Austrailia - Gracious Adelaide

ADELAIDE is always thought of as a gracious city and an easy place to live; despite a population of around one million and a slick veneer of sophistication, it still has the feel of an overgrown country town. It's a pretty place, laid out on either side of the Torrens River , ringed with a green belt of parks and set against the rolling hills of the Mount Lofty Ranges .

During the hot, dry summer the parklands are kept green by irrigation from the waters of the Murray River on which the city depends; there's always a sense that the rawness of the Outback is waiting to take over.

The traditional way of life of the Kuarna people , the original occupants of the Adelaide Plains, had been destroyed within twenty years of the landing of Governor John Hindmarsh at Holdfast Bay in 1836. The Surveyor General for the colony, Colonel William Light, had visionary plans for the new city. After a long struggle with Hindmarsh, who wanted to build on a harbour, Light got his wish for a city on the western side of "the enchanted hills", with a strong connection to the river. In 1823, Light had fondly written of the Sicilian city of Catania: "The two principal streets cross each other at right angles in the square in the direction of north and south and east and west. They are wide and spacious and about a mile long", and this became the basis for the plan of Adelaide. Postwar immigration provided the final element missing from his plan - the human one: Italians now make up the biggest non-Anglo cultural group, and the café society they introduced adds spirit to the city.

Festivals
The Adelaide Festival of Arts , which takes over the city for three weeks at the beginning of March in even-numbered years, is a huge event, attracting an extraordinary range of international and Australian theatre companies, performers, musicians, writers and artists. Around the main festival has grown an avant-garde and experimental Fringe , which for many is more exciting than the main event. The official festival began in 1960 and since 1973 has been based at the purpose-built Festival Centre ; there's late-night cabaret here after the evening's events. There are also free outdoor concerts and opera - even films. Other venues around town host Artists' Week , exploring the visual arts, and a small film festival . Writers' Week , the free literary festival, is held under marquees in the Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens, across King William Road from Elder Park ( www.adelaidefestival.org.au ).

The Fringe Festival begins with a wild street parade on Rundle Street a week before the mainstream Festival of Arts. Based at the Lion Arts Centre , on the corner of North Terrace and Morphett Street, and at venues all over town, it also unleashes buskers en masse onto Rundle Mall. Twenty-four hour licensing laws are taken advantage of, as the Sydney and Melbourne arts scenes join the locals for some serious partying: late through the hot night the Fringe Club has bands, cabaret and comedy, and there are free outdoor shows and activities ( www.adelaidefringe.com.au ).

Advance programmes for both the main and the fringe festival and further information is available from the offices of Tourism South Australia, or from all Bass outlets.

Womadelaide is an outdoor world music weekend that began in 1992 as part of the Arts Festival. It has now developed its own successful identity, attracts over 30,000 people and is held every alternate (odd-numbered) year to the festival, although organizers are considering making it an annual event. Womadelaide takes place in late February under the trees and night skies of Botanic Park - four stages, two workshop areas, multicultural food stalls and visual arts - and is typically laid back. This is a great event to sample some of Australia's local talent with a broad selection of Aboriginal musicians as well as internationally acclaimed contemporary and traditional artists from around the world. The full weekend (Fri night-Sun night) costs $150, but day and session passes are also available. Bass (tel 13 1246, www.bass.sa.com.au ) are the official store selling Womad tickets in Adelaide.

Food and Drink
Adelaide has roughly one restaurant for every thirty people, so not surprisingly eating out is a local obsession, and it's incredibly inexpensive here compared to Sydney or Melbourne. Moonta Street, closed to traffic between Gouger and Grote streets, is a small Chinatown heralded by Chinese gates which has several Chinese restaurants and supermarkets. An excellent food plaza off Moonta Street (daily 11am-4pm, except Fri until 9pm) serves Vietnamese, Indian, Singaporean, Thai and Malaysian food as well as Chinese yum cha and Cantonese BBQ. There are over thirty restaurants on Gouger Street , many of which are alfresco and at their busiest on Friday night when the nearby Central Market stays open until 9pm. Café society is based around Rundle Street in the city, and in North Adelaide on O'Connell Street and the upmarket, decidedly chic Melbourne Street. Finally, eating in pubs in Adelaide doesn't just mean the usual steak and salad bar but covers the whole spectrum, from some of the best "contemporary" Australian food in town to bargain specials in several pubs along King William Street.

