With the majority of the performances on its programme imported and many of them famous titles, the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts clearly deserves its billing as an international multi-arts festival. But this year, organizers made sure that this biannual event was not simply a sealed-off showcase of what’s going on around the world. Local artists got in on the action, interacting with current trends from abroad to ensure that the audience feels the benefits long after the festival has left town.

A large temporary stage was erected at one end of the Town Hall’s Auditorium for a one-evening only appearance by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO). At the beginning of this 80-minute contemporary classical music concert, young American conductor Jonathan Stockhammer spent five minutes explaining the highlights of the first work on the programme, Thomas Aides’s 1993 composition “Living Toys”. This turned what could have been a forbiddingly highbrow experience into an accessible event. Not many in the audience were familiar with this highly imaginative and richly layered musical interpretation of a boy’s battle-filled dreams, but all seemed to enjoy it.

There followed a musical journey the ASO had specially designed for the festival. We were led through Elena Kats-Chernin’s “Zoom and Zip”, a 1997 composition for strings that draws on childhood memory of Russia, then Osvaldo Golijov’s “Last Round”, a 1996 tribute to the late Tango composer Astor Piazzola, in which two string quartets faced off like two Tango dancers. For a finale there was Matthew Hindson’s up-tempo “Comin’ Right Atcha” (2002), inspired by the funk of James Brown.  

Twenty minutes by taxi from the city center is the studio of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), a contemporary dance company whose original works have attracted internationally acclaim. Its latest, “G”, a modern reworking of the popular ballet “Giselle”, was being warmly welcomed by full-house audiences.