by Carla Caruso

The Adelaide Park Lands have been buzzing with life during the Fringe festival, but it’s not the occasion to wear your best shoes.

Foot traffic and extreme heat have turned Park Lands Fringe sites – such as The Garden of Unearthly Delights in Rundle Park / Kadlitpina (Park 13) and Gluttony in Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (Park 14) – dusty and brown, rather than green.

Adelaide had no recordable rain in February and it’s set to be a hot, dry autumn. 

At Fringe venue hub Gluttony, there’s usually a picturesque water outlook to provide some relief. However, patrons are even out of luck here this year as Rymill Park’s artificial lake has been fenced off while it undergoes improvements.

One festival-goer, Natalie Frances, said to us: “As much as I enjoy The Garden, it’s such a shame that the lawns are barren and ever so dry. It’ll be interesting to see how it’s reinstated after the event.”

We reached out to a Fringe representative, who assured us that remediating the site is, of course, required post-event, as per this Adelaide City Council site.

As the website says: “To care for the Park Lands, the City of Adelaide will hold site meetings before and after, where required [with the event organiser], to agree upon the condition of the site and return it to [its] original state. This will include quoting for remediation works to be paid by the event organiser.”

During an event, the organiser also must “undertake practices that limit the amount of damage” to the location, such as minimising vehicle access on the Park Lands, undertaking ‘bump in’ and ‘bump out’ with the least possible disruption to the local environment, minimising waste and litter, and using recycled water where available.

For parks like Rundle Park / Kadlitpina (Park 13), the site says: “Due to the heavy nature of event use from October to March, [it] will be allocated rest periods … from April to October to recover where possible.”

WOMADelaide will add to the festival frenzy, being held at Botanic Park / Tainmuntilla (Park 11) from March 8-11. Maximum temperatures are predicted to range from 37C to 40C over the four days. 

Meanwhile, in other festival news, some have expressed concern about using Rundle Mall as a cut-through between the Park Lands Fringe sites at night.

Attendees are said to have felt unsafe going from The Garden or Gluttony to hubs at Light Square / Wauwi and Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga, via the mall, due to intoxicated individuals loitering there.

The atmosphere at the mall in the evening is vastly different to the buzz at the nearby festival sites. 

Fringe-goer and reviewer Sam Bond said: “It’s great to see the city alive during festival season, but with so much on, people do use the mall as a shortcut between venues.

“There’s no visible security presence and it’s quite daunting to walk the mall at night, especially for women. Enhanced and visible security would make everyone feel safer.”

A spokeswoman for the Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) — a subsidiary of the Adelaide City Council — said that the council provides security officers at the mall as a deterrent to crime and to enhance public safety only during core trading hours.

“Rundle Mall’s security services are primarily allocated during regular trading hours, aligning with peak pedestrian traffic periods when retailers are open.

“Consequently, security coverage typically concludes by 6.15pm during weeknights, except Fridays when security finishes at 9.30pm.

“AEDA is represented during SAPOL Business Watch meetings where incidents or feedback can be raised.

“In July 2023, Rundle Mall was put on a trial as a Declared Public Precinct, which has been extended into this year [and] seeks to enhance SAPOL powers in Rundle Mall.” (Read more here: https://www.indaily.com.au/news/2023/07/12/extra-police-powers-zone-grows-four-times-in-size.)

The Adelaide Fringe festival will wind up on Sunday, March 17.

The main photo (top) was taken by Carla Caruso at The Garden of Unearthly Delights in Park 13.