With 11 world premieres, several South Australian firsts and more than 100 experiences and performances, this year's Illuminate Adelaide is promising to deliver a playground of light, art, music, technology and culinary discovery this winter.

Led by the Australian debut of Augmented Games (pictured), a large-scale interactive gaming experience created by Moment Factory – the masterminds behind Illuminate Adelaide smash hits Light Cycles and Resonate – this year’s program signals a bold evolution for the event, which runs from 1-19 July.

Highlights include musical world premieres at Unsound Adelaide, the return of the wildly popular sensory odyssey that is Night Visions, a spellbinding interactive journey through a magical underwater garden with Digital Abyss, new - and free - City Lights installations, and a playful prehistoric after-dark experience at Adelaide Zoo.

Illuminate Adelaide co-founders and creative directors Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi said: "We are excited to deliver this, our sixth fully curated program, and we are immensely proud to deliver both ticketed and free experiences that invite the public to explore, play and interact with the work of some of the world's most exciting artists and creative studios all pushing the boundaries of creativity and technology."

Highlights include:

• Augmented Games will transform the Ridley Centre at Adelaide Showground into a life-size arcade where players become the controller, competing in a series of electrifying multiplayer challenges that merge physical fun with digital technology.
• City Lights returns with the biggest trail ever presented, now stretching all the way into Rymill Park and featuring more than 50 interactive artworks, roving performances and dynamic projections.
• Night Visions will again take over Adelaide Botanic Garden, inviting audiences into a mesmerising night walk where light, technology, sound and nature collide in a reimagined parallel world.
• Across the city festivalgoers are invited to wade into the depths of the ocean with Digital Abyss, a ground-breaking new work by internationally renowned French artist and Illuminate Adelaide’s 2026 luminary artist-in-residence Miguel Chevalier.
• Universal Kingdom: Ice Age is the third and final in the Universal Kingdom series at the Adelaide Zoo. It will transport visitors to a frozen prehistoric world, featuring spectacular puppetry and magical light installations by acclaimed creative studios Erth Visual & Physical Inc and illuminart, including woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and towering dinosaurs, alongside immersive installations and family-friendly interactive zones.
• Food and beverage offerings will push the boundaries of traditional hospitality. Highlights include Illuminate After Dark, an intimate cheese and caviar masterclass inside the iconic Adelaide Central Market and Ocean To Plate:  Immersive Dining Experience, offering a multi-course celebration of South Australian seafood, set within a fully immersive environment of ocean-inspired projections and soundscapes.

For more information and tickets go to  www.illuminateadelaide.com

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