The Ethan Cavanagh guide to the Adelaide Fringe
In 2026, the Adelaide Fringe guide is an intimidating 176-pages long. Who has the time? Dear reader, certainly not you. Instead, let comedian Ethan Cavanagh guide you through the festival season, with his must-stop places in Adelaide.
This year will be my fifth year performing at the Adelaide Fringe, so I’ve done this enough times to know how to survive a big month at Fringe. By now, I’ve learned that Adelaideans don’t like jokes about algae, you cannot turn left onto the O-Bahn, and that after 10 pm on a Saturday, the Hindley St Zambrero is to be avoided at all costs.
What’s a misconception you had about Adelaide before you came here?
That you can still buy a house in Adelaide with the spare change rattling around under the seats in your car. Turns out you’ve gone and gotten yourselves involved in the housing crisis!
I’m performing a return season of my award-nominated show Bond, Lost My Bond, and my audiences here this year are notably less asset-dense than last year. While the rising prices of home-ownership is unfortunate, selfishly, it is convenient that my audience of frustrated renters is steadily growing. You can feel it in the air at my shows that everyone in the room is just desperate to hammer a hook into some plasterboard.
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What’s special about the Fringe compared to other events in Australia?
PARKING! Oh my god, there is literally no other Festival in the country were you can (nine times out of 10) get a decent park for free walking distance. I know locals don’t like it when they have to park more than 50 metres from the door, but I’m telling you, the five-minute walk is still pretty good.
When you’re in Adelaide, where do you like to go for a drink?
When I’m not fighting off Shannon Noll at the Crazy Horse, you’ll usually catch me amidst the sea of Country Road linen and Status Anxiety bags at East End Cellars, smashing back a wine so orange it could feasibly be a Fanta.
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What about a nice dinner?
Arkhe is hands down one of the best restaurants in the country. I make sure to pop in for a feed every year. And I’m pretty sure their 12-course set menu is roughly the same price as two bao buns from a food truck in The Garden.
How do you deal with hecklers?
That’s entirely up to how they deal with me! Usually, I don’t mind the audience getting involved if they’re actually funny. The other night, I had 20 property managers in the audience who’d come to watch my jokes about how bad my property manager is. At first I was worried that I was about to start a class war in the tent, but ultimately they were very fun, and assured me that “real estate agents are the real enemy”. They all bought merch at the end so I think we can think can classify the experience as professional development.
What other show at the Fringe would you recommend?
I know it seems like Fringe has been going forever (I think it’s week 17 now??) but there’s a whole bunch of shows that have only just started for the final week of Fringe. Including Assigned Magician at Birth which is a hilarious hour by Melbourne act Tricksy Collins. And you get to see some truly impressive magic, without having to put up with a magician for the hour. (Plus it’s on directly after me in the same tent, why not make a night of it and go back-to-back!)
You can catch Ethan Cavanagh perform his show Bond, Lost my Bond until March 22 at Gluttony.
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