Speeches
Tuesday, 24 February 2026
Reception for 2026 Adelaide Festival Chairman’s Circle
Rod and I warmly welcome members of the Chairman’s Circle to Government House.
This evening, we celebrate the ongoing dedication, enthusiasm and generosity you bring to Adelaide Festival.
South Australia's reputation for the quality of our arts and our festivals is known well beyond our borders.
As members of the Chairman's Circle, you have helped to forge this reputation.
As I said at last year’s reception, at the heart of your membership of the Chairman’s Circle is your belief in the importance of the arts to our society, and your commitment to ensuring the festival continues to thrive.
Philanthropy ensures Adelaide Festival can commission and present large-scale works in opera, theatre, music, and dance.
It ensures the festival can program the best of local and international works, enabling audiences to engage with what the arts does best – inspiring, entertaining, evoking contemplation and bringing joy.
It has now been eleven years since the Chairman's Circle was established, during which your collective giving has contributed nearly $3.8 million to Adelaide Festival.
Your support has helped to bring some of the most extraordinary operas in recent history to South Australia.
Among them are The James Plays, Romeo Castellucci's extraordinary production of Mozart's Requiem, Barrie Kosky's Saul, last year's Innocence directed by Simon Stone, and of course, this year’s work, The Cherry Orchard, which Rod and I look forward to seeing on Friday evening.
These are highlights – eagerly anticipating, enjoyed, discussed and remembered.
I congratulate Matt Lutton on programming this bold reworking of the Chekhov classic, and in his first Adelaide Festival Program.
Friends,
Festivals, by their nature, are complex and ambitious undertakings — and Adelaide Festival is nothing if not ambitious.
I thank the Chairman’s Circle members for your commitment to the festival, especially through the inevitable ups and downs of a long running event.
I am deeply encouraged by your loyalty, your generosity, and your belief in the power of the arts to shape our community, and our economy, for the better.
It would be odd, I think, were I not at least to allude to the particular challenges the Festival has faced over recent months, not to comment on them substantively, but to acknowledge their complexity and the emotion that they have engendered.
And to thank you, Chairman’s Circle members, for your steadfast support.
As Governor, I express my appreciation for the work of the previous board, and for its dedication to the festival and its role in South Australia’s cultural life.
And I warmly welcome the new Chair, Judy Potter, and new board members, to your roles, and I thank you for taking on this responsibility at an important moment.
I thank CEO Julian Hobba for the leadership you have shown in the first six months of your role, and all festival staff for their hard work and their love of what the Adelaide Festival represents.
Rod and I look forward to supporting this year’s festival and look forward to seeing many of you on Opening Night and to the discussions we will have as the festival unfolds.