January 1990

This edition should just about see us back to normal. We do not usually present a January edition but, due to the November – December fiasco, it has been thought best to maintain the eleven editions for the year by inserting this one. We trust members will agree with this action.

The February edition, following this one fairly closely, will carry the announcement as to where and when our annual general meeting will be held. This will be an especially important meeting as the future directions of the Society must be closely examined and, firm achievable goals established.

So here we are at festival time again. I wonder how many of us realise just how good our very own festival is by World standards. Well, if you have any doubts, let me assure you that we here in little old Adelaide are privileged to have one of the best arts festivals anywhere in the World. Its depth, quality and diversity are the envy of many festival organisers around the World and we should be very proud of it.

As usual, a contributing factor to the success of our event is the FESTIVAL FRINGE, and this year will be no exception. I make mention of this in particular, because a number of member groups are actively involved with productions which are an accredited part of the festival as fringe activities. Although I am quite anxious that we should all see as much of the primary and fringe activities as we can, I do think we should make a special effort to support our fellow groups in their endeavours to keep up the overall reputation of our festival.

In addition, taking such an interest may be the catalytic sort of action that could see your group taking part in the next festival fringe in 1992, a trend which I consider should be encouraged as much as possible. Our festival fringe attracts performers, productions and artistic endeavors of all sorts from around the World. It is however, the ADELAIDE festival of arts, and I feel it should have a good percentage of local artistry and talent kept in balance with comparative and quality material from here there and everythere. After all, we do it very well here, why should we keep it to ourselves?