“How do you like the tagline?” Artistic Director Brett Sheehy asks, bringing the Adelaide Festival’s 2025 program up on his laptop screen.

Emblazoned across its cover are the words ‘Australia’s International Festival’, and Sheehy says he is determined it will do exactly what it says on the tin, showcasing some of the finest performances from around the world alongside our best homegrown talent.

“With the diminution, for whatever reason, of international large-scale works by other capital-city festivals, my suggestion to the board was that we claim back that space,” he says, noting that in 1960 the Adelaide Festival began life as the “preeminent international festival in Australia”.

Over 17 days, the 40th Adelaide Festival will present 65 events, 11 world premieres, 9 Australian premieres and 15 exclusives – no small feat considering Sheehy has only been in the job since August.

Meeting Limelight ahead of the festival’s official launch, he is clearly excited to be back at the festival he led from 2005 to 2008. He is also grateful to his predecessors Ruth Mackenzie, Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy, who laid the groundwork for...