There’s ample entertainment on offer in Adelaide over the Easter long weekend, including the popular Kite Festival, cutting-edge exhibitions and a stunning showcase of ancient Chinese culture.

Adelaide International Kite Festival

All eyes will be on the sky at Semaphore, with the Adelaide International Kite Festival celebrating its 17^th anniversary. The festival runs from 11am until 5pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Semaphore Beach, and will feature large kites, stunt kites, lolly drops, kite battles, carnival rides, kite-making, music and more.

Silvers Circus

Back under the big top in Bonython Park until May 11, Silvers Circus promises two hours of “glamour and death-defying acts”, including “the Globe of Death” (motorbike riders speeding around a 3.5m-diametre metal globe), a high-wire act, clowns, hoola hoops, bounce-ball juggling, an illusionist and football-playing  dogs. Read InDaily’s review.

Blenheimfest

This Clare Valley music and camping festival apparently has its origins in a community quest to build a skate ramp five years ago (you can read more about that here). Now it attracts some 1300 people each year, with this year’s program including  bands such as Saskwatch, The Woohoo Revue, The Timbers and Irie Knights. Gates open on Good Friday morning and the festival continues through Saturday. Check out the website; last we looked, there were still tickets available.

Shen Yun music & dance

Shen Yun Performing Arts uses music and dance to revive traditional ancient Chinese culture, which it says is under threat of extinction after 60 years of Communist rule. Its performances feature classically trained dancers, an orchestra and animated backdrops. “Shen Yun weaves a wondrous tapestry of heavenly realms, ancient legends, and modern heroic tales, taking you on a journey through 5000 years of Chinese culture,” says the official website. There will be performances from April 19-21at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre.

Meadows Easter Fair

Thousands of people will converge on the country town of Meadows (in the Adelaide Hills) from Friday through to Monday for the popular Easter Fair. There will be about 30 stalls inside the local Memorial Hall and a further 70 outside, selling everything from produce and plants, to collectibles, tools, books, crafts and antiques – plus, of course, food and coffee.

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

With the theme Dark Heart, the Art Gallery of SA’s 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art offers the chance to see works by 28 contemporary Australian artists and collectives. The exhibition (running until May 11) includes photography, painting, sculpture, installation and the moving image. You can get a taste of what’s in store here. Also part of the Biennial is Urpflanze street plants, at the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, featuring works by Caroline Rothwell exploring the perilous relationship between humans and the environment.

British Pop From the 60s and 70s

Come Together is a series of concerts by Adelaide singers and musicians performing music by the likes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Petula Clarke, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Elton John. Assembled by music director Emma Knights, they will be playing at the Golden Grove Arts Centre tonight (Thursday) and Star Theatres on Sir Donald Bradman Drive next Tuesday.

CUSP: Designing into the Next Decade

In addition to creating things of visual beauty, designers can also effect lifestyle, learning and cultural change – that’s the premise of this touring exhibition which is at Adelaide’s Jam Factory for just one more week (until April 26). Presented by Object: Australian Design Centre, it features cutting-edge work – including “artificially intelligent wallpaper” – by a number of Australian designers.

Easter Fiesta

Latino Grooves is presenting this spicy long-weekend treat at The Gov on Saturday, with Latino beats by Adelaide DJs (think salsa, samba, merengue and more), live music by local band Salcedo (pictured right), dance shows and even a dance class. Doors open at 8pm.

Ngintaka exhibition

Despite controversy over some of the cultural material in this touring songline exhibition at the South Australian Museum, it has won court approval to go ahead in its entirety. Ngintaka is described as a multi-layered exhibition featuring paintings by leading APY lands artists, as well as song, story, dance, painting, carving, basketry sculpture, audio and a 360-degree film installation. Ngintaka is showing on the ground floor of the SA Museum until June 22.

Shaun Gladwell: Afghanistan

Employed in 2009 as official war artist for the Australian War Memorial, Shaun Gladwell travelled through Afghanistan and the Middle East with the Australian Defence Force. This new exhibition, at the Samstag Museum of Art until July 18, features what he describes as “experimental portraits” focusing on the interaction of a human presence in a hostile and severe environment. The museum is also presenting Gladwell’s Field Recordings installation which reflects his experience in recording the reality of war (until May 16).

On screen

See InDaily’s reviews of the latest films screening in Adelaide:

Any Day Now
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Noah
Half of a Yellow Sun
I, Frankenstein
Wadjda
Cuban Fury
Need for Speed
Non-Stop
Nebraska