Fleurieu Folk Festival – Willunga

American musician Kristina Olsen, UK guitarist Ken Nicol and Australian performers Greg Champion and The Borderers are among the headline acts performing at the three-day Fleurieu Folk Festival which begins tonight in Willunga. Acts from a range of genres – including acoustic, Celtic, blues and roots – will perform, plus there will be workshops, children’s entertainment and market stalls. See the full program here.

Root Down – old RAH site

The second annual Root Down music festival will see alt-indie, hip-hop and experimental electronic artists performing across two stages at the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site from 2pm on Saturday. Acts include Luke Million, Timberwolf and Abbey Howlett. There will also be market stalls, break-dancing, exhibitions and food trucks. It’s an 18+ event, with tickets available here.

Australian Ballet Gala Spectacular – AEC

The Australian Ballet returns to Adelaide this weekend with a show featuring selections from works including Don Quixote, Spartacus, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty, as well as its signature ballet, Serge Lifar’s classic Suite en blanc. The Gala Spectacular – tonight (Friday) at 7.30pm and on Saturday at 1.30pm and 7.30pm – marks the first time the company has performed at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in an arena-style show.

State Theatre’s Switzerland – Dunstan Playhouse

Complex and divisive American author Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley, Strangers on a Train) is the inspiration for this twisty thriller by South Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith. The fictional tale sees a publicist from New York visit the semi-reclusive Highsmith at her home in Switzerland to convince her to write one more Ripley story – but it emerges he is actually on a more sinister mission. Read InDaily‘s review of the show here. Performances continue until until November 5.

Puberty Blues – Holden Street Theatres

First there was the book, then the movie and TV series, and now you can catch Dead Set Theatre Company’s play based on the Australian coming-of-age story about two teenage girls navigating puberty, school, boys, sex and sexism in the 1970s surfing scene. There are performances of Puberty Blues at Holden Street Theatres tonight and tomorrow.

Neo: ‘Deadly’ Halloween – Art Gallery of SA

The gallery will stay open until 8.30pm tonight for this free event for teenagers which will include the chance to work alongside three local Aboriginal artists – including aerosol artist Nish Cash – a dance performance by Kurruru Youth Performing Arts, screenings of ABC show Cleverman, body art, and a chance to sample Aboriginal cuisine by Warndu Foods. “Deadly” Halloween is set within the Tarnanthi exhibition and takes its name from the Kaurna word “Paitya”, meaning deadly or amazing. It begins at 6pm, with the full program here.

British Film Festival – Palace Nova Eastend

This year’s British Film Festival promises a selection of films ranging from “sweeping romances and beloved book adaptations, to intriguing music documentaries and pulse racing thrillers”. It also includes a retrospective program of British mysteries, including four Agatha Christie classics. See the full program here. The festival continues at Palace Nova Eastend until November 15. InDaily has reviewed two of the films: Morrissey biopic England is Mine and the drama That Good Night, starring the late John Hurt.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – in Concert – AEC

Fifteen years after the film premiered on the big screen, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra will bring John Williams’ score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to life in this performance at the Adelaide Entertainment Arena next Saturday (November 4). The orchestra will be conducted by Nicholas Buc and accompanied by the Women of the Elder Conservatorium Chorale and the Graduate Singers, with scenes from the movie playing on a giant screen in high definition. Details here.

Le Mariage de Figaro – Star Theatres

The Marriage of Figaro continues the plot of The Barber of Seville several years later, and recounts a single “day of madness” in the palace of Count Almaviva near Seville. Directed by Greg Elliott and presented by Panache Theatre, the show is in French with English subtitles, with performances at the Star Theatres in Hilton from November 2-3. Details here.

Impersonal Space – Queen’s Theatre

Described as a “full-hearted and funny look at how autistic people see and experience the world”, Impersonal Space is a new production by Company AT. The work was written by Adelaide playwright Emily Steele, drawing on the real-life experiences of its autistic cast, and centres on a nine-year-old girl who sets out on a journey of the imagination after being diagnosed with autism. Impersonal Space is playing at the Queen’s Theatre until October 28.

Tarnanthi

Although the Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art has now finished, a number of exhibitions continue, including at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Its exhibition, running until January 28, features more than 40 new commissions, including the Kulata Tjuta (Many Spears) installation comprising more than 550 kulata hanging in a cloud formation above hand-carved piti (wooden bowls). Adelaide Festival Centre is showing the work of more than 90 Indigenous artists in its Tarnanthi satellite exhibition, Our Mob, in its Artspace Gallery and Dunstan Playhouse foyer until December 2.

Paolo Sebastian X – Art Gallery of SA

This exhibition celebrates the 10th anniversary of South Australian designer Paul Vasileff’s celebrated couture label Paolo Sebastian, with hand-crafted gowns from the past on show alongside the gallery’s collection of historic European art. Paolo Sebastian X is in galleries 12–16 until December 10, with free entry.

After Utopia – Samstag Museum

After Utopia: Revisiting the Ideal in Asian Contemporary Art features moving image, installation, painting and sculpture by artists from South-East Asian countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Read more about the exhibition in this CityMag interview. It will be at the Samstag until December 1.

Already Elsewhere – Samstag Museum

Adelaide artist and designer Geoff Cobham first major gallery commission, Already Elsewhere, is inspired by the ongoing volcanic issues in Bali, bringing together light, sound and movement in an immersive installation said to create “an environment of technical and sensory surprise”. It is showing at the Samstag Museum of Art until December 1.

On screen

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

England is Mine (British Film Festival)
That Good Night (British Film Festival)
Thor: Ragnorak
The Snowman
Blade Runner 2049
The Battle of the Sexes
The Dancer
Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle