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When the Adelaide Fringe Festival became a legal organisation in 1975, founding chairman Frank Ford never expected it to grow to be the world's second-largest annual arts festival.
"It is way beyond what we dreamed of," Mr Ford said.
"I'd hoped it became a national showcase for new works and new talent, but now it's become an international showcase, which is quite extraordinary."
It is also extraordinary that a city with a population of just 1.32 million has produced a festival surpassed only by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
But the Adelaide Fringe is not without its critics. Purists say it has become too large or too packed with stand-up comedy to still be considered a true fringe — a statement Mr Ford rejects entirely — while others say poor marketing has resulted in little penetration of Australia's eastern states.
Artists first started producing shows on the fringes of the Adelaide Festival in 1961 — a government-funded, curated festival of international acts from around the world.
They were executing the word "fringe" to its true meaning — producing open access shows in the shadows of a larger, well-funded festival, just as the Edinburgh Fringe did with the Edinburgh International Festival.
Despite its growth Mr Ford said the Adelaide Fringe had not changed from its original spirit, which was to provide an avenue for "absolutely anybody" who wanted to put on a performance.
"The Festival is a curated festival and one person, usually a man, chooses what they think is best from around the world," Mr Ford said.
"The Fringe, however, is an open platform for the arts. It's a wonderful platform for free expression."
Fears of being 'swamped' with comedians
Mr Ford said comedians realised in the 1990s that they could perform at the Fringe on their way to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
"I was terribly concerned because all of a sudden, they were swamping the Fringe, which is drama, music and all sorts of art, and they had promoters who could afford the publicity," he said.
"It really looked like in the late 1990s the Fringe was going to be swamped and become a comedy festival."
Comedy remains a dominant feature of the Fringe program each year, but Mr Ford said the open access festival had continued to grow in every area and its diversity was as healthy as ever.
"There's still a lot of comedy shows, but you've got hundreds of cabaret shows, hundreds of theatre shows, and you've got circus coming back into its fore in various shapes and sizes," he said.
"Comedy is very easy and cheap to mount. It's one or two people on stage, no costumes, and it's good light, fun entertainment.
"But I think what you're seeing in the rest of the fringe is really wonderful artistic expression."
Lack of awareness interstate
But while the Adelaide Fringe is well-known among interstate artists and performers, one critical area where it has been historically overlooked is among interstate punters.
Elena Kirschbaum is a director at Gluttony, one of three popular outdoor hubs at the Adelaide Fringe that provide tent venues, entertainment, food and drinks.
"I think most of Australia has no idea that one of the best festivals in the world is on their doorstep," she said.
"And it's such short and cheap flights from Sydney or Melbourne that Adelaide should be overrun by people coming from the other big cities to check this out."
The State Government recently announced it would inject $1 million into next year's event to abolish inside charges for artists selling tickets less than $35, and to run a targeted interstate and international marketing campaign.
Ms Kirschbaum said there was "massive potential" for audience growth by tapping into this market and acknowledged that it was an area the Fringe was "really starting to push".
"The Fringe is so incredible, but there's only so far the Fringe can keep growing while it's largely Adelaide audiences," she said.
Tom Skipper, who founded the popular Royal Croquet Club outdoor hub with two others, said the entire city needed to get behind the Adelaide Fringe, much the way the Scottish had for the Edinburgh Fringe.
"Edinburgh has a population [about 500,000] even smaller than Adelaide, yet obviously you've got a whole city that gets behind it," he said.
"It does have proximity to Europe and the greater population through Great Britain.
"I think what we need to do is probably start as a state getting behind it [Adelaide Fringe] and marketing it, certainly to the rest of Australia, so we have a much larger contingency of international and interstate guests, which is only going to benefit the state."
'Mad March' a missed marketing opportunity
Like the Adelaide Festival and the Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe coincides with the Edinburgh International Festival, which in itself generated $6.4 million in ticket sales in 2016.
Adelaide and Edinburgh compared
- Adelaide Fringe had 1,100 shows across 430 venues in 2016
- Edinburgh Fringe had 3,269 shows across 294 venues
- Adelaide sold more than 600,000 tickets in 2016
- Edinburgh sold about 2.5 million
By comparison, the Adelaide Festival passed its target of $2 million in ticket sales three weeks before it opened.
But Adelaide also benefits from crowds visiting three other festivals during the same period.
Writers' Week drew 120,000 people in 2016, Womadelaide more than 95,000, and the Clipsal 500 racing carnival 263,5000.
The five festivals combined are fondly known as Mad March — an urban description that has so far been overlooked by the State Government for its marketing potential.
Mr Ford said the SA Government had missed opportunities to promote its attractions intestate.
"We seem to be able to advertise our sporting events, like the Clipsal 500, but we don't seem to really promote our festivals enough," he said.
"The Fringe could be a fantastic family holiday and attract every age group from across the country.
"The city just buzzes."
An SA Government spokesperson said the Government was making a "targeted push" interstate and overseas to boost awareness of Adelaide as Australia's "best festival city".
"Today, for example, in Sydney, the SA Tourism Commission is leading a delegation of SA artistic directors and even organisers to present their events to Sydney media," she said.
"The SA Tourism Commission also brings media famils to the state during this time, so media have an opportunity to experience firsthand and then write about these events."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, visual-art, adelaide-5000, sa
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