Winner of the 2023 Gold Medal Award for Major Festivals or Events?at the South Australian Tourism Awards, Illuminate Adelaide has announced its first event for 2024, a newly commissioned iteration of spellbinding work, Fire Gardens from French fire alchemists, Compagnie Carabosse.
This July, Adelaide Botanic Garden will be transformed into a bewitching night-time wonderland, flickering with the flames of more than 7,000 giant handcrafted fire pots, enchanting candlelit archways, captivating kinetic sculptures and live music performances.
After captivating audiences all over the world, Fire Gardens will delight Illuminate Adelaide audiences over 12 nights from Thursday to Sunday for three weeks.
“The Illuminate Adelaide Fire Gardens experience is being designed specifically for our Botanic Garden, with Compagnie Carabosse already plotting and mapping out their largest ever installation designed exclusively for Adelaide and the first time ever during an Australian winter,” said Illuminate Adelaide Co-founders and Creative Directors, Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi.
“Fire Gardens is the perfect way to experience Adelaide in July, and we know audiences will be blown away by this spectacle of leaping flames, fiery urns and smouldering archways.”
Compagnie Carabosse have created extraordinary installations in public sites all over the world including Kremlin Square in Moscow, England’s eerie Stonehenge, Hue Bridge in Vietnam, Pont du Gard in France and an abandoned Moroccan prison. The company paints with the palette of fire – its colours, warmth, sound and scent.
“Illuminate Adelaide is now etched into the calendars of many Australians. The epic scope and scale of Fire Gardens will undoubtedly draw hundreds of thousands of locals and interstate visitors to what is a truly city-wide celebration of light, art, music and cutting-edge technology,” said South Australian Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison.
“Alongside the experience of each incredible event, is the valuable economic injection Illuminate Adelaide generates each year, with visitors from near and far supporting our local shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and hotels in what is a traditionally quieter time of the year for many businesses.”
2024 will be the fourth time Illuminate Adelaide has lit up the city’s streets and natural scapes with its transformative mix of installations, events and experiences that see art and technology converge in a myriad of imaginative ways.
Visitors can enhance their experience within the reimagined surroundings of the Adelaide Botanic Garden by booking a dinner before or after at the Restaurant Botanic Rose Garden pop-up, curated and created by lauded executive chef Justin James. Fire Gardens visitors can also grab a drink with friends from the bar at the Schomburgk Pavilion on the way in or out.
The full Illuminate Adelaide 2024 program will be announced on 1 May 2024. The Illuminate Adelaide Fire Gardens takes place at Adelaide Botanic Garden from 4 – 21 July. For more information, visit: www.illuminateadelaide.com for details.
Image: Fire Gardens by Compagnie Carabosse – photo by Andrew Beveridge