Your ultimate guide on what to do in Adelaide during winter

Each year, Illuminate Adelaide transforms the CBD into a polychromatic wonderland of interactive light art. This year’s line-up features more than 40 installations, including a massive light-up ‘harp’, rainbow glowing swings that each play their own tune, and a work exploiting the concept of time projected onto Government House. Our favourites were ‘intangible #form’, a mind-bending constellation of lasers in Bonython Hall, and ‘Grand Mix’, a hilarious projection work on the Art Gallery of South Australia’s facade featuring Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’. The City Lights program, which is free and walkable, is happening until July 21, 2024. Read more. 

Did you know that the South Australian Museum is home to the largest collection of Australian Aboriginal antiquities and archival material in the world? The museum’s Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery displays more than 3,000 artefacts from around so-called Australia. Think shields, boomerangs, bark paintings and some of the only known intact bark canoes in existence. Book a tour with Aboriginal-owned and operated business Bookabee Tours Australia and you’ll get an incredible insight into the depth, breadth and significance of this astounding collection. Read more. 

With more than 80 traders under one winter-friendly roof, Adelaide Central Market is one of the largest undercover produce markets in the Southern Hemisphere. Having been established in 1869, the place is brimming with heritage charm. Take some time to wander the endless aisles browsing the stalls, from Haigh’s Chocolates (the oldest family-owned chocolate maker in Oz) to the Smelly Cheese Co (yes, really). Once you’ve done it all, settle in for lunch – our pick is Let Them Eat. 

We get it, making out the door after dark in winter can be hard, but Adelaide is pulling out all the stops with Fire Gardens. This smouldering installation will set your senses ablaze as you wander through the Adelaide Botanic Garden, with only the light and warmth of 7,000 fire pots to guide you. Each pot is handmade and imported from France for the dazzling display of leaping flames, by renowned fire alchemists Compagnie Carabosse. Tickets cost $40-42 and the blaze continues until July 21. Read more. 

The Art Gallery of South Australia holds more than 45,000 artworks beyond its striking neoclassical sandstone facade. The permanent collection is a huge drawcard in its own right, however the latest headline exhibition Brent Harris: Surrender & Catch is a must-see. As one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, Brent Harris draws on his complex personal history and the universality of religious imagery to create works confronting darkness, death, desire and hope. Entry to this landmark exhibition is free and it’s showing until October 20. Read more. 

Tucked away within the University of South Australia you’ll find MOD. – a futuristic museum of discovery aimed at young people aged 15-25. Even if you fall outside that demographic, we reckon you’ll still enjoy their latest exhibition, named Broken. Lately, it’s easy to feel like the world is too, well, broken for meaningful change to be possible, but this exhibition throws that notion in the bin. Instead, you’ll go on a high-tech ‘choose your own adventure’ journey through possible futures, shaping the outcomes as you go. Broken is on until November 2024. Read more.