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Fringe in the Bridge 2026: Your festival guide

Looking for Adelaide Fringe events in Murray Bridge, Mannum and Palmer? We’ve got you covered.

Peri Strathearn

Peri Strathearn

— 7 min read
Fringe in the Bridge 2026: Your festival guide
Art, comedy, live music and theatre will be on offer around the Murraylands from artists local, visiting and international over the next month. Photos: Paintelaide, Kalah Lovegrove, Rural City of Murray Bridge, Dead Darlings Theatre, the Cabaret Collective.

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Get ready – Fringe season will kick off in the Murraylands this weekend.

Twelve different shows will come to Murray Bridge, Mannum and Palmer in 2026, offering everything from comedy and live music to sculpture and feminist theatre.

The Murray Bridge council will present a few extra performances and events throughout the next few weeks, as well, capitalising on people’s enthusiasm for the arts during mad March.

Families will be encouraged to visit the five Fringe venues in the rural city – the Bridgeport Hotel, gallery, performing arts centre, library and the Station – and enter a prize draw by doing colouring-in and collecting stamps.

Scroll down for a list of all the Fringe and Fringe-adjacent goings-on in our region between February 21 and March 21.

Granny Flaps: The Retrospective Roadshow

7.30pm Saturday, February 21 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

Get the gang together – Granny is back, and bringing the hits! Granny Flaps Retrospective Roadshow is a riotous celebration of the very best moments from the award-winning musical comedy sensation. Expect a whirlwind of sassy songs, scandalous tales, and razor-sharp wit as Granny revisits her most iconic numbers and jaw-dropping anecdotes – with a few new surprises tucked into her compression stockings.

Henry Olonga musical performance

11am Monday, February 23 at Murray Bridge Library

Join us for a morning of music and inspiration with Henry Olonga – former international cricketer, sports commentator, and now acclaimed operatic tenor.
Experience the powerful voice and captivating presence of a man whose journey from the cricket pitch to the concert stage is as remarkable as his music.

Children’s drawing workshop with illustrator Paul Rutter

4pm Friday, February 27 at Murray Bridge Library

Get ready for a creative adventure! Join Paul Rutter – author, illustrator, and animator – for a hands-on drawing workshop where kids will learn to sketch amazing desert animals step by step. Paul has created a popular series of workshop activity books and brings his drawing classes to life with fun, easy-to-follow techniques that inspire young artists of all skill levels.

Neon Glow Paint and Sip with Paintelaide

3pm Saturday, February 28 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

Step into the most luminous after-dark party at Fringe 2026! Forget boring white canvases, we’re turning the lights down and the glow factor up. Grab your favourite drink, pick your neon palette and watch your creation explode with fluoro colours under the blacklights.

Movin’ Melvin Brown: A man, a magic, a music

7.30pm Saturday, February 28 at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre

Living legend Movin’ Melvin Brown returns with his multi-awarded musical that sold out in Edinburgh and around the world. A five-star Black music journey through Brown’s incredible life in song, tap, story, comedy and characters. Featuring songs of Jackie Wilson, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and the Temptations.

Straight Outta Church

8pm Saturday, February 28 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

A hilarious show about being a Black mum and a Christian mum … and how they don’t always align! She’s straight out, single, saved, sober and stressed out! Try healing while raising four Black gen alpha “no filter” kingdom kids with ADHD, anxiety and attitude: that’s the hilarious, raw reality Kalah Lovegrove brings to the stage.

Little Fringe

6pm Wednesday, March 4 at the Station, Murray Bridge

Music. Art. Community. A cosy, creative micro-Fringe night featuring youth music, live art, and quirky bite-sized performances. Come chill, create and support young local artists. Everyone welcome.

  • Free.

Knot Your Grandma’s Cross Stitch

4pm Friday, March 6 at Murray Bridge Library

Think cross stitch is old-fashioned? Knot anymore! Join us at Murray Bridge Library for a modern twist on a classic craft. Learn the basics, follow fun patterns, and even design your own!

