April & May 2009

IRB Sevens World Series: Expect fast and furious action at this two-day rugby sevens tournament featuring 16 international teams. (April 4 - 5, Adelaide Oval)

Come Out Festival: Australia’s largest youth arts festival features a range of cultural events including theatre, circus, dance, music, visual arts and cultural events. (May 18 - 30).

June 2009

Adelaide Cabaret Festival: Get ready for more comedy and avant-garde performances that will include solo shows, delightful divas and a variety of local, national and international artists. (June 5 - 20)

Making Nature: From Titian to Goldsworthy, Making Nature explores the way in which European artists since the Renaissance have represented the landscape according to different ideologies - the ideal, the sublime, the picturesque, the romantic and the realistic. (June 26 -September 6, Art Gallery of South Australia)

July 2009

Beethoven Festival: The internationally acclaimed Australian Youth Orchestra perform the composer’s work under the baton of conductor John Nelson. (July 7 -26)

Adelaide Festival of Ideas: This biennial festival consists of a series of debates on today’s most contentious issues. (July 9 - 12)

August 2009

South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA): Promoting and celebrating South Australia’s most talented visual artists, the SALA Festival incorporates a range of exhibitions and events. (August 9 - 23)

SS Admella Anniversary: August 6 marks the 150th anniversary of the wreck of the SS Admella and the date will be commemorated with a number of official events.

 

November & December 2008

Hans Heysen: This landmark exhibition will be the first major retrospective of Sir Hans Heysen’s work for more than 30 years. Renowned for his evocative watercolours of the Australian bush, this exhibition will include Heysen’s pivotal Flinders Ranges landscapes and 120 drawings, oils and watercolours. (November 14 -February 8, Art Gallery of South Australia)

Adelaide International Guitar Festival:  Finger-pickers, slide maestros and virtuosos from all genres offer a wide range of guitar music and performance. (November 29 - December 7)

Cricket: Test Series – Australia v New Zealand. (November 28 -December 2, Adelaide Oval)

January & February 2009

Schutzenfest: Come and enjoy the oompah music, dancing, cultural heritage displays and refreshments at this annual German festival. (January 9 - 10, Bonython Park)

Tour Down Under: This is the first cycling race outside Europe to be granted UCI Pro Tour status. Thousands of athletes will race around South Australia over a week to compete for the ochre leader’s jersey. (January 18 - 25) Adelaide

Film Festival: This annual event for cinema lovers gained international recognition in 2007 after being included in Variety’s Top 50 Film Festivals. Expect a range of dynamic and innovative productions spanning a mix of genres. (February 19 - March 1)

Adelaide Fringe: Staging fresh ideas, imagination, spontaneity and fun by artists from across the globe. (February 27 - March 22)

March 2009

The Golden Journey: Japanese Art from Australian Collections: This exhibition delves into the astonishingly rich heritage of Japanese art from prehistoric times until Japan opened its doors to the West. Some 300 works including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, lacquer ware and furniture, will celebrate the profound lyricism of Japanese aesthetics. (March 6 -June 7, Art Gallery of South Australia)

WoMADelaide: This annual outdoor festival of world music boasts six outdoor stages with performances, theatre programmes and intimate workshops by 35 groups from over 20 countries. (March 6 - 8, Botanic Park)

The Adelaide Cup: The highlight of South Australia’s racing calendar is sufficiently important to warrant its own public holiday (March 9) and promises to be one of Adelaide’s biggest social gatherings of the year.

Clipsal 500 Adelaide: Four days of V8 Supercar action, motor and air displays, parades, stunts and concerts. Last year the event attracted a mighty crowd of more than 290,000. (March 19 - 22)

September 2009

Royal Adelaide show: There’s something for everyone at the Adelaide Show including food and wine tastings, bands and dancing, comedy and acrobatic displays, exhibitions of handicraft and cookery demonstrations, fashion parades and a wide variety of livestock and pets. (September 4 - 12, Adelaide Showground)

Recognised as the world’s largest regularly-staged historic motoring event, over 1500 vintage vehicles will line up to participate in the Bay to Birdwood Run. (September 27)

OzAsia Festival: This is Australia’s only festival celebrating cultural exchanges with Asia. It will host a series of traditional events including the Moon Lantern Festival, a cultural symposium, theatre, dance, music and visual art.

October & November 2009

John Brack Retrospective: Melbourne painter John Brack was a perceptive chronicler of modern life. His paintings resonate with a sense of caustic realism and bittersweet humour that made him one of the acclaimed artists of his generation. Don’t miss this highly anticipated exhibition. (October 2 – January 31, Art Gallery of South Australia)

Australian Flute Festival: Some of the finest flautists in the world will perform in a series of repertoires, competitions and workshops. (October 3 - 5)

World Solar Challenge: Held once every two years, this 3021 km race from Darwin to Adelaide attracts teams from around the world to design and build cars to run using only sunlight as fuel. But winning the race isn’t the sole objective – the challenge also helps promote research on solar-powered cars. (October 25 - 31)

 

Oysterfest: The town of Ceduna hosts Australia’s largest oyster festival. The annual event, held over the October long weekend, offers three days and nights of live music, cultural activities and of course, delicious oysters whichever way you want them.


Panda Power: Adelaide Zoo has undergone a major renovation that included the construction of a home for two giant pandas, Wang Wang and Funi, who are on loan from China for 10 years as part of a joint research programme. The pandas survived the recent earthquake in Sichuan and are expected to arrive in late 2009.

December 2009

Held in a different State Capital City every 3 years, Pol-Art Adelaide 2009 is a national festival of Polish visual and performing arts with a view to promoting and encouraging participation in cultural activities inspired by Polish heritage. (December 27 - January 6).