finally, the rains come

I wandered around the Festival Centre Friday afternoon and I was stunned to see who run down and uncared for Centre looked. The plaza looked like a wasteland with empty garden beds. It has never worked as a piazza because it has never been designed to get people to gather the plaza. There is no point in being on the plaza given all the concrete and the lack of shade. It’s a heat trap. The plaza is really just a car park roof that people can walk across. Few do.

It’s an embarrassment, given the way that Adelaide continues to call itself the festival city.

Festival Centre
Festival Centre

The whole area needs a big facelift as it highlights the years of underinvestment in arts infrastructure in Adelaide. There is talk of Walker Corporation building a car park under the plaza. Thankfully, the multi-storey office block on theon the northern side of the plaza has been rejected. The talk is of Federation Square style development for the art precinct: i.e., the dream is the plaza becoming Adelaide’s central public space and meeting place. Festival Square!

Yet, at the moment, there is no reason for the daytime population to be there.