This weekend is your last chance to venture into the Dark Heart of the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and also to see Opera SA’s co-production of Verdi’s love-gone-wrong opera La Traviata. Other happenings include a Foodie’s Weekend at Port Adelaide, the Spanish Film Festival, and State Theatre of SA’s Neighbourhood Watch.

Port Adelaide Foodie’s Weekend

More than 30 food trucks will converge onHart’s Mill at Port Adelaide from midday until 9pm on Saturday (May 10) as Fork on the Road joins in the Foodie’s Weekend organised by Renewal SA to celebrate the opening of a new fresh food and farmers’ market on the waterfront. There will also be live music, with the Hart’s Mill reanimated architectural projection show presented by Illuminart from sunset. The first Wild at Hart fresh food market will be on from 9am-1pm on Sunday, with vendor tastings, a cooking demo by chef Callum Hann, and live music.

Spanish Film Festival

This smorgasbord of Spanish film at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas offers a varied line-up including “emotional road-trips, spirited comedies, swindle rom-coms, suspenseful thrillers, stylish dramas, and high-octane action rides”. It’s in Adelaide until May 21, with this weekend’s screenings including the award-winning Living is Easy with Eyes Wide Closed (read InDaily review here), comedy-dramas The Amazing Catfish and Tasting Menu, and heist thriller Combustion.

Ella Hooper at Jive

The former Killing Heidi lead singer and team captain on the new Spicks & Specks is touring nationally to celebrate her single “Low High”. Hooper is playing an 18+ gig at Adelaide’s Jive tonight (May 9), where audiences will hear material from her forthcoming debut solo album In Tongues, described as“a collection of intimate tales that encompasses themes of metamorphosis, obsession and black humour”.

Ah Xian Evolutionariaura: Turquoise – 1, 2011-2013, bronze and turquoise, 54.0 x 43.0 x 29.5cm courtesy the artist

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

This weekend is your last chance to see Dark Heart, the Art Gallery of SA’s 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. It features cutting-edge works by 28 contemporary Australian artists and collectives, including photography, painting, sculpture, installation and the moving image. Gallery director and Dark Heart curator Nick Mitzevich will reflect on his vision for the exhibition, and the importance of the Biennial for the gallery and the Australian contemporary art scene, in a free talk at 1pm on Saturday inGallery 24.

La Traviata

Saturday night marks the final performance of this co-production of Verdi’s love-gone-wrong opera at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre. And you don’t need to be an opera buff to appreciate the State Opera SA, OperaQ and NZ Opera co-production, which InDaily reviewer Steve Evans describes as “a lusty and beautifully engineered story”.

Neighbourhood Watch

The wonderful Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter, Dickens’ Women) stars in this “odd couple” tale penned by Australian playwright Lally Katz and being presented in Adelaide by the State Theatre Company of SA. The story centres on the surprising friendship between a young woman and her neighbour Ana, an 80-year-old Hungarian-Australian widow played by Margolyes. Neighbourhood Watch is playing at the Dunstan Playhouse until May 24 – and it’s one you won’t want to miss. Read InDaily’s review here.

About Time: SA’s History Festival

Running throughout May, the History Festival comprises some 470 events, including self-guided walking tours, “bar yarns”, film screenings, cemetery walks, exhibitions, tours, open houses and more.  The full program is on the About Time website.

Saltwater SurfArtFest

Based in and around the towns of Middleton, Port Elliot and Goolwa, the Saltwater SurfArtFest runs from May 8-11 and features a three-day surf film festival, surf fashion, live music, commissioned artworks, market stalls, kite-making, storytelling, photography, Ngarrindjeri cultural activities, and exhibitions. The festival also includes Contemperate, a new sculpture trail from Middleton Point to Basham’s Regional Park. The full program can be downloaded here.

Death in Bowengabbie

There’s plenty of dark humour in this one-man play by Adelaide’s Caleb Lewis, which sees a young man drawn back to his home of Bowengabbie after his aunt chokes to death on a melon ball. There are more funerals to come in the “dying” town – but also a love interest, when Oscar encounters an old flame. Death in Bowengabbie (right) is an engrossing, sharp piece of theatre, says InDaily’s reviewer. And it’s at the Bakehouse Theatre until May 10.

Elysium Ensemble at Elder Hall

Part of the Elder Perspectives series, this concert will see the Elysium Ensemble’s Greg Dikmans (flute) and Lucinda Moon (violin) joined by Adelaide-based cellist Hilary Kleinig in a performance of Haydn’s six Divertimenti. The performance begins at 3pm on Sunday at Elder Hall.

Round She Goes Market

If you’re still looking for a last-minute Mother’s Day gift, this fashion market from 10am to 3pm on Saturday at the German Club Hall in Flinders Street might just save the day. Round She Goes will have 50 stalls selling pre-loved designer clothing, as well as handmade jewellery and accessories from Adelaide designers such as YellowBird, Alliecat Design Studio, PetalBerri, Auntie Herb, and WinkelKo.

Romeo and Juliet

This University of Adelaide Theatre Guild production is a “charming, intoxicating and enormously satisfying replication” of Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-cross’d lovers, says InDaily’s reviewer. It’s playing at the Little Theatre, The Cloisters, University of Adelaide, until May 17.

Shaun Gladwell: Afghanistan

Employed in 2009 as official war artist for the Australian War Memorial, Shaun Gladwell travelled through Afghanistan and the Middle East with the Australian Defence Force. This exhibition, at the Samstag Museum of Art until July 18, features what he describes as “experimental portraits” focusing on the interaction of a human presence in a hostile and severe environment. The museum is also presenting Gladwell’s Field Recordings installation which reflects his experience in recording the reality of war (until May 16).

On screen

See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:

Healing
Bad Neighbours
Belle
Fading Gigolo
Spanish Film Festival: Living is Easy with Eyes Closed
52 Tuesdays
The Other Woman
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Invisible Woman
Like Father, Like Son
Any Day Now
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Noah
Half of a Yellow Sun