Sarah Herrmann, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Just one act is visiting Yorke Peninsula this Adelaide Fringe season, while regions a similar distance from the city, such as the Clare and Barossa Valleys, are hosting up to 30 events.

This has prompted a local arts advocate to urge YP audiences to speak out and, importantly, show up when the time comes, if they want to see more arts offerings here.

Marion Bay’s Jasmine Swales has been involved in previous Fringe shows on YP, such as Seafood Soiree and The Paint Party in Warooka in 2022, which she said were well supported but did not make a profit.

“It did take a lot of local people to get their heads together and say let’s do it,” she said.

“We didn’t apply for any financial support; there are grants available but we weren’t organised enough to plan it in advance.

“So we were probably at a break-even point, relying on volunteers to put the show on, and it’s also not knowing about attendance.”

Ms Swales said Yorke Peninsula Council registered all the council-owned halls as venues for local or visiting artists to hold Fringe shows, but said there were other barriers at play.

“Putting on shows — there’s maybe a lack of experience in the region — and that’s what we would like to build through Grounded, we are running some arts capacity building events through that.”

Grounded is a biennial arts festival on Yorke Peninsula, which will have its second rendition this August.

“We’re really putting our energy into working towards making that the Yorke Peninsula (equivalent of) Fringe, supporting our local artists,” she said.

“So we probably haven’t pushed the (Adelaide) Fringe angle as much because our energy is in that.”

Grounded sold out tickets in its inaugural year, which Ms Swales said was related to the fact it was held in August, compared to Mad March when the Adelaide Fringe, the Adelaide Festival and Womadelaide are held.

“A lot of our tourism businesses are already at capacity when it’s a peak time, and that makes it really hard to find people to engage with and businesses to support events at those peak times, and that’s why we’ve put Grounded on that off-peak,” she said.

But either way it was a huge risk to put on a show, she said.

“It’s really hard to understand the mentality of what people want to see, where and how,” she said.

“I really want people to know if they want things to happen in their community, they need to book it.

“Get involved, say what you want to see, and get along to participate.

“And book early, because as it comes closer, you’re like ‘we’re not going to sell enough tickets to justify carrying it through’ so you cancel it and then people ring and say ‘I was going to book’.”

“We’re trying to really offer something to audiences but they need to give that sup-port that and say ‘yes, we’re coming’.”

Finding a niche

Bronwyn Liebelt is no stranger to keeping an arts organisation on its feet.

As the president of the Maitland Music and Arts Club Performing Arts School, she is well aware of the financial risk of putting on their performances, albeit not for the Adelaide Fringe.

“We have to pay to have the rights for the show, we have to pay a percentage of ticket sales, for costumes, and we have some money that we’ve saved in the past in case the show doesn’t happen, because we can’t recoup that money by selling tickets,” she said.

“We ask every family to volunteer in some capacity, whether it be washing a box of costumes, helping on the canteen, handing out programs at the door, ushering people to their seats.

“We try to keep costs down (for club members) so that it makes it accessible to more people so there can be more of it.”

Ms Liebelt said a lack of support in previous years could be part of the reason Adelaide Fringe has a small presence on YP in 2025.

“It’s not worth it for the artists if they haven’t got the numbers,” she said.

“Jared Gerschwitz did his Country Chic show (in 2021), but he had that personal connection to here because that’s where he’s come from.”

Ms Liebelt said Fringe shows were often niche, which could also have an effect on attendance.

“One that we had a couple of years ago, I’m Not Here To F**k Spiders, I think the name of the show put people off,” she said.

“It was brilliant, he was hilarious and he talked about mental health and he had a great message, but I think his title was quite polarising.”

However, YP is not short of local talent, who might have a better understanding of the region’s audiences.

“(Tourists) coming here without all the crowds and the lining up, and as part of your holiday you can go to a show as well, that would be amazing,” Ms Liebelt said.

“I don’t know why we haven’t thought of it (doing a Fringe show) before.

“A few years ago, one of the teachers that was new to the area came to one of our shows and said ‘it’s as good as anything you’d see in Adelaide’.

“Any Fringe show that does come here has got that to live up to.”

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 4 March 2025.