Adelaide Festival Smashes Records As 2017 Program Closes

With the state’s festival scene going from strength to strength, Adelaide Festival has rounded out its 2017 run by smashing a number of previous records.

With new artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy at the helm of this year’s massive line-up, the festival took in more than $4.08 million at the box office (an increase of more than $1.2 million from last year), breaking the previous record set in 1992 of $3.1 million.

The 20-day event took in acts across theatre, music, opera, dance, film and visual arts events with the introduction of festival hub Riverbank Palais, which played host to the likes of Kurt Vile, Hot 8 Brass Band and more.

It was the diverse line-up that saw attendance also rise, this year hitting 284,400 - a seven per cent increase on 2016 - kicked off in style with a free concert by Neil Finn to 14,900 punters.

“The 2017 Festival program has seamlessly intertwined old and new, juxtaposing tradition with innovation to both dazzle and inspire audiences to engage in robust discussion, conversations and the flow of ideas, and I look forward to what the next two years will bring,” said Adelaide Festival CEO Sandy Verschoor.