Christie Anthoney

From teenage volunteer at the Fringe information caravan to globe trotting ‘Mother of the Garden of Unearthly Delights’.

Christie has spent the last three decades surfing the international festival circuit from the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia to Glastonbury in the UK. Along that journey, Christie has found herself working alongside festival superstars like David Bates (owner of The Famous Speigeltent) and Kath Mainland (current CEO of Adelaide Festival).

Through ongoing collaboration and a lifetime of dedication to the arts, Christie continues to shape the ever-evolving culture of Adelaide as a festival city, as she has since her first volunteer gig at the Fringe Information Services soon after she graduated high school.

“I knew all about the Fringe, I’d been exposed to it through my family.

I put my hand up to volunteer in the information services, which was a little caravan. Eventually I ended up running the information services for the Fringe and then decided to get my backpack and go and explore more festivals in the world when I was 21.”

Christie’s first leap overseas landed her at the largest Fringe festival in the world in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“It’s a beautiful festival city, exactly like Adelaide – entirely different cities, but that vibe for festivals is the same, in my opinion.

I was drawn to that at 21 and again volunteered in Edinburgh. I put my hand up to help with a big outdoor event called Fringe Sunday at the time, and then from that was offered a job in the Fringe office itself.”

“Eventually, as one does in festivals, I needed to put a sort of circuit together of festivals that I could work on that didn’t clash.

I did that for 15 years, going back to Edinburgh and working there, coming back to Adelaide, working here, and then finding another one.”

It was on the circuit of travel and festivals that Christie got a closer look at the ins and outs of putting together a festival. Along the way, she met one of the people who would help her change the landscape of the Adelaide Fringe for years to come.

“I was in Edinburgh and I got to know David Bates, the man who had bought The Famous Spiegeltent. He was playing piano in it and working it at the Book Festival in Edinburgh, where I was working.”

“We put it on a ship which was like white-knuckle frightening because it’s all mirrors.

It was the first time The Famous Spiegeltent had ever been out of Europe. Thanks to the City of Adelaide at the time[…] we landed it at Rundle Park, which was the genesis of the Garden of Unearthly Delights.”

Organising The Garden of Unearthly Delights wasn’t all flowers and butterflies.

There were plenty of difficulties along the way that required innovative solutions.

By finding and implementing these solutions, Christie and her team streamlined the ticketing side of the Adelaide Fringe experience for both organisers and consumers.

“We weren’t allowed to have a box office because you had to go to the Fringe box office, and so we could only sell tickets just before the show, if there were any left. There were lots of clunky things.”

“When the opportunity came up, I went for an interview to be the Fringe Director.

I had these boards that a friend helped me make with the problems and the way we could fix them for big producers – and small producers – to be able to use the Fringe to everyone’s advantage and let artists sell more tickets.”

“There should be no way that you can’t buy a ticket.”

The effects of the ticketing system implemented by Christie and her team can be felt every year around January.

Tickets can be purchased at kiosks around the city, online, and even through QR codes planted in brochures that are handed out at businesses around the CBD.

As if holding the title of accommodating, successful, Mother of the Garden wasn’t enough, Christie’s involvement with Adelaide’s festival scene continued to expand after she became a mother herself.

“I had a baby, Edie. She came along and I needed to go to find a role that was just not so full on at the time. As it turned out… the Adelaide College of the Arts wanted a creative director to come in and help connect with the festivals and the industry and the sector and so on.”

“And then the role of Festivals Adelaide came up, which is now Festival City Adelaide, and I jumped from TAFE to that, which I did for six years, which was great.”

The face of the Adelaide Fringe Festival as it is known today is thanks, in no small part, to the exploits of Christie and those who helped her along the way.

While annual pilgrimages across the globe might be a thing of the past, Christie is still just as passionate about festivals here at home.

Festival work is a delicate balancing act of people, art, time, and material. It takes a certain kind of personality to thrive within the coordination of chaos.

“Festivals are intense moments because the train’s coming, the date’s set, it’s going to happen and all you have to do is play your part. But because it’s so intense you do work together in a really unique way and you build relationships that are based on a trust that is only intensified because of the timeframe. And if you can get that team right and pick each other’s weaknesses up, then you really do bond for life.”

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This article is part of the Festival City Stories series, a collection of reflections about Adelaide made by the people who make this a festival place. The project was funded through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia, Arts Recovery Fund, and delivered in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. 

Written by: Christian Best

Photography by: Declan Hartley-Brown