Photo credits: Samuel Graves
Music SA today announces the launch of its program for Umbrella Festival 2022, one of South Australia’s largest winter festivals. Umbrella’s 2022 program boasts more than 175 events across Adelaide’s CBD, metropolitan suburbs and regional areas of South Australia between 1–31 July.
Tickets for all events are on sale now via Umbrella’s new ticketing partner Moshtix, with the printed program out on the streets of Adelaide today! Registrations remain open for the online program until June 23 for musicians who still desire to be a part of SA’s live music resurgence this winter.
The annual winter celebration of live music will be held over 31 nights in 90+ venues spanning Adelaide’s CBD, metropolitan suburbs and South Australia’s regional areas, including the Eyre Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island and the Limestone Coast.
This year’s program aims to reignite the recovery of the South Australian live music sector and is packed with performances of all shapes and sizes, from trad-folk to punk-rock, experimental jazz to acoustic covers – and absolutely everything in between!
To give back to the local live music venues, Umbrella Festival has opted to financially support opening night parties held in live music venues throughout the Adelaide CBD, instead of one official opening night event. The Umbrella Festival opening night will take place Friday 1 July with four free gigs across the city, curated by local promoters in local live music venues.
Popular New Orleans inspired bar NOLA will host an acoustic folk and alley-jazz fuelled night curated by local troubadour Aidan ‘Jazzy’ Jones. Iconic live music venue The Crown and Anchor will turn into a raucous affair of psych-rock and delicious riffs thanks to Going Steady Music. The Grace Emily Hotel will be offering pub rock and country belters hand-picked by the wonderful vocalist Cookie Baker. And finally, SAM Awards 2021 Best Venue winner JIVE will be singing songs of indie rock brought together by young event promoters Best of Friends.
Some of this year’s festival highlights include; LGBTQIA+ inclusive event Queer Club (presented by Pretty Good Thanks and hosted by fabulous Drag Queen Ophelia Butt) which will highlight five incredible Australian queer artists, ‘First Nations Voices’ presented by Glenn Skuthorpe, Nancy Bates and Vonda Last at Nexus Arts and a rave soundtracked Bingo Loco night featuring lip-sync battles, dance-offs, confetti canons and crazy theatrics at UniBar Adelaide – just to name a few!
As part of its regional reach, Umbrella has also partnered with Adelaide Guitar Festival which will have events featured state-wide at Streaky Bay, Wallaroo, Clare and Kangaroo Island. Additionally, musicians from regional areas of Port Lincoln (Barngarla), Sevenhill (Ngadjuri) Macclesfield (Peramangk) and Aldinga (Kaurna) have the chance to perform at the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival alongside Skegss and The Smith Street Band as part of a battle-of-the-bands style regional program called Untapped which is supported by the Music Development Office.
Adelaide Guitar Festival will also feature heavily in the city throughout July, with performances and exhibitions across the CBD including The Immersive Guitar, which will see the world’s largest guitar at the Festival Centre’s re-vamped Festival Plaza!
As part of Umbrella’s shift to a more environmentally sustainable festival, the printed programs hitting the streets are published in partnership with carbon-neutral business Finsbury Green. The overall Festival has additionally invested in a digital-heavy marketing campaign this year.
In 2021, Umbrella had over 55.6K attendances which generated $1.8 million for South Australia. Umbrella has continually proved the popularity of a vibrant arts scene during the winter months in South Australia since its inception in 2016.
Included in the program this year is a collaboration between Umbrella Festival 2022’s branding artist Emily Savage and South Australian Native Title Services (SANTS), highlighting the native names of country in the South Australian native title map. Umbrella Festival, which respectfully acknowledges the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and the traditional custodians of the land on which the Festival takes place.
Umbrella Festival returns in 2022 with the support of the South Australian Government through the Music Development Office and Events South Australia. With a focus on providing tangible opportunities for South Australian live music professionals, Umbrella is looking forward to assisting the recovery of the State’s live music industry after COVID-19 restrictions caused many live music event cancellations – each with a significant knock-on effect.
South Australian Minister for Arts, Andrea Michaels states:
“Umbrella Festival is a key fixture on the state’s live music calendar, serving up local talent to crowds that have been hungry for entertainment amid COVID restrictions, and bringing the city, suburbs and regions to life during winter.
“After what has been an incredibly tough couple of years for the local music industry, it’s so exciting to see live music back to revive pubs and performance venues across our city, our suburbs and our regions.
“The South Australian Government is committed to supporting our state’s music industry to get back on its feet and we’re proud to continue to support the Umbrella Festival, through the Music Development Office and Events South Australia.
“Now in its seventh year, the festival has gone from strength to strength, despite the challenges the pandemic has thrown in its way. Congratulations to Music SA on delivering yet another fantastic program packed full of the state’s best live music talent.
“We know the enormous value that live music contributes to our state, both in economic gains and for the vibrancy and energy it brings to our community, and we can’t wait to see Umbrella Festival return this July.”
Chair of Music SA, John Glenn states:
“Umbrella Festival warms our hearts and souls in the winter months through live music. It is a great analogy for the Live Music Industry in SA as we start to recover from the darkness of the pandemic.
“We have enhanced our regional engagement, brought back Winter Jams and school holiday song-writing workshops and will see the reactivation of some of Adelaide’s favourite live venues.”
“Our wonderful team at Music SA has developed a program that celebrates diversity, inclusiveness, fun and excitement but, most importantly, pathways this State’s incredibly talented musicians to perform, for audiences to celebrate and diverse live venues to thrive again.”
“Especially exciting is our new partnership with Moshtix which really turns our Festival up on the volume dial. Welcome under the Umbrella, Moshtix!”
“On behalf of the Music SA Board I thank the South Australian Government through the Music Development Office and Events SA, Tourism Australia, the City of Adelaide, Moshtix, Pirate Life, Adelaide Guitar Festival, Adelaide Fringe and the Australian Hotels Association (SA) for your unwavering support of the Festival. Well done to the Festival team, too!”
“Join us as we throw off the blanket of COVID and raise the Umbrella this winter!”
With support from the City of Adelaide council, Umbrella Festival presents a program supporting local venues that have struggled over the lengthy pandemic. The festival returns in 2022 to help Adelaide’s CBD transform into a loud, playful and colourful city, in line with our Festival State status.
Registrations are still open for the online program until 23 June 2022.
Umbrella Festival will be running across Adelaide CBD, with gigs also stretching through regional and metropolitan suburbs from 1 – 31 July 2022.
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