Event: Australia - Adelaide

Adelaide Fringe

When:	27 Feb - 22 Mar 2009 (annual)
Where:	Adelaide
Costs:	Various
Opening Hours:	Various

The Adelaide Fringe is one of the world's biggest and most vibrant arts festivals, attracting many of the finest independent artists from Australia and all over the globe.

The city is overrun by performers of every kind, and the programming policy is non-exclusive, so all are welcome to register, with diversity and surprises guaranteed. Every available space around the city is utilised, so expect to see shows in churches, on street corners, in car parks, restaurants, shop fronts, warehouses and many more unsuspecting urban arenas.

Even if you don't want to buy tickets or set foot inside, there's still a lot of free entertainment on the streets (or you could always make a few dollars yourself...). Performers have to register (applications close in early October before each Fringe) and the Fringe itself produces a number of events, masterminded by current director Christie Anthoney.

The festival evolved in the early 1970s as a reaction against the establishment and the then-mainstream Adelaide Festival. Rivalled in size only by Edinburgh, the fringe programme generates massive enthusiasm - in recent years, audience figures have exceeded 850,000.

Today the two events are inextricably linked and together create an atmosphere of incredible excitement across the city. Fresh ideas, imagination, risk, spontaneity and fun have come to be de rigueur during an event which umbrellas a diverse range of work across the genres of theatre, dance, circus, physical theatre, comedy, visual art, film and music.

The full programme is released only some six weeks before festivities begin - please visit the festival website for full details.