Adelaide Festival attendance halved in wake of Writers’ Week drama

Attendance and ticket sales at the Adelaide Festival almost halved after the cultural event was mired in controversy, after the removal of an author from its program led to the cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week.

Adelaide Festival had a total attendance of 188,236 in 2026, according to statistics released by the festival on Wednesday, compared to 365,402 in 2025 (including the WOMADelaide music event in both years).

The festival sold 49,458 tickets to its 2026 events, according to its 2026 impact report. In 2025 it sold 97,834 tickets, according to the festival’s equivalent report released a year ago.

The lead-up to this year’s festival was engulfed in drama: 200 authors boycotted Adelaide Writers’ Week after members of the Adelaide Festival board uninvited Palestinian-Australian writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the program, which led to artistic director Louise Adler stepping down and the entire event being cancelled.

Asked about the effect the furore had on the 2026 event, a festival spokesperson on Wednesday said: “The cancellation of Writers’ Week did of course impact the 2026 attendance and figures, which is regrettable. What’s heartening is how well the overall festival performed in that context.”

The 2026 festival generated around $41 million gross expenditure for South Australia in 2026 and had a $29.2 million net impact on the gross state product, according to the festival’s report, compared to $62.6 million gross expenditure and a $47.1 million net impact for the state the year before.

Matthew Lutton, a long-time artistic director of Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, made his debut as director of the internationally acclaimed festival. Highlights of his 2026 festival program included the French actor Isabelle Huppert starring in the play Mary Said What She Said, as Mary Queen of Scots, and a free opening night concert by the members of British band Pulp (who considered withdrawing from the festival amid the controversy over Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the program).

In 2025 there were 400 performances across the broader festival (166 of which were Adelaide Writers’ Week sessions) compared to 100 performances overall in 2026, this year’s impact report shows.

The number of nights stayed by visitors to the state during the festival was 60,008 in 2026, half that of the 121,485 the year before.

One statistic that did rise was the spend per visitor – an average of $5198 per person – in 2026, up from an average of $4162 per visitor in 2025.

The festival’s report also boasted of increased media coverage of the event in 2026, including 22,382