Fringe Vibrancy

Adelaide is a living, breathing, vibrant city.  The Central Business District or CBD as it is known is always alive with action.

When Fringe is on, the East End takes vibrancy to another level.  During the evenings of Fringe the east end of Rundle St. is closed to vehicular traffic.  Restaurants extend themselves into the streets, doubling and tripling in size. Street theater pops up along the street with performers competing for space. Pop-up food venues appear. Pop-up bars appear.  The heartbeat of the city moves from a heartbeat at rest to that of a jogger.

One can only imagine the amount of cash gleefully flowing  from the merrymakers into the coffers of the businesses and city from those attending Fringe or simply soaking up the atmosphere of the city.

There is more than enough business to go around.  Restaurants are booked out.  Bars are packed.  It’s true of those in the city as well as those at the primary venues of Gluttony and The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Outrageous sums are paid for eat and grog and there are few complaints.

It is the vibe of the Adelaide at Fringe that we love.  Even without Fringe, the restaurant scene in Adelaide is robust.  So many good restaurants, so little time to sample.  So many quaint and tidy little bars, pubs and wine bars; too many to choose.

What a contrast two weeks made. One week we were enjoying the vibrancy of Fringe, the next we continued to enjoy the vibrancy of Adelaide and then they shut to country.  The restaurants were closed.  The bars were closed. The salons were closed. Many stores closed.  Businesses closed. 

What had once been the traffic clogged bustling city street of North Terrace became a street with only the occasional vehicle.  The line of non-stop taxis that extended from the Railway Station, past the Intercontinental Hotel and Adelaide Convention Centre, and even past our apartment evaporated. The hundreds of pedestrians always walking the street slowed to a trickle; and then slowed again until only the occasion pedestrian wandered the street.

From our bird’s eye view nine stories above North Terrace, we’ve had a ring-side seat to the shutdown of a city.  It has been like watching someone shut off a faucet. The flags came down on the Adelaide Oval. Then the Adelaide Oval’s lights went out.  When my oval’s lights went out, my lights went out.  The colored lights ringing the oval were the last thing viewed before bed. What color were they on this night? Now they are no color.  They are dark, just like the city, just like the nation.