One of the world's most adventurous music festivals returns in July as part of Illuminate Adelaide.
A celebration of innovation, music, art, light and technology, Adelaide’s winter music and arts event, Illuminate Adelaide, will see the city come alive with lights, live music, visual art, discussion, installation and much more for its third year.
From June 28 to July 30, Illuminate Adelaide will transform laneways, venues and spaces across the city with free and ticketed immersive experiences, world premieres and Adelaide-exclusive events.
Keep up with the latest music news, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
With a program bolder and more dynamic than ever before, Illuminate Adelaide will host Krakow’s cult-favourite experimental electronic music event Unsound Festival, hailed as one of the greatest festivals in the world.
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From its ground-breaking flagship festival in Poland to 30 locations around the globe, Unsound has become a magnet for some of the most exciting, innovative and arresting sounds heard anywhere in the world.
Now celebrating 10 years since it first laid down roots in South Australia, the Australian exclusive and adventurously curated multidisciplinary festival will run from July 14 and 15 at Adelaide’s Polish heartland the Dom Polski Centre with a new lineup of Australian and international artists and producers breaking the rules to push music into new and dangerous waters.
As for who you can expect, Friday 14 July will host the likes of Ukraine’s Heinali, Danish ambient musician Sofie Birch and Polish vocalist Antonina Nowacka, and Robin Fox with the new live audio vision show Triptych. Things amp up even further on Friday with Hyperdub boss Kode9’s A/V show Escapology, featuring some of his most thrilling rhythms yet while underground rapper bbymutha closes the night with a high-energy show.
The second Unsound Adelaide night at Dom Polski Centre, Saturday 15 July, spans a spectrum of sounds, with a huge lineup featuring duo Divide//Dissolve; Space Afrika; Guatemalan cellist, vocalist, and composer Mabe Fratti; and cult favourite Huerco S. Nyege Nyege affiliated electro acholi pioneer Otim Alpha ends the night with a bang, performing with Leo Palayeng to present a plugged-in, polyrhythmic (and entirely infectious) take on traditional Larakaraka wedding music.
If all that wasn’t enough, this year Unsound Adelaide will also expand for the first time into the new Hindley Street Music Hall on 16 July with a set from Mercury Prize-winner Oneohtrix Point Never and a supporting performance from CORIN.
This year also sees the return of Unsound Adelaide’s late-night party, returning to The Lab for a second round of unexpected and irresistible sounds from around the world. Across two big nights bleeding into the early morning, the pop-up nightspot will feature performances from the likes of DJ Diaki (MLI), DJ Plead (AUS), Tayhana (ARG), Female Wizard (AUS), C.FIRM (AUS) and more.
From Krakow, Poland to New York and now Adelaide, Unsound Adelaide’s 10th anniversary promises to be as bold and bracing as ever.
Unsound Adelaide will run from 14 – 15 July, as part of Illuminate Adelaide which runs from Wednesday 28 June to Sunday 30 July.
To check out the full Illuminate Adelaide program and get your hands on tickets, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Illuminate Adelaide
