Adelaide Fringe at 60

Over six decades to date, the Adelaide Fringe has been both a playground and a career springboard for Australian and South Australian artists.

28 Feb 2020 12:00

Richard Watts

Theatre

Briefs performing in Rundle Mall. Photo credit: Tony Virgo.

The cultural behemoth that is Adelaide Fringe started out as a protest by local artists who were frustrated at being excluded from the inaugural Adelaide Festival.

‘The Adelaide Fringe grew organically out of the strong grassroots arts community in Adelaide,’ said Max Mackinnon, director of a new television documentary about the Fringe’s six decade journey.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts