Australia’s Adelaide Fringe Art Festival Gets Sexy After Dark

Cabaret, Drag, Strip Tease, and More from February 16 – March 17.

In 1960, Australia’s annual Adelaide Festival of Arts created something new, something that would allow smaller, local performers to display their talents. This something was the Adelaide Fringe. Intended to be a supplement to the South Australian capital’s celebration, the 2024 Fringe features more than 1,400 shows, and 6,000 artists, spread across 500 venues, lasts a full month, and is the second-largest annual arts festival. Only the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland is larger.

While the older festival specializes in refined cultural events featuring opera, theater, dance, literature, classical and modern music, art, and new media, the Fringe is more lowbrow. With cafes, pop-up wine bars, food trucks, and restaurants available for attendees to sample, street performers including magicians, clowns, and fire-breathers provide a hint of what can be found behind doors during the February 16 - March 17 festival. Some of the free and some of the pay-per-attendance shows are family-friendly, but others are for a decidedly more mature audience.

Featuring both Australian and international talent, this year’s Fringe has expanded beyond traditional fare to cater to gamers, foodies, film fans, wine lovers, and comedy fanciers, as well as honor the First Nations People, on whose land the festival is being held. When night falls, the Fringe gets fringier. And far less encumbered by clothing or modest speech.

“Infamous The Show” is an example. Appearing at the Fringe for the first time, whether it’s the Wheel of Death or the flying trapeze, its circus and comedy performances are not intended for those under the age of 18. There’s no need to leave the big top for drinks, either, because a liquor bar and a pop-up wine bar are both available. Offering not only saucy circus acts, “Matador” includes dance and burlesque while it explores serious topics including friendship, love, infidelity, heartbreak, sex, and passion.

Returning for another year, the 2020 winner of Best Circus at Adelaide Fringe promises to be subversive and sexy. Adult beverages are also available because, as SouthAustralia.com assures, it is a “circus for grownups.” Those who prefer to mix their pole dancing with bohemian poets can look forward to “Cabaret Desire,” in early March. Pushing the envelope between high and lowbrow entertainment is “Decadence & Debauchery,” a burlesque variety show that includes rarely seen fan dance and vintage striptease performances from underground artists alongside live music, comics, and more. Labeled R18+, Adelaide Fringe provides four content warnings about the show.

For those tired of rabbits being pulled from hats, the “Adults Only Magic Show” is available for their enjoyment. Familiar with festivals throughout the world, the two-time Fringe Best Magic Show award winner is filled with bawdy jokes, illusions, risky stunts, and nudity. Likewise, the decade-long Fringe regular “Limbo – the Return” warns that it is suitable for only mature audiences.

Offering an entirely different kind of raunch is Jens Radda’s multiple award-nominated drag cabaret, “Skank Sinatra.” While the majority of entertainers serve up performances of interest to a general adult audience, Radda’s drag show is not the only offering with a queer appeal available during the month-long festival. “Leather Lungs: Shut Up and Sing” combines both drag and cabaret that spans four octaves, while “Anna Piper Scott: None of That Queer Stuff” stars a polyamorous ADHD trans lesbian who gets spicy about sex, love, friendships, crime shows, LSD, mass transit, and more. Promo assures that it is both “A queer show for straight people” and “A straight show for queer people,” offering a little something for everyone.

This year’s Fringe, which has sold more than one million tickets, doesn’t ignore the ladies. “Onlygrans” introduces Geri, a mature woman who finds her spark after she joins Tinder. “Midlife” focuses on one of the more confusing phases in a woman’s life. Cabaret performer Jodie Stubbs has appeared at the Fringe before but debuts this new show, during which she sings about familiar issues like body image, parenthood, and the yearning for eternal youth.

If, after all of the stripping and flipping, lighting things on fire and talking dirty, audiences feel like hooking up with another human being. There’s always the G-rated “Inflatable Church,” an interactive theatrical experience where weird and wonderful weddings take place. The Fringe website explains that up to 80 people can become a congregation and marry one another, although a single ticket allows up to four people to marry. With access to bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, accessories, and suits for grooms, there’s no need to worry about what to wear, either.

Those more inspired to combine business and pleasure can take in the newly introduced “So, You’re a Sex Worker, Now What?!,” a very adult storytelling event starring Vivienne Starr telling tales of her year in the flesh trade.