City Lights is a must-see during the Illuminate Adelaide festival, with a huge range of interactive and dazzling art installations to discover – and they’re all free to see.

Review by Claire Davill

Rug up, take umbrellas if it’s raining, and go for a walk along North Terrace and Rundle Street during July. The City Lights are on from 5:30pm every night until 20 July 2025. There’s plenty of space for kids to explore and even opportunities to interact with some installations. The City Lights stretch from Base Camp at Lot 14, to Festival Plaza, with additional installations along Rundle Street.

We suggest starting at Base Camp and walking along North Terrace towards Festival Plaza, then looping back and walking down Rundle Street to East Terrace. If you have young children that might not be able to walk that distance, you can catch a free city tram back, hop on at the Adelaide Railway Station tram stop and hop off at the Botanic Garden stop.

Each installation is easy to find and has a signpost detailing the artist and features of the art. 

The VOICES installation on the corner of North Terrace and Frome Road is interactive – spin the columns to make them light up and sing. The faster you spin, the brighter and louder they’ll be.

Kickit Team Tennis is also interactive, it’s like a multi-laned game of Pong. Look for the entrances to the side to join the teams of players stomping to return the “ball” to the other side.

Don’t forget to head into Bonython Hall for the SomniUs installation. Wander under the dancing lights here, take a seat at the far end of the hall for a rest, or even lie on the floor underneath the lights if it’s not too busy.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the MoonGARDEN installation in front of the South Australian Museum. The spheres change colours, some of them display moving silhouettes and the largest sphere has windows (including several at small child-height) to peer into, to see a whole host of surprises within.

Lightbattle III sits near the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue and is another highly interactive installation. Bikes at each end power the lights, and there are seated hand-cranked bikes here too for those who cannot pedal full sized bikes.

There are several brightly lit benches to sit on, particularly near Government House. A Path of Light and Time, a light projection installation, is visible in the grounds of Government House.

Emergence in Festival Plaza is a walk-through ring of mirrors and lights.

Rundle Street includes several LAPS hourglasses that you can rotate, as well as more light benches and occasional roaming installations. Rundle Street is closed to traffic on Friday and Saturday nights for the festival, with fire pits and street dining available.

Roaming Installations are a must-see if you visit Friday, Saturday or Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What we like about City Lights:

• It’s completely FREE to experience.
• The lights turn on as soon as it gets dark (at 5:30pm) so there’s time to view the lights before it gets too late for little ones.
• Many of the installations are interactive.

Things to consider:

• The whole route can be a long walk for small children. Consider taking the free city tram to return, or alternatively, skip the Government House and Festival Plaza installations for a shorter loop.
• There are several food and drink options, including light up fairy floss, that might be hard to avoid if children spot them! 
• Keep a close eye on children due to the low light and traffic. Only cross roads at designated pedestrian crossings.

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT ILLUMINATE ADELAIDE 2025

For more information and all enquiries please visit the Illuminate Adelaide 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. All photos are by Play & Go (unless specified).

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