Speeches
Friday, 04 July 2025
Morning Tea for Illuminate Adelaide Artists
Rod and I warmly welcome you all to Government House to celebrate the 2025 Illuminate Adelaide Festival.
We are pleased to be joined this morning by a unique group of local, interstate and international artists, and thank those of you who have travelled long distances to be here.
South Australia is known widely for its festivals, and in only its fifth year, Illuminate Adelaide has become a major event on our festival calendar.
For those of you new to Adelaide – for most of the year, we have a warm, or hot, climate.
South Australians can be reluctant to leave home on cold evenings – even though we have much milder winters than many other parts of the world.
That said, every year for Illuminate, hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors don their beanies and venture out to enjoy the very best of light, sound and technology experiences.
A huge part of the festival’s success is driven by the outstanding quality and variety of events on offer.
This is of course thanks to you, our artists, whose installations light up our streets and spaces.
Your inspiring work is worth braving the cold!
Government House is pleased to support Illuminate Adelaide in every way we can.
We’re proud to engage with artists on occasions such as this one, as well as today’s lunchtime conversation, ‘Courageous Women in the Arts’, featuring Rachael Azzopardi as a guest speaker.
This is a free, public event in our ballroom, and I’m sure we can find a spare seat or two if anyone would like to attend.
Government House is also extremely pleased to, once again, take part in the City Lights program.
This year we are hosting a projection by the esteemed Javier Riera - A Path of Light and Time – on our front façade.
Thank you Javier for adapting your work for our building. It’s a stunning piece and no doubt will attract a large audience.
It’s great to see the popularity of City Lights grow every year, and I welcome the other artists here today who are taking part in this program.
While we look forward to seeing all the installations involved in City Lights, we are particularly intrigued to see the roaming horses of Compagnie des Quidams[1] trotting along North Terrace!
I thank the artists here today who are involved in a range of other free and ticketed events, as well as Supersonic, Illuminate Adelaide’s brand-new festival in the West End, and the Offline Club, offering tech free relaxation spaces.
I also thank Co Directors Rachael Azzopardi and Lee Cumberlidge, and the entire Illuminate Adelaide team, for bringing this year’s festival to life.
Friends all, best of luck for a successful festival.
Rod and I look forward to seeing South Australians experiencing all the joy, wonder and surprise that Illuminate has to offer.
We won’t even notice the cold!