Nature Festival
Returning for our 5th year, over 400 nature-inspired events are blooming all across South Australia this Spring School Holidays. We have art, adventure, music, food, wine, wellbeing, and Aboriginal culture, and plenty of free and family-friendly events.
Year 5 theme: Awe
This year the festival explores the theme of Awe, with an emphasis on moments small and large that captivate us, pulling us out of the rush of daily life and away from our screens into a wider relationship with nature and the world all around.
Explore the complete Nature Festival 2024 program on the Nature Festival website: www.naturefestival.org.au
Family-friendly activities include Reefs, Marine Life& Kites at Kingston Park Coastal Reserve, allowing families to explore the intertidal reef at Seacliff Beach with a local marine enthusiast and enjoy kite flying. Additionally, festival-goers are invited to explore the nocturnal marine garden of the Port River with Port Environment Centre’s event Our Hidden Marine Garden Revealed. SA Government House will open its doors once more, offering families a chance to explore one of Adelaide’s most famous houses and gardens, and for those on the Fleurieu Peninsula, Marine Biologist Ian Milne will lead an intertidal exploration at Yilki Reef.
Step aboard the SA famed Popeye River Cruise and embark on an extraordinary journey with Waterway Tales: The Floating Stage. Offering two distinctive 90-minute experiences, each cruise will blend the tranquility of Adelaide’s waterways with the rich tapestry of storytelling and performance, all the while enjoying delicious food and drink from South Australian providers.
Music and performance events are plenty in the program, including the Evening Chorus with the Bowerbird Collective, celebrating the closing night of Nature Festival on Sunday, 13 October with a sunset concert at Carrick Hill. Sinclair Gully Wines will host various music performances in a natural setting and Naomi Keyte will perform beautifully crafted folk songs in an intimate setting at Cherry BombCafe in Ashton Hills.
A new music commission from Zhao Liang and an Ureshim reflecting Adelaide’s traditional Japanese garden Himeji, is a beautiful new work that evokes traditional music and contemporary folk, with a touch of Japanese, Middle Eastern and Chinese culture. For something more up-tempo, Adelaide’s Indigenous Mapuché Chilean/Australian Indie artist LENI, will join forces with one of Australia’s most prolific and powerful lyricists, composers and performers in Glenn Skuthorpe, to take audiences on a musical journey in the forests of Sinclair’s Gully.
Nature Festival Chair, Vicki-JoRussell, remarks, “This year’s theme, ‘Awe’, focuses on moments that captivate us, pulling us out of the rush and disconnection of daily life and into a deeper relationship with nature and the world around us. A relationship that reminds us that we are part of something bigger and magnificent.”
“Now in our 5th year, we have seen so many South Australians re-embrace their relationship with the natural world around them and we are looking to expand on that this year with another stunning program of events.”
Explore the complete Nature Festival 2024 program on the Nature Festival website: www.naturefestival.org.au