Adelaide Festival Theatre is a great venue with world class facilities. Have seen many shows over the years, stunning location with wonderful views around the side of the River Torrens.
Back here again for a school choir festival. Many different young people on stage (about 300) plus special performances by different musical groups from many schools. Very well staged and and the stage management by the centre staff was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed the performance by the students in Adelaide's premium performance theatre. It was an amazing night with so much talent on show.
Attended the Christmas Proms and thoroughly enjoyed the perfomance. Bought the tickets online and it all was satisfactory and the tickets were posted. Although our seats were in the grand circle we had a great view and good sound. Apparently this show is the only one in Australia. Only on for a few days I think. Walked across from the railway station which is so convenient too.
Attended a State Opera performance here and found the theatre felt a little tired this time around. It is well kept but the seats felt hard after an hour. The magic seems to have departed. The staff did their job too but also seemed tired. Time for a revamp I think even though lots of memories of other times returned.
Attended here to hear the schools song festival. It had been awhile since I had come here but it still has the same magic as previously. The foyers have art displays that are often free to access and it has a great ambience to just wander around the galleries looking at the exhibitions. On a Sunday afternoon a walk around the various theatres and then a walk along the Torrens River can make a very pleasant outing.
The centre and its surrounds can be enjoyed without necessarily attending a performance. Most of which can be expensive
This place is harder to review because it's a venue hosting multiple events!
I've had a run in with staff once; I didn't know that AFT tickets Her Majesty's Theatre too. Arriving early for my show, I was told I'd made an error and it was actually playing at Her Maj's. I explained politely that I was aware that I'd made an error but that perhaps they could make it clearer that they also sell tickets for shows at Her Majesty's; until that moment I had been unaware they were affiliated and thought that all the theatres were under one roof!
This is the kind of thing that good customer service fixes; if you anticipate this kind of mix up rather than assuming everyone attends your theatres all the time, you can warn people in advance that they need to double-check the venue.
Other than that, the shows put on at The Festival Theatre are often brilliant. I've seen many and although they're not always to my taste, the production values and the quality is undeniable. The prices however sometimes class them out of the range of younger or lower income audiences. In fact, some shows are expensive even for those earning decent wages!
It would be nice if there were some more grass roots theatre at the centre, like I remember attending as a child when my mother loved to take us to weird and interesting theatre shows in what was then called the Space theatre in the Festival complex.
A beautiful state asset that has hosted some incredible and important shows, but one that could be more accessible both by clarity of information and by ticket prices.
We were given tickets to Stomp & it was excellent! The performance was incredible, the acoustics in the theatre were great, & the atmosphere electric. Unfortunately the seats can get uncomfortable after an hour or so. Also the food at AFT are always ridiculously overpriced & the staff could probably work on their friendliness. But overall it's a great experience to go to the Adelaide Festival Theatre.
Me and my family went to the festival theatre for my daughter to sing amoungest 100 or more schools it was brilliant the seats were a bit small and narrow but other than that it was great and everyone was friendly.
Approximate cost: $22 per ticket
Always feels like a special event at the Festival Theatre