Our Story

The Adelaide Italian Festival traces its roots to 1976, when Adelaide's Italian community gathered publicly for the first time in Rundle Mall. A parade of migrant families made their way from Victoria Square to Elder Park, ending with celebrations in the Mall itself. It was a moment of pride, of visibility, and of belonging. It planted the seed for everything that followed.

Over the decades, the festival grew and moved through many of Adelaide's most loved spaces, including Rundle Mall, Elder Park, Rymill Park, the Adelaide and Norwood Ovals, and eventually the Adelaide Showgrounds. Steered for many years by the Co-ordinating Italian Committee (CIC), it became known as Carnevale: a ticketed, two-day event that drew large crowds and raised funds to support welfare needs within the elderly Italian community.

By the late 2010s, a new generation of organisers began imagining something different. In 2019, with the CIC passing the baton to a newly formed steering committee, the Carnevale name was formally retired. On 15 November 2019, an official launch event at the Adelaide Festival Centre unveiled a new vision: the Adelaide Italian Festival, built around an open-access, city-wide model inspired by the spirit of the Adelaide Fringe.

After navigating the disruptions that affected events worldwide in the years that followed, the festival relaunched in full in 2021, running across ten days in November and establishing what is now its permanent home in the Adelaide spring calendar.

The name, too, came full circle. Returning to "The Adelaide Italian Festival" was a deliberate act of honouring the founders who first brought the community together on the streets of the city in 1976.

A Festival for the Whole City

Today, the Adelaide Italian Festival is a 21-day celebration of Italian culture that belongs to the entire city. Every November, events spring up across Adelaide and beyond: from the CBD to the hills, the McLaren Vale, and suburban hubs, each one a different window into Italian life, creativity, and community.

The festival is governed by a not-for-profit volunteer board and operates under the patronage of the Consulate of Italy in Adelaide. At its heart is an open-access model: the board produces a small number of signature events, including the flagship street party and public celebrations, while welcoming restaurants, venues, arts groups, clubs, and businesses to run their own events as part of the official program.

It's a festival that honours heritage and embraces the contemporary, from traditional mass and community gatherings to Italian fashion, cinema, food culture, and the kind of modern Italian flair that makes the country impossible not to love.

Whether you're here because your family came over from Calabria, because you fell in love with Italy on a holiday, or simply because life is better with good food and good company: there's a place for you in this festival.

Board

Meet the dedicated team behind the Adelaide Italian Festival. Our Board Members are committed to making this festival the ultimate celebration of Italian culture.