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Providing priceless experience
Our city is home to some of the world’s largest and most loved festivals—and our University plays a key role in keeping them centre stage.
In the arts sector, we’ve been a proud Partner of the Adelaide Fringe since 2015, and Adelaide Festival since 2019. While in the food and wine community, we’ve supported Tasting Australia since 2021.
This helps to ensure our community continues to enjoy world-class performances and unique experiences. And it gives our students exclusive, money-can’t-buy opportunities to get real, behind-the-scenes industry experience, such as through festival internships and workshops.
Festivals in focus
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We are proud to work with key cultural and arts institutions in South Australia to deliver programs that engage, challenge and inspire.
These activities strengthen our links with the broader community. They are also intentionally aligned to our teaching and learning priorities, which gives our students access to crucial real-world industry experience.
‘My internship was right in the middle of the Adelaide Festival. We were doing events with partners… sponsors… lots of behind-the-scenes work. I really felt like I had achieved something. The Festival was also fantastic for networking—I met the people who are in charge of most of Adelaide’s big events, and people from the Festival gave me references for my current role.’
Cassie Ackerman, Bachelor of Media graduate (2021) and now Adelaide Festival Centre Marketing Coordinator, reflecting on her 2020 Adelaide Festival Business Development and Engagement internship.
‘This six-week [Adelaide Festival] internship is for students from all over the University—arts, law, business development, even environmental science—to get some experience during a thrilling time for the organisation, as we prepare for a festival. It’s exactly the kind of opportunity I would have walked over cut glass to access at that age.’
Rachel Healy, Adelaide Festival Joint Artistic Director and University of Adelaide alumnus.
‘During my time at the Adelaide Fringe, I learnt a lot about which direction I wanted my career to take and how I might be able to get there. It was a valuable learning experience that gave me the opportunity to contribute to a festival which I feel incredibly passionate about and proud to be a part of.’
Jess Van Pelt, Bachelor of Media graduate (2021), following her 2020 internship with the Adelaide Fringe.
Building industry for over 135 years
Our current partnerships with South Australia’s major festivals are just the latest acts in a long-running program of support for the South Australian arts, food and wine sectors, and those building their careers in them.
In fact, we’ve been creating opportunities for over 135 years—and frequently making history in the process. In the arts, for example, we were the first university anywhere in Australia to establish a:
- conservatorium of music (our Elder Conservatorium’s beginnings date back to 1883)
- Doctor of Music degree (1898)
- centre focused on Australian Indigenous music (we launched our Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music in 1972, and it’s still the only one of its kind in the nation today).
- We were also the first university in South Australia to offer a degree in music theatre (2019).
And in wine, we’ve not only established Australia’s largest teaching winery, but the country’s most prolific and influential wine research hub; our own world-class staff are complemented by co-located partners including the Australian Wine Research Institute, CSIRO, and the South Australian Research and Development Institute.
