Every year, Adelaide’s East End transforms into an almost unrecognisable city-within-a-city as Gluttony and the Garden of Unearthly Delights move in and signal the coming of Mad March.

These major hubs are driving engines of the Adelaide Fringe, but equally vital are the hotspots throughout the city, the suburbs and the regions that spread the festival atmosphere across the state.

Sometimes ad-hoc, pop-up or non-traditional – like the Yurt at The Migration Museum or former general store Mrs Harris’ Shop in Torrensville – these venues demonstrate the ways culture can thrive when given space, and, often, how a few busy weeks in February and March can make a difference year-round.

Good Bank Gallery

Artist Henry Jock-Walker found himself transforming a former bank building on McLaren Vale’s Main Road into a gallery, artist studios and screen-printing workshop somewhat accidentally.

Known for his community-centric artworks that often bring surf and art cultures together, Walker became custodian of Good Bank Gallery after initially painting murals for the Daily Grind shop next door. Soon, Daily Grind owner Steve Grimley was ushering him into the neighbouring former bank and pointing out its gallery potential.

Now, about a year after the building’s stately columns and door were transformed by swathes of colourful paint and opened to the public, Walker continues to explore how the venue can serve a community more often known for its rolling waves and wine tasting than its art.

“I think it’s massively filling a gap… I think there is definitely art in the area and there’s lots of interesting things happening,” says Walker. “I feel like [there is] a bit of contemporary experimental art, but not too many zones where it’s more like an artist-run space where there’s a situation that’s encouraging [artists] to push the boundaries.”

Henry Jock-Walker (facing camera) in Good Bank Gallery. Photo: Jack Fenby

Good Bank’s 2023 Fringe program is a perfect example of the unusual scope the venue allows artists. From February 24, Adelaide artist Hari Koutlakis will exhibit Move Like This – an exhibition featuring a series of paintings inside the gallery space, and also inviting audiences into an adjoining property where Koutlakis has painted the walls in his signature hypnotic patterns, creating a fully immersive experience.

Artist Hari Koutlakis’s Move Like This is showing at Good Bank Gallery during the 2023 Fringe. Photo: Supplied

Koutlakis and Walker are also hoping to host experimental music and movement events and painting workshops during the exhibition’s four-week run.

This year is the first Good Bank is taking part in Fringe, and Walker says hosting Move Like This under the festival’s umbrella is an important step in helping the burgeoning regional venue build long-lasting audience relationships.

“I think the Fringe advertising and programming definitely helps legitimise it and make connections for local people and people from far away,” he says.

“I think people in the regions feel like there’s always all this stuff in the city and it doesn’t often come out… to the regional zone, so I feel like bigger ideas or umbrellas like Fringe really help audience to connect to something.

“And also it gets people from the city coming out regionally; it helps people’s confidence to come out to those areas.”

Adelaide Supreme Court

The Adelaide Supreme Court is not the only judicial building hosting art this Fringe, with Auburn’s historic courthouse also transforming into a live music hub this year.

But, the Adelaide Supreme Court is likely the only operational court doubling as a Fringe venue. By day, the courthouse is fulfilling its regular function, as cases ranging from misdemeanours to serious crimes are considered there. By night, one of its courtrooms transforms for State Opera South Australia’s Trial by Jury.

State Opera artistic director Stuart Maunder says the short and comical piece from Gilbert and Sullivan is generally staged in a real courtroom, bringing audience and performer charmingly close together for the prosecution of a messy and vindictive relationship breakdown.

“It is… a short sharp shock of show,” he says. “It just starts and it’s almost over before you finish and you think, ‘Oh my God, that was a joy’. And for me the fact that you’ve got performers literally right next to you singing in your ear and asking your opinion [is part of that].”

State Opera is bringing some Dynasty-inspired glamour into the Adelaide Supreme Court space for Trial by Jury. Photo: Andrew Beveridge

Unlike the court rooms often seen in cinema, Adelaide’s Supreme Court errs on the side of utilitarian instead of grand. Maunder and his team have relished the opportunity to bring a particular brand of Dynasty-inspired glamour into the space.

“Roger Kirk has designed these wonderful aesthetic ’80s period frocks, big picture hats and sunglasses, and it’s very much a celebrity trial,” says Maunder.

