Adelaide Fashion Week at risk in council budget talks
Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) Chair Steve Maras has warned the council the October Fashion Week event will be discontinued if AEDA funding isn’t increased this financial year.
At the council’s City Finance and Governance Committee last night, Maras told elected members the current budget earmarked for AEDA – about $8.9 million, or 6.2 per cent of rate revenue – is not enough.
Maras told the committee that with this allocation AEDA will “likely discontinue” Adelaide Fashion Week and its commercial events fund despite both programs being “critical”.
“Firstly, with the upcoming opening of Burnside’s expansion, the city’s retail environment will be much more competitive, we all know that,” Maras said.
“ADL Fashion Week is an extremely important element of how the city is positioned from a retail perspective, ADL Fashion Week has been delivered on a shoestring budget.
“I just want to draw a comparison, if we look at the City of Melbourne, they provide $3 million for their very, very popular Melbourne Fashion Week festival.
“If fashion week is to be delivered this year, it needs to be done very well, and this will require additional investment, investment that is not possible under the current budget allocation.”
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Maras told elected members that to deliver on AEDA’s strategic plan, they require 9.5 per cent of rate revenue or about $13,598,000. This doesn’t include what they receive from the Rundle Mall levy.
“At 9.5 per cent of rates revenue we will be able to do all of these things and more,” Maras said.
In the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, AEDA spent $310,000 to deliver the three-day-long ADL Fashion Week.
AEDA reported that 2024 was the most successful year of the festival yet, with more than 2200 tickets sold across 40 events, increased foot traffic and citywide spending.
The weekend of the festival saw a total city spend of $36.2 million and about $13.8 million spent just in Rundle Mall, which is four per cent higher than the average weekend of Rundle Mall spending, according to AEDA data.
Over the three days, citywide foot traffic peaked at 452,106 on Friday, October 11, and it was the busiest day in Rundle Mall for the entire month of October 2024.
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The current form of ADL Fashion Week has been run by AEDA since 2022, when the council axed its partnership with fashion magazine VOGUE.
The VOGUE Festival – a three-day festival marketed as “Adelaide’s biggest shopping weekend” – was a revamped iteration of the Adelaide Fashion Festival which the state government cut funding for in 2019. This picture: AEDA
This proposed funding excludes the Rundle Mall Levy, a fee that businesses in the mall precinct pay towards things like cleaning, security and marketing the mall area.
“In relation to Rundle Mall, the board proposes an increase in the levy of two and a half per cent, with casual mall leasing rates generally increasing by around 3 per cent,” Maras said.
Maras said that given the majority of Adelaide City Council rates are paid by the non-residential sector, the council’s proposed budget doesn’t pass the pub test.
“If we’re collecting 75 per cent of rates as commercial rates, I think, and I think most reasonable people think, that there needs to be a greater reinvestment back into economic initiatives than the 6.2 rate allocation we’ve been given, excluding Rundle Mall.”
The AEDA board was present in the gallery for last night’s committee meeting to show support for the budget bid.
Councillor Carmel Noon said it’s clear 6.2 per cent of rate revenue to AEDA “is not going to cut the mustard”.
Noon said she doesn’t want to put up the rates, but suggested the council try to identify savings in other areas to fund AEDA’s strategic plan.
Last year, the council’s cuts to AEDA’s budget affected its commercial events fund. Councillors voted to reallocate some extra funding after its quarter one and two budget reviews, which allowed AEDA to support 22 events in 2025.
The council are still workshopping its budget allocation for 25/26, it will go out for community consultation before being voted on in June.