As part of our love for all things LIVE, there's no better way to showcase the many cool and interesting venues across Australia and New Zealand than through our Local List campaign. This time around, we had the incredible opportunity to catch up with Anne Wiberg, the Artistic Director at Light Adelaide, to find out more about their super unique venue, The Lab. 

Words by: Anne Wiberg

Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at The Lab.

My name is Anne Wiberg and I'm the Artistic Director at Light Adelaide. I have worked on numerous contemporary music and arts events and festival programs over the years including Adelaide Festival, Darwin Festival, AIR Awards, Fringe Festival and loads of special events.

Light Adelaide is a not-for-profit organisation supporting arts and hospitality in SA and the building in Light Square has a high-end restaurant Aurora, an outdoor bar called Beags and The Lab, of course. There are plans for level 1 of the building to be renovated to include a cocktail bar, and another space suitable for exhibitions and acoustic performances.

My main role is to manage a team to program a diverse line up including all genres of music, intimate theatre, dance, digital art and more. We also host special events and private functions.

The Lab is certainly an interesting venue. Can you tell us a bit about the venue itself and what makes it so unique?

The Lab has the capacity of 200 pax, so it's a relatively intimate space. The venue is very flexible in the way that it can be used with no permanent staging set up. We have had artists use various options depending on what the show is and how they want to interact with the audience. The sound and lighting systems are also very adaptable which makes The Lab a space that can offer artists new ways to present their work.

The venue boasts 50 square metres of LED screens totalling 14 million pixels! What can gig goers expect to see and experience when visiting The Lab?

Yes, The Lab has 50 square metres of LED screens and for every show we use them to create an immersive experience for the audience. We have in-house and freelance digital artists who create unique content for the screens to ensure that every event is special for the artists and audience alike.

Tell us about a standout gig at The Lab and what made it so special.

This is a very difficult question because we have already had almost 200 shows in The Lab and so many of them have been amazing and very rewarding for us to curate. Last year, we had Slowmango and The Bait Fridge in the space as 'artists in residence' and they took over The Lab 7 times and delivered sold-out shows. What I was particularly thrilled about was the way they used the 'tools' and staging in the venue to their maximum potential. They transformed the venue and presented an engaging and immersive show full of surprises every time.

I have to also mention our Interlude series which is a classical music program that has been very popular because we have attracted a different audience to see music that is traditionally presented in theatres or concert halls. Having intimate salon style performances with digital art as backdrops to the recitals has been quite special.

What's coming up at The Lab that patrons should be excited about?

We are thrilled to be program partners with Illuminate this year and July is packed with fabulous music as part of our Live @ The Lab series. This program will feature a diverse range of genres and artists including Kota Banks, Sunbeam Sound Machine and yes, we are bringing back Slowmango and The Bait Fridge to take over The Lab again!

Get in quick to grab your tickets - full program is HERE.