Adelaide's beloved Festival Centre theatres to be refurbished

The Adelaide Festival Centre is set to have its theatre interiors updated, the latest in a series of works carried out at the 50-year-old venue and its surrounds.

The South Australian government has committed $35 million to interior theatre works, which will include the installation of new seating in all three threatres, new lighting in foyers and auditoriums and the refurbishment of stage flooring in the Dunstan Playhouse and the Space Theatre.

The plans follow the state government's announcement in January 2024 that the centre's Western Plaza would undergo a $35 million transformation designed by Cox Architecture. Other venue upgrades include the Adelaide Festival Centre building renewal by Hassell, and the redesign of Festival Plaza and Station Road by ARM Architecture, in collaboration with TCL and Aspect Studios.

The centre, originally designed by John Morphett of Hassell and Partners, first opened in June 1973. It was the first performing arts theatre to open in Australia, opening three months before the Sydney Opera House. The Adelaide Festival Centre was recently awarded the John Cheesman Award for Enduring Architecture at the 2023 Australian Institute of Architects' South Australian Chapter awards.

The venue, located on Kind William Road, attracts more than one million visitors to its theatres each year.

The combined upgrades to the interiors and the Western Plaza will necessitate the temporary closure of the Adelaide Festival centre's three theatres. The Dunstan Playhouse and the Space Theatre will close in July 2025, while the Festival Theatre will close in August 2025. Reopening is scheduled for early 2026. The Western Plaza works will also commence in 2025.