


One of Adelaide’s most prolific creative hives comes under Illuminate Adelaide’s spotlight in July with the launch of Make|Shift @ The Mill, an immersive and experimental exhibition of thought provoking projection art by six boundary-pushing SA multidisciplinary artists.