2016 Adelaide Festival of Arts Launches

After selling in excess of 10,000 tickets in only three days, the festival's highly anticipated stadium spectacular from Groupe F is now officially the fastest selling show in the 55 year history of Adelaide Festival of Arts.

The festival begins with a bang in an exclusive one-night-only event when world famous French maestros of light and fire Groupe F officially open the festival with À Fleur de Peau at the festival's first ever performance staged at the Adelaide Oval.

Dazzling pyrotechnics, a breathtaking piece of dance history, epic theatrical spectacle and an impressive line-up of new music are just some of the things to look forward to in Artistic Director David Sefton's fourth and final Adelaide Festival of Arts in 2016.

The stellar program features 30 theatre, music, dance and visual arts events including Adelaide Writers' Week. The line-up includes 7 world premieres, 21 Australian premieres and 20 events exclusive to Adelaide over 18 days from 26 February to 14 March 2016.

Offering the kind of exclusive and momentous theatre experience synonymous with the festival, the award winning, epic, 11-hour trilogy from National Theatre of Scotland and National Theatre of Great Britain, The James Plays makes its Australian debut exploring the lives of the three Stewart kings in a tumultuous 15th century Scotland.

Also exclusively at the festival, Germany's influential Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch perform the surreal and striking dance-theatre piece Nelken in the company's first Australian visit since 2000 and the passing of the visionary Pina Bausch in 2009.

Other Australian premieres include; avant-garde legend Romeo Castellucci's Go Down, Moses (ITA), Canadian dance company The Holy Body Tattoo's last ever production monumental accompanied live by post-rock giants Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CAN), and the award-winning 1927's multi-disciplinary, darkly funny dystopian fable Golem (UK).

David Sefton has pushed the boundaries of his music program even further in 2016, with drone metal pioneers Sunn O))) and legendary avant-garde institution Magma (FRA) to co-headline at Thebarton Theatre. Radical Israeli maestro Ilan Volkov returns with Tectonics Adelaide, a two-day collision of classical and experimental music; and festival favourite Unsound is back for two nights featuring phenomenal Australian premieres. Rounding out the music program is virtuosic Brooklyn balladeer Sufjan Stevens (US).

Adelaide Festival of Arts Artistic Director, David Sefton said "For my last hurrah, I've brought together a slate of the world's very best large-scale and ambitious performances exclusively to Adelaide. Alongside this I'm also delighted to be presenting a broad and impressive selection of South Australia's finest artists."

In 2016 the Adelaide Festival of Arts features eight South Australian companies across theatre, music and dance; Australian Dance Theatre's Habitus, Australian String Quartet's Alleged Dances, Zephyr Quartet's Exquisite Corpse, State Theatre Company of SA's The Events, Slingsby's The Young King, Tiny Bricks' Deluge, Stone/Castro's The Country and Vitalstatstix's Body of Work.

Adelaide Writers' Week, the much-loved week of free open air readings and conversation will take place in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden from Saturday 27 February to Thursday 3 March.

The 2016 Writers' Week program is a rich mix of fiction, fantasy, history, memoir, poetry, politics and political unease, hosting some of contemporary literature's most exciting writers and thinkers. Guests include; neuroscientist and author of Still Alice Lisa Genova (US), bestselling novelist and author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery (FRA), highly acclaimed travel writer Simon Winchester (UK), award-winning journalist Masha Gessen (RUS), award-winning novelist Charlotte Wood, environmental activist Tim Flannery and ABC journalist Kerry O'Brien.

In her fifth year as Adelaide Writers' Week Director, Laura Kroetsch said "This year three themes have emerged and they are memory, mavericks and strong women. It seems fair to say that we live in perilous times and what cheers me about the books in this year's program is that they are both deeply thoughtful and ultimately optimistic."

For more information on Adelaide Writers' Week click here

The flagship visual arts event is the 2016 Adelaide Biennial, Magic Object, presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia. Magic Object will bedevil classification and arouse curiosity, unfolding across an unprecedented number of venues. From magic to mythology, the festival also presents Boo! a series of ghost stories and other scary matter depicted by local Indigenous artists; and Heart Beat, an immersive 4D video installation by Melbourne artist Lisa Roet.

THEATRE

Packed with royal games, power struggles and the battle for the throne, The James Plays (UK) is historical drama for a contemporary audience. Full of gripping political and familial intrigue, stage TV and film writer Rona Munro's epic trilogy can be seen individually or together as an 11-hour theatrical marathon.

Italian director Romeo Castellucci is one of the most important figures in contemporary theatre. His latest work Go Down, Moses is striking, esoteric and abstract. Exploring existential doubts and uncertainties from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, this dark, deep and divisive production is a profound meditation on the human psyche.

Synchronising live music, stylised performance and handmade animation, 1927's (UK) award-winning dystopian fable Golem will send you headfirst through the looking glass. Like a giant graphic novel come to life, the visually arresting work explores our relationship with technology and one of the great questions of the modern world - who or what is in control?

Continuing the examination of modern anxieties, local theatre work Deluge explores how our brains and souls are being transformed by a world of rapidly rising information. The debut show from Phillip Kavanagh and Nescha Jelk's new South Australian theatre company, Tiny Bricks, weaves together five different narratives, played out simultaneously, as 10 characters attempt to find meaning and connection without drowning in the flood.

For the first time in Australia family favourites Erth will present the Broadway version of their internationally acclaimed Erth's Dinosaur Zoo, as well as its underwater sequel, the brand new Prehistoric Aquarium, for an immersive and enchanting experience at Norwood Concert Hall.

