SILENCE ! Adelaide Fringe 2023 Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for a heart-thumping, fiery spectacular
Review by Carla Caruso
The SILENCE ! Festival at Elder Park/Tarntanya Wama is anything but silent – in an entirely good way.
Think live music, percussion, fire, pyrotechnics, and fireworks. Plus, art installations, food trucks, pop-up bars, roving entertainment, and picnicking.
If you’re looking for a change of scene from The Garden of Unearthly Delights or Gluttony – but still want that Adelaide Fringe vibe – then this is just the place.
Only on during the start of the Fringe, the three-night, all-ages concert/festival has taken over Elder Park/Tarntanya Wama.
Upon entering, we enjoyed soaking up the idyllic setting as the sun sank behind the River Torrens. People and fairy lights abounded, and Adelaide’s famed grey-headed flying foxes zipped about overhead.
My plus-one had brought along a picnic rug, so we nabbed a good patch of grass for viewing the show later. (You can also bring low-back chairs, though no outside food or drinks can be brought into the venue.)
Then it was onto checking out the food trucks for some dinner. Choices range from tacos to baked potatoes, paella, pizza, yiros, and more. (Just get in early as there were wait times for some fare.)
In between, we perused the art installations – including Looped by Cyril Lancelin of Town.and.Concrete and Chain_01 by Mapped Studio – as well as checked out the specky views from the rotunda.
It was a perfect summer night, with Adelaide city putting on a show of its own.
Once we had our food and drink, we settled in to watch the live entertainment. This included brother-and-sister duo LASTLINGS, and Melbourne singer-songwriter KYE. These delivered the kind of pleasant tunes that got your head nodding and your body swaying.
As the sky darkened further, it was onto the act we’d most been waiting for – SILENCE ! – a massive pyrotechnic, fireworks and percussion spectacle by French performance artists Les Commandos Percu.
Their eye-popping, explosive show is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s a post-apocalyptic-style band meets a fireworks show!
Or as their website says, they’re pyro-musicians who “enlighten the sky with their rhythms”.
Adding: “The slow, muffled, rolling of the drums rises from the depths becoming a deafening noise. A rain of metal fills the air; sheet lightning overwhelms the sky. Musician/pyrotechnician artists of Les Commandos Percu invent a storm of sounds and fire that resonates deep inside.”
It’s not to be missed. You’ll be looking up at the sky, with your mouth hanging open. It’s a feat that the artists can perform so close to the pyrotechnics and still maintain their cool. The choreography is on point. The usual New Year’s fireworks are nothing on this.
And afterwards, you can kick on, and keep enjoying the festival vibe, as DJs LL Cool Dre and Stubanga play.
Bring on the fire!
SILENCE ! Festival is at Tarntanya/Elder Park on Friday 17, Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 February 2023
Gates open 5.30pm; live music program 6pm til’ 9.30pm; SILENCE ! from 9.30pm.
For more information, please visit the Adelaide Fringe 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. The Play & Go team review via media accreditation and when kindly invited.
All photos by Carla Caruso for Play & Go Adelaide
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