The Adelaide Cabaret Festival has announced an all-star line-up of Artistic Directors (that’s right, there’s more than one!) and The 2023 Variety Gala on sale, as Adelaide Festival Centre celebrates turning 50 next year.
The Cabaret Collective, featuring previous artistic directors – Julia Holt, David Campbell and Lisa Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Julia Zemiro, Alan Cumming and Tina Arena – will each play a role in next year’s festival by curating or performing shows from their cabaret genres (or both) for Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s stellar 2023 program.
To kick it off, the festival’s favourite red-carpet Variety Gala returns with a very special reunion and appearances by iconic artists Kate Ceberano, David Campbell, Eddie Perfect, Julia Zemiro, Ali McGregor and many more at the Festival Theatre on Friday 9 June.
As Adelaide Festival Centre gets set to celebrate its 50th Anniversary in June, this one night only spectacle will be full of surprises and more cabaret revelry, glittering glamour, and star power than ever before.
“Working at Adelaide Cabaret Festival has been a career highlight for us both, and to be asked back to be part of the Cabaret Collective is an honour. We cannot wait to work alongside the other incredible Artistic Directors – to create the most exciting programme so far!” said David and Lisa Campbell.
“My tenure as Artistic Director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival for three years was such a joy and such a gift and I learned so much about my craft and audiences,” said Kate Ceberano.
“We’re going to bring everyone to the campfire in 2023 and all your hosts who have been there over the years will be there again to point you towards your memories of the festival,” said Ceberano.
“I first performed at Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2003 and fell in love with this notion of a festival that not only celebrates cabaret but allows people to connect with artists from so many different genres,” said Eddie Perfect.
“There’s nothing like it in Australia. It’s a bold experiment having so many of us coming back but I’m all in for an experiment.”
“It’s a great way to explore cabaret, look back at what’s been done in the past but also look forward together,” said Perfect.
“Adelaide Cabaret Festival feels like home to me, to return for the first time since 2018 to celebrate the incredible 50 year legacy of Adelaide Festival Centre feels very special indeed,” said Ali McGregor.
“Cabaret is the most egalitarian of all art forms, it can be anything you want it to be and can tell a multitude of stories.”
“I can’t wait to join Adelaide audiences to enjoy a line up brought together by this supergroup of Artistic Directors,” said McGregor.
“Adelaide Cabaret Festival features some of the best performances you’ll see, so many different stories and genres from drama, comedy and dance,” said Julia Zemiro.
“I’m looking forward to being back in that atmosphere and seeing past Artistic Directors coming together and celebrate Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th Anniversary at the gala night,” said Zemiro.
“Right from the very first Festival in 2001, we could sense, almost touch, an artistic wave of incredible energy, enthusiasm and expertise that is the contemporary artform of cabaret,” said Julia Holt.
“It is an absolute honour and personal delight to be in such stellar company with the fellow Artistic Directors as the Cabaret Collective to, again, celebrate in Adelaide, the artists and audiences who enrich our lives, connect our shared humanity and make the party swing,” said Holt.
“I am delighted to be welcoming back to Adelaide the stellar line-up of previous Artistic Directors of our much-loved Adelaide Cabaret Festival to curate the 2023 program,” said The Hon Andrea Michaels MP, Minister for Arts.
“This is just one of the ways the wonderful Adelaide Festival Centre, a national arts icon, will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2023.”
“Under the visionary ambition of Premier Don Dunstan, in 1973, Adelaide Festival Centre first put us on the map as a city where arts and culture flourish.”
“As the first capital city arts centre to open in Australia, I am proud to be celebrating this significant milestone,” Minister Michaels.
“Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s star has never shone more brightly than with the announcement of our very special Cabaret Collective line up,” said Adelaide Cabaret Festival Executive Producer Alex Sinclair.
“These incredible artists have all shaped Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s legacy and to be celebrating Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th Birthday with them all will make it one heck of a party,” said Sinclair.
Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become Australia’s major winter festival and the largest cabaret festival in the world.
The festival has been a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim and featured world-renowned artists including Ms Lisa Fischer, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Dita Von Teese and Patti LuPone to name a few.
The 2023 Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2023 opens on Friday 9 June and runs until Saturday 24 June. Tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au for details.
Images: Julia Holt – photo by Claudio Raschella | David Campbell – photo by Claudio Raschella | Lisa Campbell – photo by Claudio Raschella | Kate Ceberano – photo by Claudio Raschella | Eddie Perfect – photo by Claudio Raschella | Ali McGregor – photo by Claudio Raschella | Julia Zemiro – photo by Claudio Raschella | Alan Cumming – photo by Josh Going | Tina Arena – photo by Bernard Gueit