Words: Lara Pacillo // Photos: Isaac Urban
There’s a new place to party during Adelaide Fringe season this year, with open-air venue Sanctuary set to be a cultural haven for electronic music, arts, and dancing.
Sanctuary will take place at Helen Mayo Park with seven parties across three weekends of Fringe season from March 1 to March 16, curated by event production company Pivot and Mapped Studio.
Call it an outdoor nightclub, party series, Fringe hub, or all three; Sanctuary exists to present local, national, and international artists on the cutting edge of dance music with “mind-bending” audio-visual production.
As well as being a music venue, a range of performing artists will feature as arts and music intertwine along Karrawirra Parri/River Torrens.
“There’ll be some physical theatre, there’ll be some magic, there’ll be some other bits and pieces going on throughout the day,” Pivot operations manager Elliott Jamie says.
“We’re really trying to focus on it being a day party just as much as a night party, in the same way that Sidebyside is.”
Sanctuary acts as an extension of boutique electronic music festival Sidebyside, which is run by Pivot and Mapped. With Sidebyside taking place on Saturday February 24, it will act as the launch for the Sanctuary series.
While the full Sanctuary lineup is yet to be announced, Auckland’s Chaos in the CBD is confirmed to be hitting the stage on the first weekend on March 2, with the remainder of the artists expected to be just as exciting.
Pirate Life and Vinteloper will be providing beer and wine, while classic festival eats will be on offer.
The main focus is the music, where collaborating with David Musch and the team at Mapped Studio has helped to create a unique visual and production standpoint.
“It’s a venue that is being put together primarily for the presentation of leading electronic music,” Elliott says.
“A lot of our thought and design from a production standpoint — sound systems, lighting features, the social ethos, sustainability — are all in line with what we’ve experienced at some of the best events that we’ve been to.
“We’re trying to take all of our inspiration from the events that we’ve attended, and also allow ourselves the opportunity to express our creative output when it comes to site design, audio design, lighting, and video. Hopefully it’s something that’s quite unique.”
Joining forces with Adelaide Fringe through Sanctuary has allowed some of the core focuses of Sidebyside, being discovery and connection, to be elevated in magnitude while also filling a gap for a dedicated dance music offering at Adelaide Fringe.
Elliott says it’s an amazing opportunity to be able to provide something really special among the vast spectrum of music and art that fills the city in February and March.
“During the Fringe, people of all ages are really in this exploratory mode when it comes to the art and performance. They’re looking to try and do things,” Elliott explains.
“They’re thinking, ‘It’s Fringe time, there’s all this crazy stuff on, I’m going to go and see that thing that I’ve never seen before.’
“For us, that’s a really great attribute of the Fringe. It means that even if you’re not familiar with the artists on the lineup, you can come along to discover new areas of the music spectrum that you don’t already know.
“Or, if you’re someone who is already super aware of this scope of music, it’s a place for you to come and connect to a larger group of people than you might normally connect with in a nightclub, and be able to experience that in a new unique environment.”
Presale online tickets to Sanctuary start at $35 where the venue will be open from mid-afternoon until 1 am; for those planning on being regular visitors, Sanctuary Club offers access to all parties (excluding Sidebyside) for $150, as well as a 10 per cent discount on drinks, with a few secret surprises for club members too.
The Sanctuary team aims to work with and build on Adelaide’s electronic music scene with inclusivity at the forefront.
“This is an environment where we hope that if you’re someone that’s been involved in the underground music scene for years, you can feel that we’ve put every ounce of our experience and our love for that community into the venue,” Elliott says.
“Or as someone who’s never really been involved with the underground music scene, you can have an experience that convinces you that it’s something that you want to be involved with into the future.
“It’s full of some of the most amazing people that all of us have ever met and a really supportive community; it’s an environment that is based around inclusivity, acceptance and a commitment to encouraging people to be whoever they are.”
Sanctuary: Saturday March 1 – Saturday March 16 // Helen Mayo Park, Adelaide 5000