Barrie Kosky's SAUL Becomes First Sold Out Show of the 2017 Adelaide Festival

With just 13 weeks until the opening of the 2017 Adelaide Festival the last remaining tickets to the Australian premiere of Barrie Kosky's masterpiece Saul have been snapped up, making it the first show of the program to officially sell out.

And other shows are set to follow, with tickets selling fast ahead of the Christmas season for Rufus Wainwright's double feature of Prima Donna and highlights from Rufus Does Judy, bread&circuses' delightfully illustrated theatrical production of Wot? No Fish!!, Italian chamber music trio La Gaia Scienza, Canadian companies Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre in exciting dance theatre productionBetroffenheit, and Adelaide Writers' Week lunch event The Drunken Botanist, with author Amy Stewart.

One of the major highlights of the debut program from Artistic Directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield, critically acclaimed Glyndebourne Opera Festival production Saul has been one of 2017's biggest drawcards, particularly with interstate audiences, with over 40 per cent of tickets sold to people outside South Australia.

This is reflective of an upward trend for ticket sales across the entire program, with a third of all tickets to all shows so far having been purchased by interstate buyers, up from 29 per cent in 2016.

With tickets to Saul on sale from August 4, two and a half months before the Festival's full program launch on October 27, the hotly anticipated Adelaide exclusive show sold out its four Festival Theatre performances in just 17 weeks.

Ms Healy and Mr Armfield said they were overjoyed by the reception of their centrepiece event.

"The last four months has included the daily thrill of receiving the sales reports for Kosky's Saul and watching the tickets fly out the door," Ms Healy said.

"We are so delighted at the community's embrace of this glorious work and equally pleased that so many ticket-buyers will be coming to Adelaide from other parts of Australia and around the world. The Adelaide Festival exists to present those exhilarating works that will stay with audiences for a lifetime and the response to Saul proves the public appetite for great work is undiminished."

"If only we could've scheduled twice as many performances!" Mr Armfield said. "People will be pouring into Adelaide from all corners of Australia, and beyond, to see our Festival's centrepiece and we couldn't be happier."

Minister for the Arts, the Hon Jack Snelling welcomed the news, saying: "This is absolutely huge news for the Adelaide Festival and for South Australia in general. Saul has been a hit worldwide and we expect a large amount of those who were lucky enough to secure a ticket to be interstate and overseas tourists. Adelaide sure is living up to its name as Australia's best festival city."

Adelaide Festival Chair Judy Potter said: "The public response to Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield's first Adelaide Festival program has been fantastic, and I am confident that the 2017 season will continue to build on our reputation as Australia's pre-eminent international arts festival."

Other hot selling shows on the 2017 Adelaide Festival program are Sydney Theatre Company's multi Helpmann Award winning production The Secret River directed by Neil Armfield in all-new staging under the stars at the Anstey Hill quarry, Peter and the Wolf starring Miriam Margolyes alongside the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the dark, intriguing and provocative Richard III directed by Thomas Ostermeier for Berlin's Schaubühne Theater and the one-night only performance of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo by lauded Italian baroque ensemble Concerto Italiano.

Also highly anticipated are Chamber Landscapes, the three-day chamber music festival curated by Anna Goldsworthy at the stunning UKARIA in Mount Barker, wild contemporary dance performances Killer Pig and OCD Love by Israel's L-E-V, Lynette Walworth's stunning film Coral: Rekindling Venus at the Mawson Lakes Planetarium, Adelaide acrobatic heroes Gravity and Other Myths with the world premiere of Backbone, and the critical smash hit currently taking Broadway by storm, the high-tech binaural audio adventure The Encounter, by Simon McBurney and Complicite.

Adelaide Festival Chief Executive Sandy Verschoor said the ticket sales were an indication of the high quality of shows on offer in Ms Healy and Mr Armfield's debut festival.

"What a sensational way to kick off our festival, by selling out our centrepiece show," Ms Verschoor said. "The entire 2017 line-up is a feast for festival goers nationwide, many of whom are heading to Adelaide for an extended stay. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the festive season than by gifting someone you love, or even treating yourself, to an authentic Adelaide Festival experience."

A Glyndebourne Festival Opera Production, originally performed at the Glyndebourne Festival 2015, Saul is presented by the Adelaide Festival in association with the State Opera of South Australia and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, with support from Adelaide Festival Centre and MM Electric and Data Supplies. The project has been assisted by the Government of South Australia through Arts South Australia, the South Australian Tourism Commission, and the Australian Government through the Ministry for the Arts' Catalyst Australian Arts and Culture Fund.

The Adelaide Festival runs from March 3 to 19, 2017. Adelaide Writers' Week runs from March 4 to 9. With a diverse range of theatre, music, dance, visual art and more for every taste and interest, tickets to all shows are available now through BASS on 131 246 or via www.adelaidefestival.com.au .

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