What's on in Adelaide
InReview

Highlights on the entertainment calendar this weekend include the OzAsia arts and culture celebration, the Royal Adelaide Show, Adelaide University’s Bach Festival and a day of yoga in Victoria Square. It’s also your last chance to see the Dorrit Black and Mortimer Menpes’ exhibitions at the Art Gallery of SA, and 2014 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize finalists at the SA Museum.
OzAsia Festival
The 2014 OzAsia Festival is bringing a smorgasbord of dance, theatre, music, art, film and forums to Adelaide this month, with more than 21 performances and 36 events. Weekend highlights include Shandong Acrobatic Troupe’s Dream of the Ghost Story, which will see the legendary love story of a scholar and fox spirit brought to life at the Festival Theatre in an acrobatic performance featuring ghosts, foxes, immortals and demons. OzAsia, which continues until September 20, also incorporates visual art exhibitions, including the vibrant folk-art Rizhao Farmers’ Paintings in the Festival Theatre Foyer, Chinese embroidery showcase Silk Legacy in the Festival Centre’s Artspace Gallery, and the Mooi Indie – Beautiful Indies display of contemporary Indonesian art at Samstag Museum of Art. The popular Moon Lantern Festival – a free family event with performances, a parade, fireworks and stalls – will be held in Elder Park on Monday, September 8. See InDaily’s OzAsia program preview here.
OzAsia on Screen
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? – described as a “delirious explosion of gore” by Japanese pop-culture master Sion Sono, about a film crew caught up in a gang war – is one of this weekend’s highlights at the OzAsia on Screen film festival at the Mercury Cinema. Also screening are Palestinian thriller Omar, Indian comedy The Lunchbox, and director King Hu’s 1979 drama Raining in the Mountain, which is part of an intriguing program dedicated to The Good, the Sometimes Bad and the Never Ugly Action Women of Hong Kong. OzAsia on Screen will showcase 13 films over 24 sessions until September 21. Click here to view the full program.
Market Week
Adelaide Central Market is hosting a free “spring market party” tonight (Friday) as part of its annual Market Week, with wine tasting, music, an oyster bar and porchetta roasting in the Gouger Street dining area from 6-8pm. Market Week continues on Saturday, when there will be a range of free kids’ events in the morning, a self-guided Fine Food Forage tour, a performance by singers from State Opera SA, street theatre, and a lesson in creating “dude food”.
Bach Festival
Adelaide University has revived its Bach Festival, presenting nine concerts over three days this weekend at Elder Hall. The festival will feature staff and students from the Elder Conservatorium of Music, along with local and interstate musicians. There will be daytime and evening concerts, as well as talks about the composer and his work, with single-concert tickets and festival passes available. Full program details are online.
Royal Adelaide Show
Roll up, roll up for your dagwood dog, fairyfloss, showbags and all those unique events and entertainment you can only find at the show – such as pig racing, sheaf tossing and tent pegging. This year the Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA is celebrating its 175th birthday over 10 days, with everything from roving entertainment, street theatre, fashion parades, wine tasting and cooking demonstrations, to sheepdog trials, sheep-shearing demonstrations, horse events, wood cutting and monster trucks. There are also new rides – Airmaxx 360 and Freak Out in the Carnival and the “Extreme Down on the Farm Tractor Ride” in the Kids’ Carnival area. All the info you need (including transport options and program details) are on the Royal Adelaide Show website.
Emerging Writers’ Festival
Being presented in Adelaide for the first time this weekend, the Emerging Writers’ Festival begins tonight (Friday) with Night of the Living Journals, which will see the simultaneous launch of the latest issues of a stack of literary magazines at the SA Writers’ Centre. The festival program also includes a writers’ master-class and a Mixtape Memoirs performance event on Saturday, which will see writers, musicians and comic artists sharing stories about their favourite songs (read article here).
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
“With a blood curdling cry in the dark and the discovery of a corpse… so begins another adventure for our hero Sherlock Holmes and his loyal accomplice Dr John Watson.” Each night is different in this show presented by Adelaide improv theatre group On The Fly at the Bakehouse Theatre’s Studio Theatre. That’s because the audience gets to suggest story ideas, which are then crafted into a performance. It runs until Saturday and numbers are limited, so make sure you book.
Shimmer Photographic Biennale
The City of Onkaparinga’s month-long photography festival features events, exhibitions, tours and workshops, with the work of more than 40 artists being shown across 32 venues. This weekend there is also a “meet the photographer” event featuring Gary Cockburn and Milton Wordley at the Port Noarlunga Arts Centre on Saturday night, workshops on portraiture and storytelling with video, and a star trail photography expedition at Sellicks Beach. The full program, including exhibition details, can be downloaded here.
Breathe Adelaide
Do your happy baby and downward-facing dog need a bit of work? Then head to Victoria Square from 10am-6pm on Sunday for Breathe Adelaide, which promises “a nourishing day full of food, yoga and life”. There will be two stages offering free classes in a range of yoga styles, massage, food and drink vendors, kids’ events, and stalls selling clothing and other items with a sustainable focus.
Father’s Day Car Run
Supporting the Captain Courageous Foundation, which raises funds to find a cure for bone marrow failure, this year’s car run will start at 10am on Sunday at Mylor Oval, travelling through the hills to the National Motor Museum at Birdwood. Organisers say all vehicles and dads are welcome, with the $25 entry also getting you into the museum, where there will be activities, a barbecue and drinks.
Dorrit Black & Mortimer Menpes
This weekend is your last chance to see these side-by-side retrospective exhibitions showcasing the work of two influential SA-born artists at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Black (1891-1951) is described as one of the most important Australian modernists, credited with bringing the cubism movement to Australia. Menpes (1855-1938) was born in Port Adelaide but moved to London before he was 20, forging a successful career as a painter and printmaker. On Saturday afternoon from 2-4pm there will be a free event at the Radford Auditorium, where four speakers will present their perspectives on Menpes. Dorrit Black: unseen forces and The World of Mortimer Menpes: painter, etcher, raconteur are both free and run until September 7.
Waterhouse Prize
The South Australian Museum’s exhibition of finalists in the 2014 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize also ends this Sunday, after which it will head to Canberra. Climate change, natural wonders, genetic links between animals and humans, and species loss are among the themes boldly explored by artists from Australia and overseas through the more than 100 exquisite works, which include paintings, sculpture and works on paper. More information can be found here.
Warakurna exhibition
This travelling exhibition currently at the South Australian Museum features paintings by Aboriginal artists from the Western Australian community of Warakurna. The paintings are said to combine familiar Western Desert symbols and dots with a more figurative style to recount current and historical events ranging from the impact of weapons testing and mining to a visit by Midnight Oil. Warakurna: All the Stories Got into our Minds and Eyes will be at the museum until November 30.
On screen
See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:
Boyhood
Predestination
Magic in the Moonlight
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
20,000 Days on Earth
The Hundred-Foot Journey
These Final Hours
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