Adelaide Festival

Adelaide Festival returns in 2026, running from the 27th of February until the 15th of March.

Adelaide Festival is internationally recognised as Australia’s pre-eminent arts festival. Alongside sister-festivals in Edinburgh and Avignon, the Festival is cited as one of the top festivals in the world, providing audiences with the chance to see the most original and acclaimed artists working in the world today. The curated program includes Australia’s largest free literary festival – Adelaide Writers’ Week alongside a cross-section of theatre, opera, music, dance and visual art from artists of all backgrounds and cultures.

Since 1960, Adelaide Festival has also stood at the helm of artistic innovation, commissioning and championing groundbreaking new works and presenting them alongside the greatest established companies and artists.

Adelaide Festival 2026 will launch its full program on 27 October and will run from 27 February – 15 March, 2026.

As an accommodation partner, Sofitel Adelaide is offering Festival-goers an exclusive accommodation rate starting at $320 per night.

Mary Said What She Said

Isabelle Huppert
Directed by Robert Wilson

One of the greatest stage and screen actors of our time, Isabelle Huppert delivers a spellbinding solo performance as Mary Queen of Scots. Directed and designed by the late Robert Wilson, a towering figure in avant-garde theatre, this production bears all the hallmarks of his creative genius.

Written by novelist Darryl Pinckney, with a score by celebrated composer Ludovico Einaudi, the work plunges us into the psyche of Mary Stuart – a woman involved in some of the most notorious plots of her time, and a woman exiled, isolated and misunderstood.

Rich in the symbolism and imagery that earned Robert Wilson the title of “the world’s foremost vanguard theatre artist,” this work is unforgettable – a propulsive exploration of identity and power.