2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival

28 February 2010 by Max Easton

Every year, the Adelaide Fringe Festival sparks the South Australian city into life for a month in February and March, hosting all manner of events in arts and music. 2010 is no different, with Soulshine describing how you can turn a weekend in Adelaide during the Fringe into a music festival of your own doing.

Adelaide is a pretty stunning place this time of year. The streets, pubs and cafe's are filled with locals and tourists, the venues are busy each and every night with comedians and some of the world's finest bands, and everyone's generally having a good time. In fact, there are even places that stay open past 7pm in Adelaide in February and March; a fact that is well worth taking advantage of during the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

One of the centrepieces of the Adelaide Fringe is the Garden of Unearthly Delights, a park at the end of Rundle Street turned into a carnival. With freak shows, buskers, food stalls and the Famous Spiegeltent setting up within the grounds; it exists as a festival grounds for some of the best bands, comedians and sideshows that step foot in South Australia for the Fringe.

So, therein lies the ingredients to one hell of a weekend. You could fork over a few hundred dollars for an organised music festival during this festival season, but then you're limited to the festival grounds, inflated beer and food prices, extensive line-ups and security shuffling you out the gates by the time curfew hits. Or, as you're probably coming around to realising that I'm trying to implore you to do...you can build your own festival based off what Adelaide is giving you.

Let's use the weekend of the 12th, 13th and 14th of March as an example. With flights from Sydney still sitting around the $70 mark, hostel accomodation at $30 a night, you've still got some money up your sleeve to see some music and crawl the multitude of pubs in the city's main stretch and alleyways.

The options are extremely varied for what you could rock up to and enjoy throughout the weekend. You could catch an Adelaide six-piece play Paul Kelly covers under the 'Stolen Apples' moniker on Friday night, see San Franciscan ukelele sensation Uni and Her Ukelele on Friday and Saturday at the Electric Light Hotel or check out German four-piece the Beez at the Spiegeltent...and that's only scratching the surface of what's going down during the Adelaide Fringe.

So essentially, it's the right time of year to get yourself down South. Head down and catch yourself something you've never seen before, soak up the atmosphere of Adelaide before it dips into hibernation and have yourself a damn good time interstate for less than the price of a festival ticket. You won't be disappointed...unless you do end up disappointed.

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