Fringe street theatre, WOMADelaide, the Adelaide Festival and the French Film Festival are just some of the entertainment offerings across this jam-packed Mad March long weekend.

You can also see the Bill Viola exhibition at tonight’s First Fridays after-hours event at the Art Gallery of SA, or enjoy outdoor movies and live music at Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinema in Glenelg.

Fringe Street Theatre Festival

Acrobats, jugglers and contortionists will be taking over the city streets for the annual Fringe Street Theatre Festival this weekend. Performances will take place on outdoor stages in Rundle Mall, Rundle Street and Waymouth Street across four days and nights from today, with acts including Acrobuffos, from the US, with their “hysterical water balloon gladiator show”, and Mr Spin, “renowned for his amazing juggling atop an eight foot zigzag unicycle”. The 4m-tall Fringe Sirens will perform a street ballet on the corner of Rundle Street and East Terrace on Saturday and Sunday nights at 9pm and 10pm. The full street theatre program is on the Fringe website.

Adelaide Festival

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Photo: Julieta Cervantes

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet will be among the highlights of the Adelaide Festival program this weekend, with the New York company presenting two different performances at the Festival Theatre across three days from today until Sunday. Other weekend shows include multi-media production Nufonia Must Fall (read InDaily review here), a one-off gig by Japanese eccentric 11-piece rock/punk/classical band Vampillia, Italian actress Silvia Gallerano’s naked monologue La Merda, and the Adelaide Chamber Singers’ Late Night in the Cathedral: Passio. The Blinc free outdoor digital art show can also be viewed nightly from 8.30pm in and around Elder Park, the Adelaide Festival Centre and the Torrens Riverbank Precinct.

WOMADelaide

The four-day world music festival kicks off tonight in Botanic Park, with a long weekend line-up including headliners such as Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, the Buena Vista Social Club, Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour, Brooklyn-based band Balkan Beat Box, Mali father-and-son kora players Toumani and Sidiki Diabate, Swedish-born singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry and South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. WOMADelaide also features the Planet Talks panel discussions on sustainability-related issues, with participants including former Greens leader Bob Brown, comedian Hannah Gadsby and TV host Andrew Denton. Festival director Ian Scobie gives some must-see suggestions here, while this article has fan tips for making the most of the WOMAD experience.

Adelaide Fringe

This weekend’s Fringe entertainment includes the free Waymouth Street Party, which begins at 4pm today (Friday) and will feature live music, DJs, food and street theatre. The Adelaide Improv Festival continues at the Grace Emily hotel, you can catch Adelaide indie pop/folk sister band The Germein Sisters at the Aurora Spiegeltent in the Garden of Unearthly Delights tonight, or check out the excellent theatre/music show Call Mr Robeson at La Boheme. Our reviewers also recommend comedy show Trash (Royal Croquet Club), circus performance Left (Gluttony) and cabaret show Titty Bar Ha Ha (Rhino Room). Click here for all InDaily’s Fringe stories and reviews.

First Fridays at the Art Gallery of SA – Bill Viola

Bill Viola, The Encounter, 2012. Photo: Kira Perov / Adelaide Festival

Bill Viola – Selected Works is the featured exhibition at tonight’s First Fridays event at the Art Gallery of South Australia. First Fridays (held on the first Friday of each month) sees the gallery open late, until 9pm, with tonight’s entertainment also including live music by members of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and a performance piece by musician, composer and artist Al Thumm. The Bill Viola exhibition features two of the artist’s earlier video/sound installations as well as pieces from his 2012 series Mirage. It is part of the Adelaide Festival program, which also sees Viola’s works on show at the Queen’s Theatre and St Peter’s Cathedral.

Adelaide Cup

Yes, this is the reason we all have a public holiday on Monday, and it’s dubbed by the SA Jockey Club as “the premier event on the South Australian racing calendar”. Gates open at the Morphettville Racecourse at 10am, with the first race at just before midday and up-to-the-minute info and odds on the Cup website. There’s also Fashion on the Fields events, restaurants, bars and live music for your off-field entertainment.

French Film Festival

Taking place at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas until March 24, the annual French Film Festival features a line-up encompassing every genre. This weekend’s screenings include the drama 3 Hearts (InDaily review here), animated film Asterix – The Mansion of the Gods, and comedy Get Well Soon. The full program is online.

Openair Cinema

Penguins of Madagascar

Long-weekend screenings at Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinema in Glenelg include space epic Interstellar (Friday), family flick Penguins of Madagascar (Saturday), and the Reese Witherspoon wilderness adventure Wild (Sunday), with a live music line-up comprising Mr John, Sasha March, DJ H and Christian Andrew. The full program is online and tickets sell out quickly, especially for the weekend sessions, so get in early if you don’t want to risk missing out. The Openair Cinema continues at the Brian Nadilo Reserve until April 12.

Beckett Triptych

Three of Samuel Beckett’s rarely presented short plays – Footfalls, Eh Joe and Krapp’s Last Tape – are being presented by the State Theatre Company in its Scenic Workshop and Rehearsal Room at the Adelaide Festival Centre. The Triptych, part of the Adelaide Festival program, features actors Pamela Rabe, Paul Blackwell and Peter Carroll, with performances continuing until March 15. Click here to read InDaily’s review.

do it (adelaide)

Twelve South Australian artists were assigned a particular instruction to produce an artwork for this new exhibition at Samstag Museum. The do it concept began in Paris in 1993 and has since travelled all over the world, with a manual of written instructions that is constantly added to. do it (adelaide) features work in different mediums, with several instructions for museum visitors to interact with and an accompanying archive explaining the history of what is described as an “ever-evolving global art phenomenon”. The exhibition runs until April 25.

Iridescence – SA Museum

This exhibition at the South Australian Museum features beetles, bubbles, shells, fossils and myriad other items that illustrate the beauty of iridescence, “where colour is seen despite the absence of pigment”.  Exhibits have all been drawn from the museum’s own collection, and will be on display until March 15, 2015.

Tandanya exhibitions

Three exhibitions displaying more than 40 works are on display at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Grenfell Street. 14 Nations features works by Archie Moore focussing on the varied symbolic uses of flags, while Kinship showcases works in a range of styles and mediums by 2014 Archibald Prize finalist Jandamarra Cadd. The third exhibiton, Nganampa, comprises works created by Adelaide-based Pitjantjatjara artists from the Tandanya Urban Arts Studio 2014-2015 pilot project. All three shows will continue until March 21.

On screen

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

3 Hearts – French Film Festival
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Project Almanac
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Theory of Everything
Still Alice