Q: This is your first year as Festival Director of DreamBIG – what was most important to you while putting together this year’s program?

I want everyone to feel welcome and excited about attending DreamBIG – this means that I try to make sure that the program has really amazing performances, workshops and installations, with something for all age ranges, and for a mix of abilities as well, and that can accommodate different access needs. I want children and young people to really sink their teeth into being creative and feel empowered to be creative themselves – so finding work that is interactive and participatory is important too. This year being DreamBIG’s 50th anniversary, I was also thinking about the program being as festive and joyous as possible – essentially throwing DreamBIG a magnificent 50th Birthday party!

Q: DreamBIG offers many free events and workshops for children and their families – what are your picks of the free program?

String Symphony is an amazing puppetry show – where the children in the audience are asked to be the puppeteers! Thirty children will collaboratively puppet Leor, a giant marionette, over the course of each free performance. The Plants is also a really fun interactive installation – using some sort of digital technology that seems like magic to me, you can ‘play’ live plants like real instruments, to create a botanical orchestra! The Museum of the Everyday is by local artist Amber Cronin, asking young people to create something inspired by an important moment in their life to add to the Museum’s collection. We also have festival favourite Climbing Tree returning to the festival with their nature play inspired Massive Maker Space.

Q: Why is it so important that children have the opportunity to experience the arts?

As this is my first DreamBIG as Festival Director, this is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about. I see the role of the arts – and in particular DreamBIG – as that of helping young people to thrive both now and in the future, connecting them to positive values such as empathy, resilience and creative problem solving. Taking part in an event like DreamBIG – those memories of joy, celebration and togetherness have a long-lasting impact on how you see yourself and your role in your community.

Q: What does DreamBIG do to ensure accessibility for as many children as possible?

Since every child should have the opportunity to engage with the arts, DreamBIG tries to keep our program free or low cost – while still presenting jaw-droppingly amazing work. We are funded by Arts SA and the Department for Education, who enable us to offer so many great free programs. We try and make it as easy as possible for a parent to pick the right event for their family, through visual stories and an access guide for all our different events.

Q: How has the festival changed over the years, and how do you plan on keeping it relevant for many years to come?

DreamBIG Children’s Festival is the longest running children’s festival in the world. It started in 1974 as a youth program for Adelaide Festival, called Come Out, and it was so successful that it was decided that the young people in South Australia needed their very own festival – the Come Out Children’s Festival. Tickets back then were only 50 cents! In 2017, we ran a competition to rename the festival, and a student from Prospect Primary won with the name ‘DreamBIG Children’s Festival’.

I’ve been looking over the history of the festival, as we celebrate our 50th anniversary, and found the original charter for the festival.

What is amazing is despite how much the world has changed over the last 50 years, the crux of the festival is the same – with young people at the centre.

Words like high-quality, accessibility and participatory are all in the charter. The fact that these are still so fundamental to DreamBIG makes me hopeful that the festival will be around for years to come – as providing amazing arts experiences for children across South Australia is still as needed now as it was in the 1970s.

Q: What would you recommend to families who have never attended the festival before?

The best way to experience a little bit of everything that DreamBIG has to offer is at the Big Family Weekend! Taking place at Adelaide Festival Centre on May 10 & 11, this weekend is jam-packed with over 50 different performances, activities, exhibitions, installations and even food trucks. There are ticketed performances, but also plenty of free activities as well.  You can easily spend the whole day at Big Family Weekend – particularly if you try to tick off everything on our scavenger hunt, which is on the back page of our printed program!

Q: What are some highlights of the ticketed program this year?

Imagine LIVE is a beautiful theatre adaptation of Alison Lester’s beloved picture book – it’s a musical with digital puppetry that tells the story of a grandparent and grandchild discovering this Australian classic together. We also have Zindzi & the Zillionaires performing. You may know Zindzi from Playschool, but she is also a fantastic hip-hop artist for children! Fancy Long Legs is a glittery spectacular based on the book by tinsel and craft icon Rachel Burke, about a spider called Fancy who loves to create things but can’t quite stay focused. And finally, we have Mini Spin, an interactive dance performance that is more like a dance rave for kids, led by three fabulous Deaf dancers. Who says dance parties are only for adults?

DreamBIG Children’s Festival is on 7-17 May 2025. More information at dreambig.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au 

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