Sala Festival returns - a statewide celebration

Over 5,500 artists will exhibit in venues across metropolitan and regional South Australia, as well as online, when the annual South Australian Living Arts (SALA) Festival returns from tomorrow.

Australia’s largest community-based open-access visual arts festival runs this year from 1–31 August and combines online and physical venues to adapt to COVID restrictions and challenges. The program features a range of artists across disciplines such as painting, ceramics, sculpture and installation, with themes centred around COVID-19 lockdown and isolation, as well as environment, migration, identity and more.

The 2020 SALA Festival has been supported by the South Australian Tourism Commission, through its Regional Events & Festivals Program managed by Events South Australia, for more than 15 years.

Eventgoers can expect to see new and unique exhibits, as the pandemic presented challenges that this year’s SALA artists have had to work around. Examples range from Sally Parnis’ Haven exhibition on display in her front yard to Don Connor’s In the Park paintings which will be hung in trees in the Forestville Reserve. In the regions, expect to see nightly projections of self-portraits at venues around Tanunda in the Barossa, as well as silo art in Karoonda in the Murray River, Lakes and Coorong tourism region.

South Australian Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said it was great to see another festival able to return to South Australia and one that would bring benefits to multiple regions.

“It’s been an extraordinarily tough year for event organisers and to see them able to find new ways to still bring these iconic events to our state and the communities which host them, is incredibly heartening,” said Mr Harrex.

“SALA Festival has enormous reach, with visitor attractions that go beyond Adelaide CBD and well into the regions.

“This year’s range of exhibitions, from open studios in the city to silo art in the country, are another fantastic reason for South Australians to get out and explore their own backyard this winter.”

To see the exhibitions on offer throughout South Australia, go to the full 2020 SALA Festival program at salafestival.com. With new exhibitions added throughout the festival, there’s plenty to pick from across the regions or online.