Planning and design In the 1960s, the Adelaide Festival of the Arts started to outgrow the city's existing venues, and there was a push to build a "Festival Hall". The
Adelaide Festival Theatre Act 1964 provided for the erection of the Festival Theatre building. The originally proposed site was the
Carclew building in
North Adelaide, which had been purchased from the
Bonython family by the
Adelaide City Council for the purposes of building a Festival Hall. Liberal state Premier
Steele Hall lobbied the
federal government for tax concessions for a public appeal for the Festival Hall, which was initially unsuccessful, until Prime Minister
John Gorton offered Hall either tax concessions or . Hall accepted the money. While on a trip to London, Steele Hall visited the
Royal Festival Hall on the banks of the
River Thames and decided that the banks of the River Torrens was the ideal choice for the site of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts and the cultural heart of the city. During this time, the
state government changed hands, but the drive for a new centre continued with fervour. When
Don Dunstan became Premier he expanded the idea into a "Festival Centre", incorporating multiple smaller venues. The Lord Mayor of Adelaide,
Robert Porter, supported by Dunstan, launched a public appeal to raise funds to build the Festival Centre and establish Adelaide as a significant city in the art world. The appeal raised its target within a week, and was soon over-subscribed; the surplus was set aside to create a collection of artworks to grace the new building. The building was designed by
Hassell, McConnell and Partners for the
Adelaide City Council and the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, and has been "hailed as a major step forward in modern architecture in South Australia". It was designed "from the inside out" and is particularly associated with the architect
John Morphett and
Colin Hassell. Prior to designing the buildings, Hassell led a team which included Morphett to the United States and Europe to undertake a study of theatre designs. In 2023, the building won the
Jack Cheesman Award for Enduring Architecture at the
Australian Institute of Architects SA Chapter awards.
Construction The
Adelaide City Baths, which had stood on the site since their creation in 1861 were demolished in 1969 to make way for the new centre and plaza. Similarly, the Government Printing Office building, which was built circa 1880 between the baths and Parliament House, and later expanded, was also vacated and demolished. The site also housed the
Elder Park Hostel, which consisted of numerous repurposed buildings near the river. It was in use from circa 1949 to circa 1969 with the site being cleared in 1970. More recently, acknowledgement has also been made that the site is located on historical
Kaurna lands. Adelaide Festival Centre was built in three parts, from April 1970 to 1980. The main building, the Festival Theatre, was completed in 1973, within its budget of . It has also been referred to as "Hajek's Plaza", and was believed to be the largest artwork in Australia. Other sculptures graced the outdoor spaces, including the prominent stainless steel
Tetrahedra, also known as
Environmental Sculpture and
Tetrahedrons, by
Bert Flugelman. After its opening in 1977, the plaza stirred debate and opinions were mixed, but its designs were seen to "consciously exemplify the new practices and relations embodied in the concept of
environmental art". Designed in a
brutalist style, it was labelled as empty and ugly by some, but was nonetheless an artwork of its times. From 2016, the Plaza underwent redevelopment, as part of the major redevelopment of the
Riverbank Precinct. The new public plaza is known as the Public Realm. The architects of the original complex,
Hassell, served as architectural consultants for the project, in collaboration with ARM Architecture and landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean for the outdoor spaces. Changes to the design of the Festival Plaza Public Realm submitted for approval in April 2020 pushed back the completion date to 2023. by Bert Flugelman's sculptures
Vertical Variation and
Tetrahedra, along with
Sundial by Owen Broughton, have been refurbished and reinstalled in the outdoor spaces. Construction of Festival Tower Two by
Walker Corporation began in early 2026. Dubbed "Adelaide's first skyscraper", it is designed to be tall. It is located between Parliament House and the Festival centre, next to Festival Tower One, above the underground Festival Car Park. A group called Save Festival Plaza Alliance is opposing the construction of the tower. The overall external redevelopment is expected to be completed in 2028.
Interior Interior refurbishment of the Festival Centre was undertaken from August 2025, with the building closed for around six months. In a redevelopment designed by
Cox Architecture costing A$55 million, the main infrastructure was upgraded, stage flooring in Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre refurbished, seating replaced with high-quality Figueras seating, and fire safety was improved. In addition, a new restaurant called Angry Penguins, honouring the legacy of poet and writer
Max Harris and his
literary magazine of the same name, was created as the centrepiece of the refurbishment. The Festival Centre's reopening coincides with the 2026 Adelaide Festival on 27 February. ==Governance==