Internationally-acclaimed Adelaide theatre makers Slingsby present the world premiere of The Young King by Oscar Wilde, a family-friendly production staged within an enchanting forest-world in the former Dazzeland amusement complex in Adelaide's Myer Centre.

Written by daring contemporary British playwright Martin Crimp, The Country is the latest adaptation from dynamic theatre and dance creative team Jo Stone and Paulo Castro. The cryptic thriller is set against an idyllic rural backdrop, where stability and serenity make way for suspicion and deceit.

Featuring renowned star of the stage and screen Catherine McClements (Rush, Water Rats), the State Theatre Company of South Australia production The Events follows a community's search for compassion, peace and understanding in the wake of unthinkable violence. Opening on a community choir rehearsal, the play will showcase a different local choir each night, in a beguiling fusion of theatre and music.

MUSIC

The fourth and final edition of Unsound is the biggest yet, brimming with Australian debuts, special collaborations and exclusive, commissioned shows. Over two jam-packed nights at Thebarton Theatre, Unsound Adelaide 2016 will feature Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini (ITA/US), Mogwai bass player Barry Burns (UK), Icelandic minimalist/drone composer Johann Johannsson, who recently won a Golden Globe Award for his score to The Theory of Everything, and Hyperdub boss Kode9 (UK).

Also returning in 2016 is Ilan Volkov's (ISR) new music concert spectacular, Tectonics, which had an acclaimed season at the 2014 festival. Over a mammoth two-day program at the Adelaide Town Hall, Tectonics 2016 will combine avant-garde electronic composers with orchestral and classical performances, including works by The Necks (AUS), Jim O'Rourke (USA), Annie Hsieh (AUS), Cathy Milliken (AUS), David Shea (AUS), Klaus Lang (AUT) and Eyvind Kang (US).

In their second ever Australian tour, Godspeed You! Black Emperor (CAN) will bring their powerful and mesmerising live show to the Adelaide Festival for one night only, while singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens (US) will bring his sweeping arrangements and folkloric reflections to Thebarton Theatre.

Also at Thebarton Theatre is an exclusive co-headline show from visionaries Sunn O))) (pronounced Sun) and Magma (FRA) - two groups that challenge the way we think about music. Sunn O)))'s apocalyptic, mind-altering and reverberating walls of noise are a truly matchless experience; a reverent salute to the gods of metal.

Appearing for the first time in Australia, genre-defying music juggernaut Magma is shrouded in mythology. Led by founder, composer and virtuosic drummer Christian Vander, the group has released a string of epic concept albums detailing the plight of refugees fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the planet Kobaia. Their lyrics are sung in the language of the new civilisation, Kobaian, which has developed its own music genre Zeuhl (meaning celestial). Get ready for a mind-blowing, boundary-pushing space opera from another galaxy.

The Australian String Quartet partners with dynamic percussionist Claire Edwardes in Alleged Dances, Musica Viva premieres its new chamber opera Voyage to the Moon, and Zephyr Quartet debuts the surreal and large-scale collaboration Exquisite Corpse.

WOMADelaide celebrates its 20th festival in Adelaide's Botanic Park, with performances by The Cat Empire (AUS), Angelique Kidjo (BEN), John Grant (US), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (RSA), Marlon Williams (NZ/AUS) and Violent Femmes (US).

For more information on the Adelaide Festival of Arts music program click here

DANCE

Pina Bausch's Nelken (GER), meaning carnations, will make its Australian debut at the Adelaide Festival of Arts. Performed by 23 dancers and 4 professional stuntmen atop thousands of pink carnations that carpet the stage, the dream-like piece explores control, power and love through absurd humour and vivid imagery. The influential Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to Adelaide for the first time since 1982, when the Adelaide Festival introduced Bausch and her work to local audiences with a trilogy of her productions Kontakthof, Blue Beard and 1980.

Co-commissioned by the Adelaide Festival of Arts, contemporary dance juggernaut monumental makes its Australian debut in 2016. The last show created by explosive Canadian dance company The Holy Body Tattoo, monumental makes everyday movements extraordinary. The vigorous and instinctive piece features pounding live music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Australian Dance Theatre presents the world premiere of Habitus, choreographed by Garry Stewart. This 70-minute work explores the relationship between humans and the domestic world, reframing our engagement with items like books, ironing boards, sofas, and other household paraphernalia. Atlanta Eke's award-winning Body of Work sees the visceral and mechanical collide in a radical performance presented by Vitalstatistix.

VISUAL ART

Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia, in partnership with Samstag Museum of Art and curated by Lisa Slade, the 2016 Adelaide Biennial is the most ambitious to date. Inspired by the historical Wunderkammer (a cabinet or room containing collections of yet-to-be classified works of art, antiquities and natural and geological objects) Magic Object turns artists into conjurors. The Biennial's Vernissage weekend features free artist talks and lively panel discussions offering a Wunderkammer of perspectives on material and magical thinking.

From magic to mythology, the festival also presents Boo! a series of ghost stories and other scary matter depicted by local Indigenous artists; and Heart Beat, an immersive 4D video installation by Melbourne artist Lisa Roet.

SPECIAL EVENT

The official opening of the festival will be the first Adelaide Festival production at Adelaide Oval. Groupe F's breathtaking stadium spectacular Á Fleur de Peau (FRA) explodes for one night only at the oval, as illuminated actors, monumental video and spectacular pyrotechnics play out to an unforgettable soundtrack by acoustic-electro composer Scott Gibbons (US).

Booking Details
Tickets are available from 10am Thursday 1 October 2016.
adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246. For further information visit adelaidefestival.com.au.