OzAsia Festival secures South Australian Major Festivals and Events award

Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival 2018 was named the winner of Major Festivals and Events at the South Australian Tourism Awards 2019 held at the weekend and will go on to compete at the Australian Tourism Awards to be held in March next year. The announcement follows the recent success of OzAsia 2019, which finished up on Sunday, 3rd November.

Held by the SA Tourism Industry Council, the awards feature 25 categories celebrating tourism businesses and organisations that have demonstrated excellence and innovation through the year.

Artistic Director Joseph Mitchell said the award win reflected OzAsia Festival’s position as one of the most famed international arts festivals in Australia advising that “we provide audiences with the opportunity to connect with world-leading artists and productions – which in 2018 included five world premieres, 20 Australian premieres and 22 events exclusive to South Australia. The program featured 817 artists from 20 different countries and was well received by audiences with rave reviews and numerous sold-out performances.”

Held from 25th October to 11th November, the 12th annual OzAsia Festival 2018 boasted 200,000 attendances across a wide range of free events and ticketed shows. It also included the Borak Arts Series conference and the inaugural JLF Adelaide – a satellite event of the internationally renowned Jaipur Literature Festival.

Adelaide Festival Centre Chief Executive and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM noted that “for more than a decade, OzAsia Festival has been at the forefront of artistic excellence and celebrating cultural diversity in our state and country. We are honoured to be recognised by the South Australian Tourism Industry Council and we feel that this award acknowledges the hard work of everyone involved to make this Australia’s leading contemporary arts festival engaging with Asia.”

Highlights of the OzAsia Festival 2018 program included Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s iconic acrobatic masterpiece Sutra and legendary playwright and director Stan Lai’s beloved modern classic Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land.

Image of Eun-Me Ahn’s Dancing Grandmothers