$400 million needed for Adelaide Festival Centre upgrade

According to an article in South Australian newspaper Adelaide Now, the Adelaide Festival centre is set to undergo a $400 million upgrade.

It is understood that private investors will be invited to help fund the upgrade, which is set to take up to a decade to complete.

The iconic Adelaide Festival Centre was built 40 years ago, and while it was once the first port of call for large musical productions, including the Australian Premiere of Evita in 1980, the ‘theatre capitals’ of Australia are now largely considered to be Melbourne and Sydney.

Adelaide Now reports that the Festival Centre’s upgrade proposal estimates more than four times the amount of patrons will attend shows if an overhaul is completed. It also cautions that “shows increasingly will not come and audiences will decline” if the critical upgrade does not take place.

“This infrastructure is necessary both for the AFC to retain its place as one of the Asia Pacific region’s premier performing arts and entertainment facilities and for the Riverbank Precinct to become a fully integrated and iconic public space,” Douglas Gautier, the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Chief Executive told Adelaide Now. 

“It is more than just moving people in and out – it is about giving them great reasons to stay within it.”

The upgrade proposal includes a new 350 seat theatrette/cinema to be added to the Dunstan Playhouse complex, new rehearsal spaces throughout the centre, new foyers, a four level 1360 space car park facility, and a revamped Plaza (modelled on Sydney’s Opera House forecourt and Melbourne’s Federation Square).

View the visual proposal below: