Illuminate Adelaide Enters Its Final Week With Electronic Dance Parties And Lazers In A Rainforest

In a city where festivals flourish, Illuminate Adelaide shines bright. The celebration of art, light, music and technology has returned for its fifth edition, with more kaleidoscopic installations, late-night gigs set to trippy projections and a new program of dining events. 

As is customary, kids and their folks are packing the city's pavements and playing under whimsical lights, while electronic heads are venturing underground for high-energy dance parties in shipping containers and community arts spaces.

Image Credit: KerrieGeier | Unsound

This year’s program is its most varied; from the return of the free City Lights scattered throughout the city and Night Visions at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens to a performance from electronic duo Kiasmos and an intimate party at dive bar Ancient World.

Excitingly, this year Illuminate Adelaide brings its suite of sensory experiences into new territory: taste, with some of Adelaide's best hospo joints getting in on the action.

Unsound Adelaide

Unsound Adelaide, the festival’s experimental music program, brings its signature dose of off-beat gigs, avant-garde performance art and club music to a host of interesting venues over two nights. Running from 11-12 July, the program's highlights include a performance from aya—a hyper-dub, post-hardcore, electric act from the UK at Lion Arts Factory and, of course, founding member of the Velvet Underground, John Cale, at Hindley Street Music Hall. 

This year, Unsound has teamed up with artist-run gig venue Ancient World for the Unsound Closing Party, which features international and local DJs. 

Image Credit: Samuel Graves Photography| Unsound

Supersonic

As always, there'll be a heap of cracking gigs around the city during the festival. Rediscover your party stamina for Supersonic, a new event that runs for 12 hours straight at some of the West End's hottest venues—think Ancient World, The Lab and Lion Arts Factory. If you're not up for a big one but still love music, binge-watch hours of music docos on the big screen at Mercury Cinema.

Adelaide local Motez will be curating techno at the Lion Arts Factory (read his recommendations for what else to do in Adelaide here), which should be a goodie. Electronic duo Kiasmos will return to Australia after eight years to play a show for one night only on 18 July. Tickets are still available. 

Night Visions

A real festival highlight, Night Visions takes over the Adelaide Botanic Gardens again with six mesmerising works. The popular program draws a diverse crowd, with prams parked alongside couples out for the night to lose themselves in the projections. This year's highlights include the projected faces of First Nations artists and leaders onto bushes that bristle with the wind. Set to an ethereal soundscape, this reflective work has already been a crowd pleaser. Inside the Bicentennial Conservatory, legend Robin Fox illuminates the rainforest with red and green lasers that dance around the canopy. 

Image Credit: Tyr Liang | Xplorer Studio

Illuminate Adelaide Dining Program

Outside of the city, Chalk Hill Wines Sensory Odyssey Experience is a wine tasting in McLaren Vale that pairs sips with a musical soundtrack. If you’re keen to learn more about wine, this is a pretty unique way to do it.

Illuminate Hosts will get you in the doors of the city’s best restaurants and bars—including sophisticated French restaurant Garcon Bleu, East End Cellars, and festival favourite rooftop 2KW. Expect one-off menu items, more festival-first dining experiences, and a chance to party with locals and rub shoulders with visiting artists. 

The beating heart of Adelaide's local food scene, the Adelaide Central Market, will turn technicolour day and night this year. There'll be roaming illuminated angels, and of course, top-notch food from over 70 vendors. Make sure you go to SiSea for a pre-festival oyster and cocktail.  

Head to the Illuminate Adelaide website for the full festival lineup. 

Image credits: Supplied