As for drinking, South Australian wine features heavily - which is just as well, since, by general consensus, tap water in Adelaide tastes dreadful. Although it's perfectly safe, there's usually only a small charge for spring water, which is what everybody drinks. And thanks to the state's liberal licensing laws, even most cafés are licensed.

Nightlife
Adelaide may appear dead at night, but there's actually quite a lot going on - bands, clubs, film and theatre - if you know where to look. The best place to find out what's on is The Guide , a pull-out weekly with film and theatre listings and reviews in Thursday's Advertiser . There's also a thriving free press : top of the culture stakes is The Adelaide Review , a highbrow monthly covering the visual and performing arts, dance, film, literature, history, wine and food, available from bookshops such as Imprints on Hindley Street, museums, galleries and just about everywhere else. At the more populist end of the scale, Rip It Up is a gig listings magazine, out every Thursday, with film, theatre, club and music reviews and interviews, and there's the db Magazine in the same vein, published every two weeks on Wednesdays; both can be picked up at Rundle Street record stores such as B# Records, at no. 240 (jazz and world music specialists; tel 08/8223 7258), and Verandah Music at no. 182 (rock, metal and punk specialists; tel 08/8223 6753). Most big music events can be booked through Bass (tel 13 1246, www.bass.sa.com.au ), who have an outlet at Verandah Music, while B# Records sells tickets for underground events around town.

At night, the two spots to head for are Rundle Street , which boasts the most fashionable pubs and bars, and the more mainstream and rather sleazy Hindley Street , where you'll find several funky clubs and live-music venues east of Morphett Street catering for the nearby university crowd. And, of course, there's the Adelaide Casino (Mon-Thurs & Sun 10am-4am, Fri & Sat 10am-6am; neat dress required; tel 08/8218 4111), near the train station. As unpromising as this might sound, it's worth at least one visit: the marble entrance with its dome is stunning and, although this elegance isn't matched by the glitzy gaming rooms, the Austrian crystal chandeliers are jaw-slackening.

Shopping
You can find most things you'll need in Rundle Mall , which has three department stores, plus a handy Woolworths at no. 86 with a small supermarket attached. There is another central supermarket, Coles, at 21 Grote St (open daily), next to the Central Market. The large metropolitan shopping centres are at Tea Tree Plaza (northeast), West Lakes (beachside suburbs) and Marion (south).

For alternative fashion , Rundle Street, and particularly Miss Gladys Sym Choon at no. 235, is the place to go. For retro clothing visit Mabs, 207 Grenfell St, or The Banana Room. For Aboriginal arts and crafts try Tandanya or the Otherway Shop at 185 Pirie St. B# Records on Rundle Street and Krypton Discs, 34 Jetty Rd, Glenelg, are both good for records .

There are several good bookshops around the city: Imprints, 80 Hindley St, is a good highbrow shop; the excellent Unibooks, at Adelaide University, provides an excuse to nose around the university; Angus & Robertsons, 138 Rundle Mall, is a large mainstream store; Europa Books at no. 238 Rundle St, sells foreign-language literature and travel books and guides in English as well as maps; Adelaide Booksellers, 6A Rundle Mall sells good secondhand titles, as does O'Connell's Bookshop at 62 Hindley St, which will also buy or exchange books. For antiquarian books, head for Michael Treloare, 196 North Terrace, and admire his beautiful bookcases. In Norwood, Murphy Sisters Bookshop, 240 The Parade, is a feminist bookshop also specializing in Aboriginal studies.

Markets include Central Market, Orange Lane Market, Brickworks Market, Port Adelaide Market and Torrens Island Fish and Produce Market. In a lane tucked away behind the excellent Universal Wine Bar on Rundle Street, East End Cellars, 22-26 Vardon St, is an excellent bottle shop if you want to buy some choice South Australian wines to take away