Whoever said Adelaide is a sleepy city clearly has not visited in March!!! So many is happening with the Fringe; Adelaide Writer’s Week and the Adelaide Festival running simultaneously so we really are spoilt for choice.

Whilst I never quite get to as many shows as I want to I still had a wonderful festival time. The Fringe was truly alive and with my group of friends we managed to do two cameo appearances in Charmaine Jones and her Gospo Collective show Jackson v Jackson. What fun that is even though its just a few minutes of the highest energy show you might ever see we have a ball! I was so chuffed to read the rave reviews and that it was voted popular choice for the whole Fringe Festival program.

I only managed one session at Writers Week; Marcus Zusak with his latest book Bridge of Clay that I had devoured over the January holiday. And what a session it was where Marcus was interviewed by Alice Pung….Then there was the music: the Magic Flute; the Russian Choir; Meryl Tankard’s ballet Two Feet; Grande Finale and the Adelaide Chamber Singers at the Cathedral late at night with Greta Bradman the guest soloist.

But that is not all; I had been asked to do

Adelaide Festival Long Lunch on the Monday of the long weekend; Quite a feat with 216 people to be fed on the pontoon by the side of the Torrens from a makeshift tent kitchen. What a whirlwind that was and how wonderful to work with Angus ‘Gus’ Love and his team who made it an absolute joy to ‘play’ in the kitchen and I think we only used 20 litres of my verjuice in the course of the day it appearing in so many of my dishes. However, icing on the cake was having Robyn Archer performing for the guests. I’ve followed her career for over 40 years and think she is amazing. Don’t think I wasn’t exhausted though from the effort but so so happy!

This is only a glance of whats on offer and sometimes it’s the unexpected pleasure as I visited the Ben Quilty Exhibition at the Art Gallery an impromptu pop up of James Wannen on Viola and Tom Rann on Cello playing under Ben’s painting of Margaret Olley…. What a delight..