New artistic director Ruth Mackenzie and chief executive Kath M Mainland – who are presenting a 2023 program initiated by former artistic directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield – said local, interstate and international audiences have “wholly embraced” the event.

“We are thrilled with ticket sales, which are now at 91 per cent of our target – which is the biggest target to date – so we are on track for an incredible Festival,” Mackenzie said.

“Overall, 25 per cent of tickets have been purchased from interstate, with some of our Individual flagship shows attracting up to 40 per cent interstate visitation.”

Adelaide Festival artistic director Ruth Mackenzie. Photo: Andrew Beveridge

The Adelaide Festival’s 2023 box office target is $5,186,200, and as of midnight last night 48,452 tickets had been issued, generating revenue so far of $4,704,361. Healy and Armfield’s 2022 Festival was affected by the pandemic through reduced venue capacities and late program changes, but ultimately achieved total box office income of more than $5 million.

“Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [by Kip Williams and Sydney Theatre Company] has been our top seller since the 2023 program launched and is on track to be the largest-grossing theatre production in the Festival’s history,” Mackenzie told InReview.

“Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s A Little Life, based on the cult classic book of the same name [by American novelist Hanya Yanagihara], has had massive sales momentum since launch and is now completely sold out.

“In this opening week, tickets are also scarce for Belarus Free Theatre’s Dogs of Europe and [local theatre company Slingsby’s] The River that Ran Uphill. Ballett Zurich’s Messa da Requiem has been a hot seller with only a handful of tickets left across the four performances of the middle weekend.”

The 2023 Adelaide Festival is being hailed as the first to return to pre-pandemic proportions, with 893 artists from 18 countries gathering to present a total of 52 events over the next 17 days.

Up to 10,000 people are expected to flock to Elder Park tonight (Friday) for the free opening event Spinifex Gum, featuring young singers from Cairns-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander choir Marliya with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and singer-songwriter Emma Donovan. The concert opens with the premiere performance by Adelaide’s 100-strong “Citizens Orchestra”.

Other opening weekend events include Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the world premiere of Windmill Theatre Company’s Hans & Gret, and an Australian-first performance by Spanish boys’ choir Escolania de Montserrat at the Town Hall.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is on track to be the largest-grossing theatre production in the Adelaide Festival’s history. Photo: Daniel Boud

New exhibition Andy Warhol & Photography: A Social Media opens tonight at the Art Gallery of South Australia, while the five-day Adelaide Writers’ Week opens on Saturday, with 160 writers from 10 countries set to take part in free sessions in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.

The Writers’ Week program includes a wide range of guests including UK novelist Alexander McCall Smith, Egyptian-born British food writer Claudia Roden, English dramatist David Hare, Nobel Prize-winning Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich and Australian thriller author Jane Harper. However, controversy has surrounded the inclusion of two Palestinian authors, Susan Abulhawa and Mohammed El-Kurd, whose views have sparked a backlash from some quarters.

Questioned about potential protests during Writers’ Week, the Adelaide Festival said it would not discuss specific security measures other than to say that “everyone who attends our events has the right to feel safe and that for Writers’ Week we have in place the appropriate security arrangements for a large-scale public gathering of this size”.

“If this year’s ticketed events for Writers’ Week are any guide, we are seeing a strong turnout,” Mackenzie said, when asked if the controversy was expected to affect numbers attending the literary event.

“Our Writers’ Week stalwarts are spoilt for choice, with more than 150 other writers speaking in around 120 sessions on everything from ‘What Covid Did to Love’ and ‘Affairs of the Heart’, to Long Tan, the emergence of the Teals, author Shirley Hazzard and the return of DH Lawrence.”

Playwright Tom Stoppard appeared via livestream for a ticketed Adelaide Writers’ Week event last night at the Town Hall. Photo: Supplied

In addition to A Little Life, other Adelaide Festival shows already sold out are Ngapa William Cooper, a world-premiere musical homage to Yorta Yorta man and human rights activist William Cooper; Belgian Theatre Collective FC Bergman’s The Sheep Song; and Adelaide Chamber Singers’ Celestial in St Peter’s Cathedral.

The Adelaide Festival box office results released today do not include WOMADelaide, which this year sold out four-day, three-day and Saturday passes well ahead of the March 10-13 event.

WOMADelaide has a licence to accommodate up to 30,000 people a day in Botanic Park, and organisers told InReview it was currently more than 85 per cent sold out across the four days.

“The last time we sold out a particular day was in 2008, then a three-day festival, where we sold out of Saturday and weekend tickets three days before the festival.”

The 2023 Adelaide Festival runs from March 3-19.

Read more Adelaide Festival coverage here on InReview.