Adelaide Festival 2023 generates significant impact on South Australia’s economy

Adelaide Festival 2023 has generated an estimated gross expenditure of $57.6 million for South Australia and secured additional funding of $2.3 million from the State Government, enabling it to continue to attract major international events over the next three years.

The 38th Adelaide Festival ran for 17 days, with 52 events across music, opera, dance, film and visual arts, along with its festivals-within-the-Festival: Adelaide Writers’ Week, WOMADelaide and Chamber Landscapes at UKARIA Cultural Centre.

Adelaide Festival’s impact on South Australia’s Gross State Product saw a 44% increase on 2022 figures, reaping an estimated $38.1 million in newly created income for the State. Visitor bed nights increased to 105,943 (up from 103,335 in 2022), with an average spend per visitor in South Australia of $4,676 (up 47% from $3,168 in 2022) and created the equivalent of 324 full-time jobs (up from 250 in 2022).

The Festival’s opening week of exclusive, Adelaide-only events attracted large audiences with 40% travelling to Adelaide from interstate and overseas.

The Festival continued to engage strongly with young audiences through the youth and education program in 2023, with 5,114 tickets sold to 75 schools from South Australia and interstate, and new year-long artistic programme Create4Adelaide. Adelaide Festival has recently launched the Create4Adelaide Open Call with the SALA Festival, inviting all South Australian young people to

SA Minister for Arts Andrea Michaels shared “We know Adelaide Festival is vitally important to the cultural vitality of our state – this announcement shows its tremendous worth in terms of fuelling our economy, as a crucial force driving tourism and employment.”

Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie added “AF 2023 was a great success, and we are absolutely delighted that the Festival continues to demonstrate its importance to the South Australian economy. Adelaide Festival's ability to foster connections between audiences, communities and the world's most extraordinary performers, writers and artists plays a crucial role in its cultural significance as well as its economic influence. Each March these collective experiences continue to attract visitors from all over Australia and further afield, joining the 900 artists from 18 countries who make up Australia’s premier arts festival.”

The 2023 Adelaide Festival by numbers:

• $57.6 million gross expenditure generated for SA (11% increase)

• $38.1 million net impact on the Gross State Product (44% increase)

• $32.5 million new expenditure in SA (37% increase)

• 11,080 visitors to the state

• $4,676 spend per visitor in South Australia (47% increase)

• 105,943 visitor bed nights (2.5% increase)

• 324 jobs (full-time equivalent) (29% increase) 52 events

• 282 performances (includes 160 Writers’ Week sessions + Kids’ Day + Middle Grade & YA Day)

• 11 world premieres and 8 Australian premieres

• 17 events exclusive to Adelaide

• 893 artists from 18 countries

At the conclusion of Adelaide Festival in March, it was announced that the event achieved a total box office income of more than $5.9 million – the second largest in its history.

The Economic Evaluation of the 2023 Adelaide Festival is prepared by Barry Burgan on behalf of Economic Research Consultants and is commissioned by Adelaide Festival.

More on Create4Adelaide