Now with Beer Garden for our smoking patrons.http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/fest ... 6097889850THE next BigPond Adelaide Film Festival will be held in October 2013 to avoid Mad March.
South Australians are spoilt for choice with a logjam of major productions each March showcasing a dozen different events, ranging from V8 supercar racing at Clipsal 500 to world music at WOMADelaide.
But the sheer number of festivals makes attracting audiences and getting media coverage difficult.
This year's event was the first time the BAFF had clashed with the popular Fringe Festival and the cinema event came off second best.
Growth was below expectations, despite box office takings increasing by 16 per cent.
"We would have had significantly more growth if we didn't have 3000 other events going on at the same time," BAFF director Katrina Sedgwick said.
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"People tend to become time poor. It's not so much about money, it's about the number of hours in the day."
Market research conducted on behalf of the film festival found the average number of movies attendees watched fell from about eight in 2009 to between five and six in March this year.
Competition for audience members will become even fiercer when the Adelaide Festival of Arts becomes an annual fixture from March 2012.
The next film festival will be held from October 10 to 20 in 2013 and will coincide with the Adelaide Festival of Ideas. Ms Sedgwick said the two events will share guests, themes and co-host discussion forums.
In recent years BAFF has worked closely with another March event, the Australian International Documentary Conference.
However, executive director Joost den Hartog said that AIDC was unable to shift from March to October because of the schedules of international buyers.
The next AIDC will be moving from the city to Glenelg.
Mr Den Hartog said he understood why BAFF shifted to Spring, but that he quite liked having so many cultural events so close to one other.
"I'm really in favour of Mad March actually," he said.
"It really adds to the experience for our delegates to have so many other creative people in town."
Mr Den Hartog said the AIDC's First Factual Films Festival (F4) will also remain in March and be held in conjunction with the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Good move Imo - get things happening at different times of the year and people into different events.