Skip to main content

Adelaide: The Garden of Unearthly Delights

The first thing any Adelaidean will tell you about the Fringe Festival is that "The Garden" is an absoulte MUST.



A sectioned-off part of Rundle Park at the north-eastern corner of the CBD, The Garden of Unearthly Delights (cnr East Terrace & Rundle Road) is essentially the hub for All Things 'Fringe'. Here, for the duration of the Festival, you can buy or collect tickets, attend shows in any one of the on-site 'venues' (mainly tents like you'd find at a circus), buy merchandise, get a food or drink fix, shop at market stalls, attend events, lounge around on the grass or chairs and watch people or the free entertainment, take the kids on rides... and the list goes on.







The Garden is set up like an old-fashioned fair: elaborately decorated caravans housing food stalls, games and tickets; various stages and 'big top' style, colourful tents; wooden painted signs, flags, mirrors and coloured lights. It is loosely divided into sections for food and drink, rides, and market stalls, with venues dotted around the park.








We wiled away time in the Garden at several points over our long weekend in Rads. Here are a few more of its many delights:


Still not sure how this spit roast was 'Dutch style'

Sorry, vegetarians

This was not a concentration camp

or a French circus

Vintage clothing market stall IN A BUS

Hi hanging fish

Muppets! and other cuties FOR YOUR HEAD



My sister and the gorgeous Mya

Jade and Bree whooshing past

Hi, Jade!




It's a great place to hang out, and I can see why it's so popular. I mainly liked it because it's a visual feast for the eyes, but considering you can head there at most times of day, with grown-ups or the kids, and you have a number of ways to spend your time... it's got ***CLICHE ALERT*** something for everyone.

Looking forward to seeing how the Garden evolves with each new Festival.

Popular posts from this blog

The Lui Bar

In my opinion, some places are simply better experienced than described. This post features many photos which hardly do The Lui Bar (Level 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne) justice, because no matter how many pictures I show you or words I write about it, there is just nothing like viewing Melbourne from 55 floors up, handcrafted cocktail in hand, listening to jazz. Albert Park Lake and beyond, from The Lui Bar The Lui Bar stems off Shannon Bennett 's revered restaurant  Vue De Monde , the degustation meal of which is absolutely on my bucket list. The restaurant was moved to the Rialto site in 2011, and its adjoining bar has also been making waves ever since. Iconic in location, the venue not only occupies the top level of what was, in 1986, the tallest building in Melbourne and the Southern Hemisphere at 251 metres, but offers spectacular city views of up to 60 kilometres on a clear day. Even the Eureka Tower , currently Melbourne's tallest buil...

Supernormal

Is it, though? So normal it's super normal? I think maybe not. There are a lot of 'normal' things at Supernormal (180 Flinders Lane, Melbourne) - you go in, get a table (if you're lucky), order food, eat it at said table. But there are a few things that set this restaurant apart. Kitchen behind the bar One is size. Supernormal is quite big for a Melbourne CBD restaurant. There are different sections: a looooong bar (behind which sits the kitchen, and which pretty much runs the length of the restaurant), a line of booth-style tables, a couple of walls hosting tables with bench seating, and stand-alone tables in the middle. Bench seating tables and random display flowers and bottles It also has a very high ceiling, which makes the interior feel very spacious and airy. Hard surfaces everywhere do echo the noisy chatter from so many covers, but the space above all the heads helps absorb it. Stand-alone tables in the middle and hi Another is ...

Flower Drum

In a hospitality scene as ever-changing as Melbourne's, it's impressive when any venue manages to continue trading for longer than a few years. To be given the label 'institution' or 'iconic' is high praise indeed, since it is so hard to come by. Some might say Pellegrini's is a Melbourne institution ( I don't love it myself ), or perhaps The European , or a classic music venue like the Palais Theatre or the Espy . Rarer yet is an Asian restaurant afforded the title of a Melbourne 'institution'. And yet this is a badge that  Flower Drum (17 Market Lane, Melbourne) has retained since its debut 40 years ago. Flower Drum (also a traditional Chinese dance) was opened in 1975 by Gilbert Lau at a site on Little Bourke Street, aiming to bring quality Cantonese food to the Australian masses. Ten years later it moved to its current home, and head chef Anthony Lui was appointed. Lui remains head chef today, and in 2003 also became part-owner along ...