BREAKFAST WITH PAPERS and Festival Forums To Return For Adelaide Festival 2018

Adelaide Festival welcomes the return of Breakfast with Papers and Festival Forums to the Palais in 2018. With an outstanding line-up of special events set to draw crowds to the beautiful Adelaide Riverbank, the program is proof that Adelaide is not only an arts city in March; it is also a thinking city alive with ideas and conversation.

Joint Artistic Director Rachel Healy said: "The Palais will again breathe light and life into the Adelaide Riverbank precinct as Breakfast with Papers and Festival Forums provide a place for stimulating discussion, healthy debate and muscular ideas across news, arts, entertainment, current affairs and politics. In addition to the evening contemporary music program and the weekend Long Lunches, there's truly something for everyone at the Palais."

The Palais will be open for breakfast from 7am daily with the return of Breakfast with Papers. Guests can enjoy coffee and light breakfast by CIBO Espresso with newspapers provided by The Advertiser as moderator Tom Wright and his panel of local and visiting journalists, writers, academics, thought leaders and artists interrogate the daily headlines in an intimate morning discussion of news and current affairs. As its 2017 audiences will attest, it's an invigorating and intellectually energetic start to every day of the Adelaide Festival.

This year's Breakfast with Papers line up will include some of the South Australia's best journalists from The Advertiser speaking on the issues that matter most. Audiences will have the opportunity to get an insight into the state of the nation from Editor in Chief Matt Deighton, Greg Barila, Sean Fewster, Paul Starick, Michael Maguire, Nadja Fleet, Penny Debelle, Deborah Bogle and Roy Eccleston. Audiences will also have the chance to go in depth with authors from Adelaide Writers' Week including international guests Cory Doctorrow (CAN), political philosopher A.C Grayling (UK), Laleh Khadivi (US), Patricia Lockwood (US), Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (US), foodie Samin Nosrat (US), Jim Robbins (US) and Michael Farris Smith (US). Local authors will also speak on issues closer to home, with Kate Cole-Adams, David Hill, Sarah Krasnostein and Jenny Valentish all joining Tom for a chat on the Palais. The daily schedule of participants who are appearing at Breakfast with Papers will be announced in The Advertiser and will be listed on the Adelaide Festival website from 1 March.

Journalist and author David Marr also returns to the Adelaide Festival with his fabulous Festival Forums, a weekday lunchtime event in which he interviews a fascinating festival artist. With characteristic wit, insight and all the strengths of a good listener, David enriches the festival experience with an unmissable behind-the-scenes conversation.

Festival Forums opens on Friday 2 March with David Marr on stage with Luke Cresswell, the creator of both Stomp and The Lost and Found Orchestra, the latter of which kicks off the Adelaide Festival on March 3 with an outdoor extravaganza featuring over 500 performers. Luke's experience and expertise at staging spectacular, exhilarating and unforgettable entertainment puts him in a class of his own.

Monday 5 March welcomes the Hamlet team to the Festival Forum stage. Director Neil Armfield AO, composer Brett Dean and Australian operatic soprano Cheryl Barker AO will share their experience of being involved in the operatic event of the year.

Now one of the world's most worlds' most in-demand directors, 33-year-old Olivier award-winning Australian and director of Thyestes Simon Stone takes to the stage on Tuesday 6 March to discuss the process of bringing Seneca's first century play into the 21st century. Stone has attracted both adulation and criticism for his unapologetically confronting and bold theatrical works while the power of his theatrical imagination continues to ensure an ever-growing legion of fans worldwide.

The state's arts and cultural future is under the spotlight on Wednesday 7 March as the Festival Forum stage is opened up to parliamentary representatives and candidates from the major political parties contesting the March 17 state election. This highly anticipated conversation, ten days ahead of the state election, will give candidates the opportunity to discuss their visions and policies for the arts in South Australia and audience members will have the chance to ask questions. Joining David Marr on stage will be: The Hon. Jay Weatherill, MP, Premier of South Australia and Minister for the Arts; The Hon. John Gardner, MP, Shadow Minister for the Arts; The Hon Tammy Franks, MLC, Australian Greens; The Hon. Kelly Vincent, MLC, Dignity Party; Hazel Wainwright, Candidate for Mawson; and Nick Xenophon, SA-Best.

Known for her showmanship and stellar live concerts, Kate Miller-Heidke will be centre stage on Thursday 8 March to discuss the Australian music industry and her career highlights, including her work on the recent musical adaptation of Muriel's Wedding and her Helpmann award-winning original opera The Rabbits. Defying genre and expectation at every turn, music-lovers cannot afford to miss the chance to get up close and personal with Kate Miller-Heidke ahead of her Adelaide Festival debut.

Dazzling Swedish mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie Von Otter, will join David Marr for Festival Forums on Friday 9 March. One of the finest singers of her generation with a wealth of recordings, numerous awards including two Grammy Awards and an enduring passion for all things musical, von Otter will regale guests with stories from her long and lauded career.

Stephen Page is the artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre. He's been at the forefront of Indigenous storytelling for nearly three decades, choreographing 28 major works for the company since it was established in 1989, including its most recent production Bennelong. A significant new narrative dance piece focussing on the life of one of Australia's most significant Aboriginal elders, the work has been acclaimed across Australia for its insights into first contact, sinuous choreographic language and powerful music and design. Dance and theatre fans can't afford to miss the opportunity to hear from one of the industry's greats on Tuesday 13 March.

Festival Forums welcomes the team from Spinifex Gum on Wednesday 14 March. Director Felix Riebl (of Cat Empire fame), choir director Lyn Williams and choreographer Deborah Brown will share their experience of collaborating with some of Australia's top voices as well as Marliya - a choir of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenage girls. Together they will discuss their collective experience of creating the work and its inspiration: the story of the painful injustices facing many Indigenous communities and their shared passion to ignite social change.

Akram Khan, arguably the greatest male dancer in the world, joins David Marr on stage on Thursday 15 March. He will discuss his newest work Xenos and its Australian premiere, and what it means to farewell his 30-year performance career as he retires from professional performance later in 2018.

Joint Artistic Directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield AO will again join David Marr on stage for the last of the Festival Forums on Friday 16 March to discuss everything you've always wanted to know about the 2018 Adelaide Festival and more.

The Palais is open to the general public free of charge from 2 March to 18 March 2018. For ticketed events and shows please check the guide for details.