This weekend in Adelaide, head to Elliston and reel in a big one, or get ready to rock as No Fixed Address performs at the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Words Elisabeth Marie

Show time

South Australia’s largest regional show, the Gawler Show, is returning to the Gawler Showgrounds on August 26 and 27 for a family-friendly weekend of exhibitions, carnival fun, live entertainment and agricultural competitions. Explore the grounds and meet local traders with the Treasure Trail, or get your heart racing with show rides and carnival games. Attendees can also show off their skills in a range of competition categories spanning arts and crafts, floriculture, photography and even blacksmithing. On Saturday evening, wait for the sun to set and enjoy a display of fireworks to complete a family day.

Showcasing culture

Art exhibitions OUR MOB and OUR YOUNG MOB will return to The Galleries in the Adelaide Festival Theatre’s foyer until October 7, showcasing works by South Australia’s First Nations artists. Coinciding with the exhibition, South Australian Indigenous band, No Fixed Address, is performing at Her Majesty’s Theatre on August 24 as part of their sunset tour. The reggae rock band’s frontman, Ricky Harrison says they’re excited to be coming back to Adelaide. “It’s where it all started, we have a special connection there, and we can’t wait to perform at Her Majesty’s Theatre.”

Orchestral bliss

Conductor Finnegan Downie Dear will be joined on stage by soprano Olivia Warburton and pianist Steven Osborne in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Series 6: Paradise. Performed at Adelaide Town Hall on August 25 and 26, the performance program includes the richly textured symphony of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, the caressing notes of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and the jubilant Rissolty Rossolty by Ruth Crawford Seeger. “It is some of the most transcendentally beautiful music ever written,” Finnegan says. “The strings hover in such airy stillness that you almost forget to breathe.”

Healthy and Halal

The inaugural Halal Food Festival will be held at Victoria Square on August 25 and 26 from 11am to 10pm. Cuisines from over 30 countries will be on offer with stalls packing the square with Halal-friendly foods and beverages. The free festival will offer plenty of wholesome food, live entertainment and a family-friendly atmosphere so attendees can embrace a variety of cultures over a fun weekend.

Reel it in

August is the final month to make waves in the 2023 Australian Salmon Fishing Championship in Elliston. Running until August 31, the competition encourages fishers to take to the shores of Elliston between Sheringa and Mount Camel Beach and catch the biggest salmon. Participants purchase a $10 entry ticket from a participating local establishment before reeling in a big one to present for weighing at the Elliston Caravan Park. Each week, there is the opportunity to win a $200 prize for your catch, with the fisher of the heaviest catch during the three-month competition receiving $2000.

For more of what’s on around South Australia this month, pick up the August issue of SALIFE, which is on sale now.