The City of Adelaide is celebrating an overwhelmingly successful festival season that has seen South Australia set a global standard for festival and event delivery during a pandemic.
A number of new road closures, additional pop up spaces and crowd control measures from the City of Adelaide ensured a COVID-safe event which was enjoyed by an extraordinary number of tourists and South Australians.
Record occupancy rates and incredible ticket sales created an impressive festival season which would not have been possible without everyone playing their part.
The City of Adelaide provided new focussed outdoor dining experiences, including "Feast on Gouger" and "Twilight on O'Connell", introducing festival fun to new areas of the City.
The City also hosted new activations including the Borealis light show presented by Gluttony and the Wonderland Spiegeltent in Hindmarsh Square.
While the East End was once again a popular hotspot, with the City's East End Unleashed program providing a COVID-safe environment for hundreds of thousands of people to enjoy outdoor dining and a festive atmosphere. Visitor numbers were up more than 70 per cent on the penultimate weekend.
The Fringe sold more than 600,000 tickets to various shows and events over the month-long festival.
More than 60,000 tickets were sold for the Adelaide Festival and close to 20,000 tickets for the four nights of fabulous music at WOMAD.
And the city's hotels experiencing tremendous take up numbers, with Adelaide enjoying the highest occupancy rates of any mainland Australian city.
Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said Adelaide has set a global standard over the past month.
"Nowhere else in the world are we seeing this kind of pandemic defying success we've witnessed with the return of the Fringe, WOMAD, Festival and Writers' Week. We are the Festival City and we always will be," the Lord Mayor said.
City of Adelaide Acting CEO Clare Mockler thanked everyone for turning up in such large numbers.
"After a tough year it was brilliant to see our city streets buzzing with people," said the Acting CEO.
"Many thought it wouldn't be possible to hold these big festivals but we've seen people have acted responsibly and embraced the opportunity to come together in the city and celebrate a wonderful time of the year."
Foodies won't have to wait long for the next festival, with Tasting Australia to return on 30 April after last year's COVID enforced hiatus.