American Road Trip

March 6-7 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

Murray Bridge’s best-selling Fringe act is back with a brand-new show not to be missed! Why bother with airport queues, jet lag and expensive trips when for less than the cost of a schnitty you can tour America’s greatest locations in one night of iconic songs? The Cabaret Collective have put together the ultimate road trip itinerary with stops in New York, New York, Viva Las Vegas, the Hotel California and many, many more.

Lolly Jar Circus kids’ circus skills class

10am Saturday, March 7 at Murray Bridge Library

Celebrate Fringe in the Bridge with Murray Bridge Library! Lolly Jar Circus is a fun, inclusive social circus for all children and young people, including those with disabilities. Our sessions feature games, tumbling, hula hooping, juggling, and more, led by caring trainers who help build confidence and joy.

B*tch Boxer

4pm Sunday, March 8 at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre

Raw. Fierce. Unstoppable. Chloe is a boxer training for the Olympics while grieving the sudden loss of her dad. Fast-paced and physical, this one-woman show is about rage, love, grief, and fighting to take up space in a world that keeps knocking you back. Sweat, storytelling and guts collide in a battle with ambition and expectation.

Unmothered

7.30pm Sunday, March 8 at Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre

A lyrical, memory-driven song cycle that traces three generations of women through love, silence, and inherited trauma. Told in three acts across the daughter’s life, the “unforgettable modern musical” moves fluidly through live music to blur reality with recollection. From the award-winning team behind Bimbo (Holden Street Theatres Award 2023) comes a new work of bold feminist theatre.

Palmer Sculpture Biennial

March 14-22 at the Palmer Sculpture Landscape

The biennial presents works by sculptors from around Australia and overseas. The sculptors and visitors engage with a stage whose set includes the unique Australian blue sky, wonderful cloudscapes, never ending horizons and a returning landscape, which has now been under revegetation for 24 years; a huge contrast to the white walls of a contemporary gallery.

Song Sung Blue: The Neil Diamond experience

7.30pm Saturday, March 14 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

More than a tribute, this is a journey. Troy Harrison takes audiences deep into the music and the man behind it: Neil Diamond. Through timeless hits and heartfelt storytelling, Troy interprets Diamond’s life and lyrics while revealing how they’ve shaped his own.

Limestone carving workshop

9am Sunday, March 15 at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery

Curious to get your head and hands around stone carving? Join us for a four-hour workshop to introduce the use of tools and techniques for hand sculpting natural Mount Gambier limestone. We'll guide you in the safe use of saws, hammers, chisels and a variety of rasps and files to create relief and 3D sculptures.

  • Tickets: SOLD OUT.

Silence of the Jams II: Lack of judgement day

2pm Sunday, March 15 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

Eddie Ray and the Band of Legends immerse you in an all-original live music cinema experience unlike anything else on this planet! So, here’s the plot: in the not-too-distant future the world is completely controlled by the internet – with AI ruling the planet. The world has plunged into an augmented reality where nothing is real and humanity is destroyed.  Can we be saved?

The Beatles Dub Club

9.30pm Friday, March 20 at the Pretoria Hotel, Mannum

A special DJ set showcasing the Fab Four like you've never heard before! DJ Chris Arnold takes you on a magical mystery tour of his collection of covers, remixes and tracks that sampled arguably the greatest band that ever existed – The Beatles. Expect to hear plenty of reggae, ska, Latin, hip hop, dub, funk, house and even drum and bass takes on the wonderful music created by John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Heatwave: Rock n Roll Time Machine

8pm Saturday, March 21 at the Bridgeport Hotel, Murray Bridge

Adelaide’s premier classic rock party band, Heatwave, takes you on a high-energy journey through the greatest hits of the 50s to the 80s. Relive Elvis’ hip-shaking, Chuck Berry’s iconic riffs, the Beatlemania that started right here in Adelaide, and the psychedelic sounds of the Summer of Love. Sing along to Neil Diamond, Steppenwolf, INXS, and more as Heatwave blasts through jukebox rebels, British invasion legends, Countdown classics and stadium anthems.

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