A City of Adelaide census has found there are significantly more live music performances now than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City of Adelaide's Live Music Census found 129 businesses within the City of Adelaide presented live music between May 1 and May 31, 2025, hosting a total of 1099 performances.
A conservative estimate puts this at over 12,000 performances a year.
The census shows that the West End is still the city's main entertainment precinct, home to 57 venues presenting 547 performances. The East End also had a strong presence, with 33 venues hosting 327 performances. Live music can be experienced every day of the week in the City of Adelaide.
The City of Adelaide's census builds on previous studies commissioned by MusicSA - South Australia's peak music body - between 2015 and 2019.
The census was undertaken as Adelaide celebrated 10 years since its designation as Australia's first and only UNESCO City of Music and following extensive consultation on Council's inaugural Cultural Policy.
City of Adelaide Director City Community Jo Podoliak said "the City of Adelaide's Live Music Census indicates that live music performance in venues across the City of Adelaide has significantly increased compared to activity recorded by MusicSA across 2015 to 2019.
"The census demonstrates a 122 per cent increase in performances since 2019 and a 70 per cent increase in the number of venues hosting live music in the Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide."
"The City of Adelaide partnered with the national Live Music Office for Live and Local, a capacity building program created to strengthen the ecology of local grassroots live music communities.
"Key deliverables of the program included a live music industry forum, a grassroots micro-festival, professional development workshops, a music advisory working group and the live music census.
"Combined these initiatives will help guide the development of Council's next Live Music Action Plan." Ms Podoliak said Adelaide's designation as a UNESCO City of Music honours "our rich musical heritage and acknowledges that we celebrate, prioritise and leverage culture and creativity for sustainable development"
"City of Adelaide's Cultural Policy, adopted in June 2025, affirms the inherent value and importance of culture, creativity and community to our city's distinctive identity and future prosperity," she said.
"In addition to the high volume of live music taking place inside bricks and mortar businesses, the City of Adelaide supports a year-round calendar of events and activations featuring live music outside to support city activation, placemaking, and business activity.
"This makes the quantum of live music activity in our council area much higher than reported."
The City of Adelaide's Make Music Day event will return in 2026 with expressions of interest for artists and venues now open.
The inaugural event in June 2025 saw over 220 musicians paid to perform across 40 venues, contributing to an increased city visitation of +18,553 compared to the previous year.
Other City of Adelaide initiatives to support venues and nurture audiences for music during the 2025 included:
- Adelaide: Your Guide to our City of Music a printed pocket guide to the city's live music venues, retailers, festivals, resources and City of Music Laneways
- Discover Music Here vinyl record-shaped window decals that create a trail of music venues, retailers and businesses,
- An interactive GIS map of the city's music venues integrated with the City of Adelaide's City Plan, and
- The launch of The Angels Lane in the City's West End - the latest addition to the City of Music Laneways initiative.
The City of Adelaide's Live Music Census is available on our UNESCO City of Music page.
Expressions of Interest for Make Music Day 2026 are open until Friday 6 March 2026.
