This weekend, check out the Cellar Door Fest food and wine extravaganza, watch the Australian Women's Cricket Team take on South Africa at Adelaide Oval, learn about Adelaide's gardening history at the State Library, or float away with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Fragmentation.

Words Charlie Gilchrist

Food and wine extravaganza

Cellar Door Fest, one of Adelaide’s favourite food and drink festivals, returns this weekend bringing three days of gourmet fun to the heart of the city. Meet, taste and discover the best of SA with over a hundred of our state’s hottest food, wine and spirit producers under one roof at the Adelaide Convention Centre from February 2 to 4.

Howzat!
The Australian Women’s Cricket Team will take on South Africa at the Adelaide Oval this Saturday for the first of three One-Day Internationals (ODI), with the remaining two matches taking place at North Sydney Oval. The two teams clashed in early 2023 at the T20 World Cup Final, making it the first time any senior South African side had made it to the final. However, the coveted trophy was retained by the Australian team after a formidable side led by Meg Lanning. The ODI series will be part of the ICC Women’s Championship Campaign (2022-2025), which is a pathway to secure qualification for the 2025 World Cup in India. The game takes place on February 3 at Adelaide Oval.

Decades of gardens

Discover the state’s rich gardening history in the State Library of South Australia’s latest exhibition Cornucopia: gardens and gardening in South Australia. Curated by Mark Gilbert and Isabel Story, the exhibition uses the library’s extensive collection of rarely-displayed garden manuals, seed catalogues, diaries, records, photographs and maps to explore gardening culture in the state. From First Nations peoples’ connection to the land to suburban sanctuaries and grand estates we see now, the exhibition looks at the diverse roles gardens have played in local lives. The exhibition has free entry and is open every day to coincide with library hours.

Float away with the ASO

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents Fragmentation this weekend at the Grainger Studio as part of its Sanctuary Series. Relax on a yoga mat in near darkness as you listen to the strings pulse in Australian composer Graeme Koehne’s orchestral piece The Persistence of Memory, which evokes Salvador Dalí’s surrealist painting of the same name. Also included in the program are English composer Gavin Bryars’ piece The Porazzi Fragment and Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Hymn – 2001. This hour-long concert takes place on February 2 and 3.

Just keep swimming…

South Australia’s largest open water swimming event, the Brighton Jetty Classic, takes place this Sunday, February 4 to raise funds for the Brighton Surf Life Saving Club. Events include a 400m race around Brighton Jetty and the 1500m open water swim. A highlight of the day is the Marilyn Jetty Swim, where more than 200 women (and a few men) swim 400 metres around Brighton Jetty dressed as ‘50s icon Marilyn Monroe to raise money for cancer. There will also be food trucks, music and entertainment throughout the day.

Step through time

The GONDWANA virtual reality exhibition has arrived at the South Australian Museum after a global tour where it received rave reviews. The multi-sensory immersive experience distils 100 years of climate data into a single day. The exhibition can be explored through VR headsets that transport the user into an interactive digital forest, to encounter weather, seasons and biodiversity shifts, while navigating a vast map of ancient trees, rugged mountains and idyllic beaches populated by rare birdlife. The exhibition was developed after its co-creators spent five months researching in the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest and surrounding wet tropics. GONDWANA closes on March 17.