These contrasts – between the dour working courtroom and the fabulous performers within it, between the serious business of the court by day and SOSA’s jolly night-time cameos ­– are, says Maunder, exactly the sort of strange delights Fringe fosters.

“Isn’t that the joy of The Fringe? That you can basically put up something anywhere and people will come to have a look and it all just adds to the joy of the night.”

The Shed Rehearsal Theatre

Ben Phillips’ The Shed Rehearsal Theatre in Cumberland Park is inherently unusual.

“I decided to build a black-box theatre that didn’t have the seats,” says Phillips, owner of technical event company Ben FX as well as The Shed. “We built sprung floors, and because it’s got a motorised lighting rig, a lot of theatre companies are using it to do development.”

Ben Phillips in The Shed Rehearsal Theatre. Photo: Supplied

Phillips started up The Shed in 2018 thanks to a combination of capacity and need. After taking over a three-part warehouse space for Ben FX, he had the physical room. And after decades of working with small and medium arts and community organisations, he knew there was urgent need for well-equipped rehearsal and development venues that were also affordable.

“The whole world has become corporatised, and I’m trying to get things back to grassroots and a village mentality,” he says. “From an arts perspective… I’m trying to empower people to follow their hearts and dreams and minds and do something successful.”

While The Shed was initially designed as a space for artists to create and not with audiences front of mind, it has been a Fringe venue for almost as long as it has existed.

The space can be adapted to seat about 40 punters, and it has become a gathering point for smaller, more intimate shows that might not fit comfortably among the dizzying spectacle of the larger hubs.

“If people want to put on a more personal, more intimate style of show, it’s perfect for that,” he says, referencing a previous work where women performers have explored spirituality and another focussed on shibari. “It’s a safe space.”

Inspired by the sense of community he has seen grow around The Shed in Fringe time and ever the problem-solver for the arts community, Phillips has gone on to spearhead two more venues.

The first, The Truck Mobile Theatre, is an ingenious solution he first developed early in COVID’s onset to help artists stage performances in unconventional outdoor spaces like parks. While the truck bed houses a stage, the vehicle is still operational, meaning it doubles as transport and haulage.

The Truck Mobile Theatre.

For the second, The Pyramid, now also accompanied by the Pavilion, in Tarntanyangga (Victoria Square), Phillips has worked with collaborators to launch a much larger and completely new Fringe venue in 2023. Part of the Fool’s Paradise hub and hosting more than eight shows – including performance artist Penny Arcade’s Superstar Interrupted, a 17-piece-band Stevie Wonder tribute, and circus-cabaret enSOMNIA – The Pyramid and The Pavilion are a chance to spread the positive momentum he’s seen at The Shed even wider, Phillips says.

“The Pyramid is Fringe on a huge scale. It’s a lot bigger risk, but again, the ethos is all about supporting artists, not about making the money.”

Robe Town Brewery

Hosting two touring comedic acts this Fringe – Redneck Greenie and Granny Flaps – Robe Town Brewery is a key stepping stone in the festival’s south-eastern expansion, which also includes venues in Mt Gambier, Kingston, Naracoorte and beyond.

Robe Town Brewery owners Maris and Kristi Biezaitis relocated to the small seasonal tourist town 10 years ago after immigrating from Latvia and started up their experimental but accessible beer operation soon after.

They found Robe beguiling, but there were some aspects of their shift from European city to rural Australian town that gave them pause.

“One of the main drawbacks of remote, small-town life was the distance and accessibility of various arts and culture, unlike the city life we had been used to,” says Maris.

Three years ago, when the brewery grew large enough to warrant bigger premises, they decided to address this directly by incorporating a stage into the venue’s plan. It soon became home to a weekly open-mic session alongside their program of Friday night live music.

“We have since also staged stand-up comedy shows, visual art exhibitions, and other events,” says Maris. “We have now gained a reputation in the region, not only for making many interesting and tasty beers, but also as a great venue for performing arts.”

Fringe is another opportunity for the brewers to not only slake their appetite for the arts, but also to support artists from within and without their community.

“Offering Robe Town Brewery as a venue for Fringe was initially suggested to us by a performing artist,” says Maris. “We loved the idea and have embraced it, and hope that more events come to Robe in future.”

This story is part of a series of articles being produced with the support of Adelaide Fringe.

Read more Fringe stories and reviews here.