Adelaide Festival announced that its Artistic Director, Ruth Mackenzie, will depart the role she took over in mid-2022 to take up a position within the South Australian government’s Department of Premier & Cabinet.

The Adelaide Festival Board also announced that Brett Sheehy will return as Artistic Director of the 2025 Adelaide Festival, a role he held previously from 2005 to 2008.

Ruth Mackenzie. Photo © Claudio Raschella

Sheehy will finalise and oversee the delivery of the 2025 festival program and will continue preparations for the 2026 program until the appointment of the Artistic Director for 2026 onwards.

Hired to oversee the development and delivery of a state arts and culture strategy, policy and action plan, McKenzie starts her new role on 5 August. Sheehy’s appointment begins immediately.

“My mission is to ensure that we present Adelaide with an outstanding 2025 Festival, as engaging, challenging, entertaining and irresistible as any before, and to hand over to the 2026 Artistic Director a festival in the best possible health,” Sheehy said. “To be able to return to Adelaide to contribute again to Australia’s greatest international arts festival is an extraordinary privilege and an opportunity which...