Fire Gardens – Illuminate Adelaide | Adelaide Botanic Garden | Review

July 5, 2024

Explore Illuminate Adelaide’s incredible Fire Gardens at the Adelaide Botanic Garden

Wander around the gardens at night and be warmed by spectacular fire art installations that you can walk under, walk through and even sit on!

Review by Claire Davill

French fire experts Compagnie Carabosse have made use of most of the extensive Adelaide Botanic Garden, which means you’ll have a chance to wander all around the gardens in any direction you choose. Spend as long as you like enjoying a variety of installations, all lit by thousands of fires.

There are some moving installations, the most spectacular involving a large “flower” that slowly opens and then closes – squirting liquid into the air creating spectacular fireballs. There are also rotating spheres, tipping buckets of water surrounding fire and hand-cranked flumes operated by the artists.

There are fire-lit pathways through the forest to follow, swings to sit on, and heated seats – make sure you don’t miss the chance to sit down on these on cold winter nights!

Every aspect of the gardens is used to great effect, including reflections on the lake and ponds and surreal singlets floating in the forest in the Bicentennial Conservatory.

After entry, you can head in any direction you choose. Make sure you check out every part of the garden, there is something new around each corner.

If you have very small children, think about whether Fire Gardens is suitable as you will need to keep a close eye on little ones. Many of the fire pots are very low to the ground. The pathways can be dark in places, particularly in the Bicentennial Conservatory and through the adjacent forest areas. Most of the installations can be viewed from accessible paths, but there are some areas that might be trickier to navigate for wheelchairs and strollers, with sawdust paths and lawn.

If you need a break, there are food and drinks available at the Schomburgk Pavillion, as well as toilets here and at the kiosk. There’s live music on the lawns near the kiosk as well.

You’ll need to enter at your ticketed time (entry sessions every 15 minutes), but once in the gardens you can stay as long as you like.

Where are all the fire installations for Fire Gardens at Adelaide Botanic Gardens?

This event is very unstructured and designed to allow visitors to wander at leisure and discover what’s around the next bend. If you’re not familiar with the layout of the gardens, here’s a map for Fire Gardens to help you find some of the installations because we don’t want you to miss them.

G9 – giant opening flower and swing
F4 – giant “wave”
D4 – fire around the fountain and long fire pits
C2 – kinetic water fall and fire sculpture
D7 – ficus avenue under lights
D8 – fire totem poles
D6 – heated seats and live music
G13 – fire sphere
C12 – floating singlets

LINK TO ADELAIDE BOTANIC GARDEN PDF MAP

LINK TO THE OFFICIAL FIRE GARDENS MAP PDF

Things to consider:

Be aware that some paths are possibly not suitable for wheelchairs and prams.
Entry and exit is via the main entrance on North Terrace. We noticed very long queues to get in on Saturday night so be prepared for this, particularly with young ones. You might want to pack snacks, drinks and a couple of toys.

There is fire EVERYWHERE – if you’re taking young kids, you will need to be very careful with supervision. There’s no fences or barriers to the fire at all so unless your little kids are able to keep safe around open flames, and not put their hands in a fire pot, or trip over and fall into one along the path, keep them at home or you’ll be having a heart attack every 5 seconds. For everyone else, no barriers means being able to get right up close to the free flowing flames. Be careful of gusts of wind which may blow up bits at you.
They recommend an hour but it took us around 1.5 hours to wander around to see everything. You can spend as long as you like.
There is no map so you roam around freely so at times we didn’t know where we were going in the dark, and whether we had seen everything – make sure you wander to all corners and take your time, including inside the Bicentennial Conservatory and the glass house. Look out for the swings and heated seats. See map above and some of the highlights corresponding to the map.
The smoke from the fires may be difficult for anyone with respiratory issues and the smell of the fumes may be unpleasant for some.
Be aware that the pathways and ground are uneven and it is very dark in some parts although this time there are more fire pots lighting the walkways. We recommend either using your torch phone, or packing a torch.
Wear good walking shoes – you will be covering a lot of ground.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO & TO BUY TICKETS

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.

Image Source: all photos by Play & Go Adelaide 2024

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