Adelaide: Melbourne’s Hipster Kid Sister

Adelaide was never really in the plans. There were no big tourist sites like in Sydney and we didn’t have friends there like in Melbourne. It was more like, “You want to keep going to Adelaide?” “Sure, why not.” I hadn’t formed the best opinion of the South Australian capital prior to visiting since one snotty girl from my summer travels hailed from there.

But how wrong I was. Although it’s a fairly small city, it hosts some of the best music and arts festivals in the country, including Good Vibrations, Future Music Festival and the Adelaide Film Festival.

However, since it is a smaller city, everything seemed to be closed when we got to town on Sunday at 5 p.m. As it turned out, that also included our hostel, even thought it was not even 8 after we had dinner at a nearby noodle shop. Instead, we went to a bar next door.

Between the closed bar, lack of wifi access in the room (even though it worked 3 feet away in the courtyard) and the fact that they wouldn’t let Tommy stay there if he weren’t with me (because they’ve “had problems with Australian guests before”), Annie’s Place didn’t form the best first impression. I shouldn’t have complained, since we got a free upgrade due to overbooking, as well as breakfast and parking.

The next morning, I overheard a thirtysomething guy telling someone how he was here in Adelaide to perform in the famous Fringe Festival. I noticed him the day before, working on his computer, and thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t figure out why.

Then it hit me. He was Martin Dockery, a performer I’d interviewed for the Charleston City Paper in June when his show “Wanderlust” was a part of Spoleto Festival USA’s Piccolo Fringe. We had never met, only corresponding via email, so I’m surprised I recognized him. He offered us tickets to his show and I knew I couldn’t pass it up this time, as I had back in June.

After Tommy and I toured the Haigh’s Chocolate factory and stuffed our pockets with samples, we made our way to the Garden of Unearthly Delights, the circusesque grounds where most of the performances were being held.

As reserved yet friendly as Martin is in person, on the stage, he’s in-your-face hilarious. He had the same feeling about going to West Africa as I did about coming here to Australia: I needed to be somewhere that’s bigger than me and all the monotony of my life back home.

After “Wanderlust,” we congratualted Martin and explored the rest of the grounds. It had every carnival ride from my childhood. Tommy took me on the Ferris wheel and despite my tiny fear of heights, I felt invincible as we overlooked the festival grounds and all of Adelaide.

I felt lucky to have experienced the Adelaide Fringe Festival, as very few backpackers do and felt proud that my writing “career” (if you can call it that) has lent me some perks. It was such an odd coincidence, but I was definitely glad we made a trip to Adelaide, even if it left me bankrupt.

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