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Adelaide Festival 2000 Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders): I move: That this House congratulates organisers of the Telstra 2000 Adelaide Festival for their initiative in establishing the Regional Festival Program in conjunction with the Country Arts Trust SA, Australian Major Events and the Australia Council, and applauds the success of the program in attracting tourists and media attention to regional South Australia and in expanding the reach of the Festival to country areas. The Adelaide Festival has a long history within the City of Adelaide and is known internationally for its excellence and for its courage in breaking new ground. However, the country often misses out on many things that are available in the metropolitan area, and the Festival has been one of them. This year, however, the Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000 for the first time included a component that went beyond the city limits. Country Arts SA worked with Festival staff and regional communities to create a truly exciting and innovative regional program. Country Arts SA Chief Executive Officer Ken Lloyd said that his organisation was thrilled to be part of this inaugural program that complemented locally driven celebrations with Festival acts and Gay Bilson’s feasts. He said that the Festival recognised that each community had its own distinct identity and each brings a local perspective to an international event. The ideal program was considered to be one where no-one in South Australia would need to drive more than half a day to experience a taste of the festival. To make the program even more accessible to regional South Australia, most of the events were free. I commend the Hon. Diana Laidlaw MLC (Minister for the Arts) and the Adelaide Festival Director Robyn Archer for devising a way in which to include regional South Australia in the Festival. I believe that this exciting concept of a regional component will grow in future years to become an internationally accepted part of the Festival, something that once again shows the innovation for which South Australians are noted and which sets our state apart from the rest. The Plenty Festival, staged at Penneshaw, Streaky Bay, Burra and Beachport showcased the excellence and variety of food and entertainment that we in this state enjoy as a matter of course. At the 1998 Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Gay Bilson created and directed the closing event, Loaves and Fishes, a communal feeding of 2000 performed on the banks of the River Torrens, which included theatre, music and performance. For the Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000, Gay was invited to celebrate regional South Australia’s beauty, vibrant community and unique produce and producers in the event entitled Plenty. At each regional location Gay prepared a special meal using produce that reflected the culture of the region. The feedings at each location were accompanied by a big name Festival act: Texicali Rose at Penneshaw; the HaBiBis at Streaky Bay; Fanfare Ciocalia at Burra; and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at Beachport. Gay is a renowned chef and was a restaurateur in Sydney for 25 years: she now lives on the Fleurieu Peninsula, concentrating on writing about food and directing and creating art events such as Plenty that include food. The food that Gay prepared for the Plenty events was served in bowls made especially for each event. Bowls were produced for each event by artists who live within the region, and were sold for $5 each. Gay was assisted by local volunteers in the preparation, cooking and serving of the food. The food that Gay and her army of volunteers prepared was cooked on barbecues made especially for the Plenty events by Dion Gilmore, a Streaky Bay boilermaker and welder, who was commissioned to make 16 barbecues from 44-gallon drums. Dion said that he applied for a tender to make the barbecues and that it was his wife Ursula who suggested he cut the top off the 44-gallon drums to have the barbecues stand upright, rather than cutting them in half lengthwise. Ursula Gilmore added a design feature to the barbecues by drilling images of sea creatures around the perimeter of the drums. When the barbecues were filled with burning coals, images of sea life glowed from within. The local steering committee at Streaky Bay comprised Louise Leonard, Sam Smale, Greg Schrieber, Gemma Kelsh, Tom McArthur, Patrick Cotton, Paul Carey, Donna Vigar, Sara Williams, Jo Ellis, Sam Bowes-Smith, Tracey McEvoy, Robyn Greenwood, Alex Reid, Sean Carey, Betty Jenkins, Pat Phillip-Harbutt, Rex Menzel, Mary McCormack, Tamara Schmucker, John Wharff, David Lane, Robyn Clark, John Brace and Peter Jans. The Arts Up Studio painted 60 rubbish bins with brightly coloured murals for the event. As a direct result of the Festival coming to Streaky Bay, the Streaky Bay District Council undertook some major infrastructure works that will benefit the community and visitors long past the conclusion of the Festival. These included permanent shade structures over the jetty platform and along the foreshore. Gemma Kelsh said that due to Streaky Bay’s distance the district usually missed out on things like the Plenty but it was fantastic, not only to experience it, but also to be part of it. She organised 30 volunteers to assist with cooking; also, 13 TAFE students from Port Lincoln’s Spencer Institute of TAFE and their lecturer, Kumar Deut came to Streaky Bay. Streaky Bay artist Di Turner produced 1 500 hand-thrown glazed ceramic bowls for the Streaky Bay event. She designed the bowls in conjunction with Gay Bilson. Di is heavily involved in community projects around the region, and has worked on a number of bas-relief murals, including ‘Our story, our pride’ at Port Augusta. The Burra steering committee members were Janelle Cousins, Peter Harvey, Glynne Ryan, Tony Thorogood, Sue Ryan, Kate Jenkins, Daphne Lines and Helen Cleland, supported by the whole of the community. Local restaurateur, Glynne Ryan, of Ryan’s Deer Farm, used his network of contacts to locate 10 chefs and 10 assistants for the event. The Burra bowls were made by artists Kathy Alty and Jill Foster. They designed the terracotta bowls with a black slip stroke decoration, again in consultation with Gay Bilson. Bruno Gentile, from Caffe Belgiorno, of Mount Gambier, said it was an honour to work closely with Gay Bilson. He said it was rare for people with a passion for the food industry to work together on such a high calibre project and it was ‘a buzz’. The Beachport bowl artist, Trevor Pitt, produced hand-thrown glazed ceramic bowls using a glaze he developed from rocks found in the Mount Gambier area. Each of
the Plenty events included a street parade and participation by school
children. Other Adelaide Festival productions taken to country South
Australia were Ochre and Dust staged in Port Augusta; Essential Truths in
Port Pirie, Goolwa and Arkaba Woolshed in the Flinders Ranges; Imma Putitja
2000 at Umawa creek bed in the Ernabella Ranges; On the Road at Murray
Bridge, Point Pearce, Port Lincoln and Coober Pedy; Jimmy Little and the
Stetsons at Beltana; haBibis at the Riverland Greek festival at Renmark; The
Eye at Keith and Loxton; and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at Tanunda—truly
a great variety of shows and talents. What a coup for South Australia to
develop this exciting concept of a regional component for the Adelaide
Festival of Arts. The tourism potential for overseas visitors to include
some of the regional program in their visit is enormous. I commend the
regional festival program developed in conjunction with the Telstra 2000
Adelaide Festival, and I have much pleasure in moving the motion. |
E-mail address:
flinders.portlincoln@parliament.sa.gov.au
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