Adelaide shops – and shoppers – will be the beneficiaries of a State Government decision to allow extending trading in the city on Saturdays during the busy Adelaide Fringe period.

Shops in the Central Business District will be allowed to trade until 6pm on each of the five Saturdays during Adelaide's 2024 festival season - 17 February, 24 February, 2 March, 9 March and 16 March.

The trading hours will allow businesses to take advantage of the significant increase in tourism during the Adelaide Fringe (17 February to 19 March), Adelaide Festival (3 March to 19 March) and WOMADelaide (10 March to 13 March).

The decision follows a successful run last year, where foot traffic in Rundle Mall during the festival season was up by an average of 101 per cent during the extended trading hours compared to 2022 when shops shut at 5pm.

Foot traffic overall during festival season was up 18 per cent year-on-year (2022 vs 2023), according to the Adelaide Economic Development Agency.

The second year of Gather Round – the festival of football which sees all AFL teams playing in the Adelaide region – will also see an extension of shop trading hours in the CBD. On Saturday 6 April shop trading hours in the CBD will be extended from 5pm to 7pm.

Exemptions for both Fringe and Gather Round were granted after discussions with the Adelaide Economic Development Agency and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

These changes are in addition to the government reformed shop trading hours in 2022, which guaranteed midnight trading on Black Friday each year and has locked in three weekdays of midnight trading in the leadup to Christmas.

Most stores across metropolitan Adelaide are now able to open from 9am till 5pm on Boxing Day without the need to obtain a trading exemption.

Prior to 2022, only the Central Business District was able to trade on Boxing Day between the hours of 11am to 5pm without an exemption.

Workers cannot be forced to work these extra hours unless they voluntarily agree.