Stage and screen actor, writer and singer Virginia Gay has been announced as Artistic Director for the 2024 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Known widely for her TV work in Channel 7’s All Saints and Winners and Losers, ABC’s Savage River and SBS A Safe Home, Gay has won accolades for her stage roles including in Calamity Jane and most recently in her own adaptation of Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano.

Gay has performed at Adelaide Cabaret Festival several times over the years in shows including Dirty Pretty Songs, Songs to Self-Destruct To and Gentlemen Prefer Blokes. She also took part in the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Variety Gala at Festival Theatre.

Adelaide Cabaret 2024 director Virginia Gay. Photo © Naomi Jellicoe

Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become the city’s major winter festival and the largest cabaret festival of its kind in the world.

The festival has been a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim and has featured world-renowned artists including Kristin Chenoweth, Tim Minchin, Eddie Perfect, Idina Menzel, Dita Von Teese and Patti LuPone.

Previous Artistic Directors of the Festival include Julia Holt (2001–2008), David Campbell and Lisa Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Julia...