Adelaide boasts that its Fringe Festival is the second largest in the world (Edinburgh is first.) But more importantly it’s “The Biggest in the Southern Hemisphere.” Which is code for “Bigger than Sydney’s” and we landed in the middle of it.
There are festival venues along the Rundle Mall and in almost every theater in the city, but “action central” is in the parks to the east of Rundle Mall. There are temporary pavilions, booths, carnival rides, outdoor stages, circus tents, beer tents, and porta loos. During the day the place is kid oriented with circus acts, juggling, improv-theater, music and comedy that in the evening become considerably more adult. Some shows are free — some cost money. Barkers and touts try to draw in audiences through a combination of salesmanship and silliness. For friends who have been to Winnipeg it’s like a hundred Al Simmons have been unleashed on the city.
We went to one tent show called “Able Mabel.” Her shtick was doing a bad magic show very well. Everyone knew how she did most of the tricks and that was the joke. She picked a little girl, Lily, out of the audience, and told us she would make Lily disappear. She held up a hoop with a skirt and Lily got under it. She dropped the hoop a bit to show that Lily was still there, then she moved toward the back curtain and, with her head, motioned to Lily that she should scoot under the skirt and behind the curtain, all the time keeping up a funny patter. It took a while for Lily to catch on but finally she got it, Mabel dropped the hoop and Lily was gone (everyone gasp.) Then she held up the hoop again and Lily scooted out from behind the curtain hidden by the skirts. Mabel took some steps forward dropped the hoop and there was Lily. Everyone cheered, Lily beamed and took a bow. She had a big smile because she teamed up with Mabel and put one over on the grownups. I was charmed.
For me, though, was the flash mob. The ticket said “Meet at the Mall’s Balls.” DJ Guru Dudu and his assistant Karen handed out headphones. We heard music through the phones and Dudu gave us instructions. We started with a few basic disco steps. Then he asked each of us to do a move and the others to copy it. One teenager did a back flip. No one followed. Then we were off down the Rundle Mall with detours, like singing and dancing through cafes and shops. We picked up a number of people along the way. Karen gave them headphones. One was a toddler in diapers, with headphones, dancing away down the mall while drinking from his bottle. Another was a young mom with her toddler on her hip. People waved, cheered, got up and danced a little. We made people happy.
Well, most people. We lined up along both sides of the entrance to a park and sang Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, DuDu lining out the words, call and response, one side to the other
Galileo…………………………………………………………………Galileo
People laughed and sang along, all except one of the barkers who came over with his megaphone. “You can’t do this, stop, this is not good.” The crowd disagreed, they loved it, so he paused and said “Yes … this song is good but not the next one.” Bohemian Rhapsody is a terrible earworm to get rid of.
We had scheduled to start at 6:30 and run to 7:20. At 8 we were still going but I was getting tired and I think this is not exactly Suzi’s flavor. I don’t think she is completely comfortable waltzing (literally) through a café (to Moon River.) Se we handed our phones to Karen “no worries, have fun” and headed off, because we had one more thing to do before grabbing the last train at 9:12 PM that would get us back to the ship for a 10:30 “all aboard.” We walked to the North Terrace for the Parade of Light. Every festival day ends with the parade from 8:30 until midnight. The Government and University buildings have animated art projections tailored for each building. We parade down the terrace looking at them. At the end was the masterpiece. They created an artificial cloud with mist, and with lasers tried to recreate the Aurora over Adelaide. It was stunning, not like any aurora I have seen, but stunning nonetheless. It was like a very bright blue (not green) aurora seen through clouds.
Hi rich and Suzi from the great white north of Manitoba! Love, love, love your writings and your PICS! Wow. It really makes me want to get on board and tag along with you just to see your perspective on the shots you take.
On another note, Al Simmons lives outside of Winnipeg. A building where he stores all his props etc were burned in a fire and not much if anything could be saved. There is a rally in the Province to try to find items to donate back to him. But it really will not be the same. I hope he can come back from this.
Have a great time and maybe sometime in the future we can physically meet. We have been to Alaska and NWT twice, actually hubby did a disaster canoe trip before we were married and swamped at Five Finger Rapids north of Whitehorse. So that makes it three for him. That alone is a story of survival. But we have done the interior but would now like to do the water side. Still looking for cruises that are more then 7 days. That is way to short to see everything properly. Even looked at the ferries. Any ideas?
Thank you for the update on Al Simmons. There is a “Go Fund Me” page for him started by Heather Bishop at
https://www.gofundme.com/al-simmons
As far as Alaska is concerned I like the ferry but if you want something else you can check Holland America which has two week cruises or you could use one of the small ships that base out of Sitka or Juneau. They are 1 to 2 weeks but you spend all of your time in Alaksa not getting to and from on the ship and they call at small ports. Alaska Dream Cruises are run by a Sitka Native Alaskan Family and are top notch. They also give a lot back to the cummunity. https://www.alaskandreamcruises.com/ There is also The Boat Company, National Geographic and Uncruises. If you want more info we can talk at WPG this summer or send me an email rich at mcclear dot org. Email works better given my limited connectivity.