Adelaide Motorsport Festival organisers announced last week that their 2024 event will run from March 15 to 17 in Victoria Park.

The festival, which is promoting the chance to see classic cars driving every 10 to 15 minutes on part of the old Adelaide Formula 1 circuit, has been brought forward from its March 24 to 26 scheduling this year.

The event is deliberately timed by the organisers to be on the weekend before the annual Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne so it can capitalise on international motorsport stars travelling to Australia.

But the earlier schedule means it overlaps with the tail end of the 2024 Adelaide Fringe (February 16 to March 17) and Adelaide Festival (March 1 to 17).

The concurrent event scheduling has raised concerns among Fringe organisers that noise from the car exhibitions – which include classic Formula 1 and V8 Supercars – could affect their live music events.

“We are a bit worried,” said Daniel Michael, director of Fringe venue Gluttony in Rymill Park, roughly 600 metres north of Victoria Park.

“We will program around the loudest bits and hopefully it will be fine.

“It would have been great if it could be the week after like last year but the organisers said it had to be then due to Melbourne GP dates.

“They have told us that it won’t be loud so we will take their word for it. Time will tell I guess.”

The situation has drawn comparisons to a scheduling conflict in 2012 when car noise from an Adelaide 500 event disrupted the opening night of the Adelaide Festival in Elder Park.

Despite former premier Jay Weatherill attempting to intervene, the scheduling clash overshadowed an outdoor concert by renowned composer Ennio Morricone. It also prompted calls to better manage Adelaide’s “Mad March” events calendar.

The outdoor Ennio Morricone concert in 2012 was affected by car engine noise from Victoria Park. Photo: Adelaide Festival

“For 11 years we’ve managed to avoid a clash of that level,” South Ward councillor Keiran Snape told an Adelaide City Council meeting last night.

“But here we are heading full bore, full tilt towards an embarrassing repetition of this situation in March 2024.”

Snape moved a motion without notice at Tuesday night’s council meeting asking Acting Lord Mayor Phillip Martin to write to the motorsport festival organisers “expressing Council’s concern” about the scheduling “conflict” and request a change in event dates.

Councillors unanimously supported an amended motion that removed the date change request and instead asked for a briefing from the Adelaide Motorsport Festival board.

Snape said the disrupted Morricone concert in 2012 was only one event within Elder Park whereas the Fringe was dozens of concurrent events located much closer to the Victoria Park racetrack.

“This is a commonsense motion; it’s unfortunately the lack of common sense is why we have to put forward this motion,” he said.

“We’ve got eight or nine months to go before this happens – let’s speak up now. We have to move fast while we’ve got time to divert the trainwreck that could happen.”

InDaily understands Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith had already flagged concerns with Premier Peter Malinauskas about the scheduling overlap in a letter on June 29.

Adelaide Motorsport Festival event director and owner Tim Possingham said he did not want to change the event dates because they were dependent on the scheduling of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The timing allows the festival to attract international motorsport stars who are travelling to Australia for the grand prix, Possingham said, highlighting the attendance of Finnish F1 driver Valtteri Bottas at this year’s festival.

“A great deal of the content of our event is a great deal quieter than another comparable event such as the Adelaide 500,” Possingham said.

“I certainly sympathise with them (Fringe and Festival organisers); I understand there might be some nervousness around it.

“But it’s a very different event.”

Possingham said he had held Zoom and phone meetings with Fringe organisers to talk through concerns about road closures and noise.

He said the Adelaide Motorsport Festival had already agreed to move its East End Friday night “street party” on East Terrace to the other side of the CBD – likely Gouger Street – to avoid crowding the East End during Fringe season.

“Where we are certainly able to work with them, we are,” Possingham said, adding that the Fringe had previously co-existed with the Adelaide 500 when it was held in March.

“We are making change, we are listening, and I’m really confident that everyone will be able to deliver their event in a harmonious fashion.”

The motorsport festival requires closing a portion of Wakefield Road between East Terrace and Dequetteville Terrace from Friday to Sunday.

Council administration told councillors last night that they were not formally consulted about the dates for the 2024 Motorsport Festival and only received a heads-up about the event dates.

Labor made an election promise in 2020 to bring back the Adelaide Motorsport Festival after its funding was cut by the former Marshall Government.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan played down concerns that next year’s motorsport festival would cause noise disruption to the Adelaide Fringe.

Asked on ABC Radio Adelaide this morning whether the event would be moved, Mullighan said: “No, that’s not going to happen.”

“We’ll be holding it on these dates for that reason and the council should be aware – I’m sure the council staff are aware, but some of the councillors may not be – that we have a long track record here in South Australia of being able to schedule more than one thing at a time in Adelaide.

“Fortunately, we’ve got adults who are responsible for running these events and I’m very confident they’ll sort it out so there’s no clash between the events.”

Area councillor Arman Abrahimzadeh argued against the council requesting the organisers change the dates but supported requesting a briefing.

“The optics of this… the way I see it if we start to put up barriers for events, people out there, the media, will start looking at us as NIMBYs, they’ll start labelling us the sleepy town,” he said.

“And they’ll say ‘don’t do anything in Adelaide because it’s too loud and it’s too noisy so shut your engines down and go to sleep and they’ll label us the sleepy town.

“Let’s get a briefing. Let’s get these event organisers around the table to see what their thoughts were – I’m sure they would have thought through this.”

South Ward councillor Henry Davis also argued against immediately requesting organisers change their event date – but suggested the council could do that after receiving a briefing.

“I do think that a little bit softly softly on this particular issue might be a good approach,” he said.

“I think that, probably, it’s going to be extremely loud, and it will impact on the Fringe.

“I think that at the end of it we will ask them to change (the date), but I think if we invite them to discuss it, to look at what mitigation strategies have been put in place that might be a better way to get an outcome for our residents.

“If they say no – then we’ll get ‘em. But until then, a more diplomatic approach may be appropriate.”

Adelaide Festival director Ruth Mackenzie and Garden of Unearthly Delights organisers Andrew Walker and Michelle Buxton could not be reached for comment. Adelaide Fringe CEO Heather Croall declined to comment.