For one night only in the city’s West End, a multi-location, multi-dimensional festival unfolds with the debut of Supersonic.
Eighteen artists will perform across seven venues as part of the new Illuminate Adelaide event, expanding the festival’s contemporary music program — and giving night owls another reason to skip their bedtime.
Across 11 hours on Saturday 19 July, attendees can move between free and ticketed experiences spanning music, art and film.
Single-venue tickets are available, with each location offering a different focus — from an electronic party at Lion Arts Factory and global club sounds at Ancient World, to live experimental music at Jive and sonic art installation at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental.
While the Supersonic Multi Pass which grants access to all venues has now sold out, single-venue tickets are still available. Get in early to catch the acts you don’t want to miss.
Illuminate Adelaide co-founders and creative directors, Rachael Azzopardi and Lee Cumberlidge, say taking the night program to the next level has been a long-time goal.
“This is the kind of event we’ve wanted to build into the program for a while,” says Rachael.
“Something that amplifies the late-night energy of the city in collaboration with local venues and offers an electrifying program focused on Australian artists.”
ACE: “INPUT/OUTPUT”
6pm-9pm
A large-scale steel installation, “Input/Output” combines electronic composition and live performance at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental gallery. The work draws from Adelaide-based artist Mark Valenzuela’s memories of public space structures in the Philippines: the street stall, sari-sari (assorted goods) store, kariton (pushcart), and paipitan (livestock cage).
Fitted with ceramic objects, thread, fabric and found materials, the structure is activated by sound and light in collaboration with multidisciplinary artists Miles Dunne and Alycia Bennett. Together they explore themes of connection and isolation.
Free sessions repeat every 30 minutes from 6pm, making it easy to drop in when moving between venues.
MERCURY CINEMA: THE SOUND OF REVOLUTION
6pm-2am
Take a breather from dancing with a trip to Mercury Cinema for The Sound of Revolution — an Australian documentary program curated by award-winning documentary filmmaker Shalom Almond.
With eight films screening, the program explores the intersection of music and social change. It features Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow, which explores the lives and love story of Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach; Gurrumul, which follows blind Indigenous musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu; and Songs Inside, about breaking cycles of women incarceration through music.
ANCIENT WORLD
8pm-5am
Hindley Street’s basement bar Ancient World becomes a sanctuary for world dance music, queer expression, and far-reaching diasporic sounds.
Adelaide’s Hello Moto, Hart Flayme, and Nelya open the night with high energy blends, handing over to Melbourne’s Emelyne for a set rich with obscure global gems. Senegalese–Spanish DJ MBODJ brings gqom, jungle, and footwork into collision, before Melbourne’s dameeeela closes with a melting pot of noise and percussive release. Ancient World takes the party to sunrise, wrapping at 5am.
NEXUS ARTS
7pm-10:30pm
Nexus Arts gallery presents a warm and immersive session bridging heritage and contemporary music. Opening is Yasha duo, featuring Noriko Tadano who is a master of the traditional Japanese shamisen (three-stringed instrument), and dark ambient synth artist Adam Ritchie.
Following is one of Australia’s strongest indigenous voices Frank Yamma, a Pitjantjatjara man whose raw lyrics and guitar playing cross cultural and musical boundaries.
JIVE
7pm-11:30pm
Just down the road, music venue Jive hosts three acts pushing live experimental performance into dreamy dimensions. Surrealist pop project Plastiq blends IDM, cinematic scores and otherworldly production, set within an apocalyptic digital landscape inhabited by their animated doubles.
Post-rock project Kuiper builds a dense wall of synths and distorted textures, leading audiences toward crashing highs. Melbourne collective Polito anchors its mesmerising audio-visual show in bodily movement, using real-time modular synthesis and shifting beat structures to create a transfixing journey.
THE LAB AT ILA: “TINY HOLE INSIDE ME”
7:30pm-10:30pm
The dive into experimental continues with Andrea Illés and Marcus Whale, who present a three-hour performance “Tiny Hole Inside Me”. A hybrid of sound, dance, and live-feed video, the piece unravels across solo, collaborative and interactive segments. Themes of bodily failure, surveillance and impossible perfection emerge, drawing influence from Greek mythology.
LION ARTS FACTORY
9pm-2:30am
As Supersonic’s biggest venue, Lion Arts becomes a late-night festival hub, with electronic music booming into the early hours. The lineup is curated by Iraqi-Australian producer Motez, who will perform with his signature genre-defying sound, joined by three other standout acts.
Housing Boom co-founders, Phil Pirone and Dave Kameniar, channel classic house from deep to garage to progressive.
They’re followed by Memphis LK, representing the new wave of femme voices in dance music, before FUKHED closes the night with a set of melancholia and relentless techno.
Illuminate Adelaide’s Supersonic: Saturday 19 July
