Adelaide: The City of Music

When you think of wine it’s pretty hard to think of it in isolation. To us it’s always been part of a wider experience – like a kind of cultural trinity involving food, wine and music.

Adelaide’s musical pedigree was set in print when the bible of international travellers The Lonely Planet recently labelled Adelaide “Australia’s live music city”. It’s not surprising when you consider that in December 2015 Adelaide was designated by the United Nations as a UNESCO City of Music. Melbourne is a City of Literature, Sydney is a City of Film, but we’ll take music thankyou very much, and there are lots of reasons why.

Music is the second largest art form of the Adelaide Fringe, and Music SA’s annual Live Music Census shows there are over 1100 contemporary music gigs a month across licensed venues in Adelaide. With world class music icons like WOMAD, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the State Opera, Guitars in Bars, VAF Speakers and leading music education institutions like the Sia Furler Institute and Music SA, it’s a mantle we’re proud to stand on.

As a UNESCO City of Music, Adelaide has access to the largest cultural institution on the planet (there are 31 Cities of Music across the globe) and opens the door to international performance and education collaborations and exchanges and gives further weight to the cultural and economic value of music.

Music plays an important role in South Australia’s economic transformation. The music industry in SA provides 6300 jobs, a $375 million contribution to the SA economy and live music provides a 3:1 benefit cost ratio for South Australia. The Adelaide Oval now hosts rugby, soccer, cricket and AFL so you’ve got 30 to 40 thousand people every weekend converging on the city and they’re demanding to be entertained, and that’s a huge opportunity for live music, even during the colder months.

In winter 2016 the inaugural Umbrella: Winter City Sounds live music festival was held in the city of Adelaide. This new winter festival is testament to what a city can do for musicians, audiences, visitors and venues when government, people and companies collectively get behind live music. This year it sees 375 events across 150 venues. What we love about Umbrella is that it’s a grass roots creation – one that is engaged with the city – it’s not a touring festival and it doesn’t buy in big headliners. Umbrella will survive and flourish because it has a connection with Adelaide and the people in Adelaide, so that the people that visit us from elsewhere feel like they’re actually visiting somewhere uniquely Adelaidian.

Yalumba spoke with Adelaide artist and 2017 People’s Choice Nominee for ‘Best Female Artist’ Naomi Keyte at this year’s WOMADelaide Festival. Watch the interview below.

Click here to view the video

South Australia is benefitting from unprecedented levels of enterprise focused on live music. Recent improvements in live music regulation that reduce barriers to live music in venues, and priority funding support from federal, local and state governments, and you’ve got an environment that is ripe for musicians. While Adelaide’s status as either the birthplace or founding ground for artists such as AC/DC, The Angels, Cold Chisel, The Hilltop Hoods and Sia is well known, it’s the latest crop of talented SA musos who are scoring their music on the national and international scenes. Bad//Dreems, Heaps Good Friends, Timberwolf, Germein, West Thebarton, Trials, MANE, Dyspora, Motez and Adrian Eagle just to name a few.

There’s no greater way to acknowledge these stars than at the annual South Australian Music Awards. The SAM Awards exist to recognise, promote and celebrate excellence in the South Australian contemporary music industry and take place annually in Adelaide, South Australia every November. It has become a stand out fixture on the UNESCO City of Music’s calendar of music events and is a “night of nights” for the South Australian music community.

The SAM Awards take place in Adelaide in November. They aim to recognise, promote and celebrate excellence in the South Australian music industry - https://southaustralianmusicawards.com.au