Adelaide Fringe secures APAM program for 2024

Fri, Sep 15 2023
Adelaide Fringe in partnership with the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) will present an Australian Circus and Physical Theatre event to be held during Adelaide Fringe 2024.
A performer is doing a handstand on top of the head of other performers.
The Defiant at Gluttony. Photo: Jenny Kwok, 2023.
Titled “Leaps and Bounds”, the two-day event will include pitch sessions for visiting festivals and presenters, along with a program of exchange, round-tables, and networking. APAM champions contemporary Australian performance nationally and internationally by deepening relationships and stimulating new markets and pathways through exchange, reciprocity, and hospitality. As a strategic initiative of  Creative Australia (formerly Australia Council for the Arts) it is designed to showcase Australian and New Zealand contemporary dance, theatre, emerging and experimental arts nationally and internationally.
 
The event, to be held in the last week of February, will offer a unique opportunity to see new Australian contemporary circus and physical theatre as both pitches and full-length productions, participate in formal and informal networking, engage in APAM’s talks and ideas program while also having the opportunity to make new national and international connections. The program will celebrate the many artists and curators that operate venues and produce work across within the ecosystem of Adelaide Fringe annually as well as many presenters from the broader arts sector.
 
While Adelaide Fringe is well known for its high calibre of circus and physical theatre programming, the event is expected to entice new and exciting works from circus and physical theatre artists from across Australia, and attract up to 250 international and national arts industry delegates to Adelaide.
 
This is the first time APAM has partnered with Adelaide Fringe on an event of this scale, having previously partnered with DreamBig Children’s Festival in May 2021.
 
This event is a result of connections made through Adelaide Fringe’s International Arts Marketplace, Honey Pot, which provides services, events and a platform for artists, producers and presenters to connect. This program is a high-value export market for South Australia, with more than 350 deals worth $3 million projected to be booked from connections made at the 2023 festival. 
 
Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO, Heather Croall said, "It is exciting to announce that Adelaide Fringe Honey Pot and APAM are joining forces in 2024. Our shared vision is to bring Australian artists together with programmers and curators from around the world to deepen relationships and enhance global touring prospects. This dynamic alliance will help propel Australian creatives worldwide and we await with great anticipation the bookings and partnerships that will come from the program."
 
APAM director Catherine Jones said, “The APAM Office is excited to create a platform event for Australian circus and physical theatre artists and their work in partnership with Adelaide Fringe 2024." 
 
"Together, the APAM Office and Adelaide Fringe's international arts marketplace Honey Pot will support the Australian circus sector to create new international connections and opportunities”, said Jones. 
Pitch expressions of interest for artists and companies are open as of Thursday 14 September through the APAM website here.