Adelaide Fringe

The Unearthly Delights of Adelaide’s Fringe Festival

Garden of Unearthly Delights

By Daniel Davis

Walking down Rundle Street at last years Fringe Festival opening was like walking through a microcosm of Australian society.

There were teenage boys performing the not so subtle art of street seduction on unsuspecting female victims.

There were the older, more refined couples gazing with cultured eyes at the ongoing festivities.

There were the arty types with tattooed arms and pierced nostrils watching the unearthly performers or performing some unearthly act themselves.

There were the older, overweight bearded men enjoying a few not-so-quiet beverages outside the crowded, sweaty Exeter pub.

There were families looking slightly bewildered as they tried to navigate the throngs of people without losing sight of each other.

There were the cool indie kids with their impeccable fashion spitting out witty quips to passing strangers like “the 80’s called and they want their clothes back”.

It’s pretty safe to say that every wonderful facet of our culture was on show that night, from the very mainstream to the very underground.

Amazingly, I had witnessed all of this before even laying eyes on an actual Fringe performer.

That’s the beautiful thing about Adelaide’s Fringe Festival.

Not only does it attract an array of performers with varying degrees of talent, it attracts an array of colourful people with varying degrees of normalcy.

At that moment, everyone is submerged in the excitement surrounding an event that has only one goal in mind, to entertain, and is there anything nobler on God’s green earth than that?

You can choose to pay a bit of money and see a local or international show; you can sit on the grass and watch a street performer put a cricket stump up his nostril for one of your gold coins, or you can simply find a nice comfortable spot, with a nice cold beverage, and watch the people go by.

At no other time this year will you see more people snort with uncontrollable laughter, or gaze with wide eyed wonder as performers from around the world go to great lengths to make sure you’re having a lovely time.

So, if you’re looking for something to do one night for the next few weeks, head down to the Garden of Unearthly Delights and join in the universal act of being entertained.

If laughter is the best medicine, then Adelaide will be a healthier and happier state after the Fringe Festival has come to town.

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