Adelaide Festival Plaza & Children’s Artspace – Review
After a long, long time, the Adelaide Festival Plaza is finally open to the public again, with a whole host of family-friendly facilities!
by Claire Davill
In addition, there is a dedicated Children’s Artspace that will feature new exhibitions each school term. There will also be workshops, interactive experiences, and performances throughout 2022 that accompany the exhibitions.
Play in the Plaza celebrates the opening of both spaces and runs from 12-14 March 2022. We checked out some of the available activities:
- Sticky Kaleidoscope workshops, where children get to create their own shape to contribute to a large, colourful installation on the window of the Dunstan Playhouse. Free sessions are running over the long weekend and can be booked, along with kaleidoscope making workshops.
- An interactive exhibition from two primary schools, with kaleidoscopes, cardboard sculptures and collages to see.
- Mini Mad Things are running Cubby Town and Necklace making workshops, both encourage children to create art from cardboard and loose parts. Children can play in the cardboard cubby houses after creating art to decorate them. Sessions are free and do not need to be booked. These are located downstairs in the Dunstan Playhouse.
- There are roving performers, food stalls and music on all through the long weekend. There are markets on the Sunday and Monday.
Festival Plaza
The plaza itself is a fantastic new space with lots of child-friendly facilities. The big drawcard is the water play area, with bubblers alternating with misters on a timer. The pavers are wonderfully non-slip, and the area is semi-fenced off from the rest of the plaza with lots of chairs and tables around the edge for weary parents. Your kids WILL get wet, so bring a change of clothes. On weekends, the Goodie Goodie café is adjacent and offers a free towel service for drying off. They’ll also be serving drinks and light snacks.
Other drawcards include the Selfie wall, with a digital display of moving patterns and sometimes a camera focused on the plaza itself. There were also bubble fountains bordering the plaza when we visited, we’re unsure if this will become a permanent feature or not.
The sculpture “shade trees” dot the area with vines set to grow up and over them to create more shade, but currently cast geometric patterns of shade that match the theme of the paving. There is plenty of seating and shade all around the space and ample toilet facilities, making it a lovely place to hang out, explore and play.
READ MORE ABOUT FESTIVAL PLAZA HERE
The new plaza is a great addition to the Riverbank precinct and a great place for kids to run around and blow off some steam. Keep an eye on the Adelaide Riverbank website for upcoming programs and activities and make a day of it.
Location:
Adelaide Festival Centre | King William St, Adelaide
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Adelaide Riverbank website
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently.
Image Source: All photos by Claire Davill for Play & Go Adelaide
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