The Adelaide Festival has announced that Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie CBE has accepted a new opportunity from the Government as Program Director, Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy within the Department of Premier & Cabinet.

In this new role, Mackenzie will oversee the development and delivery of the South Australian Government’s new arts and culture strategy, policy, and action plan. She will bring her wealth of skill and expertise in the arts as well as a depth of international experience, to help deliver this landmark state cultural policy.

The Adelaide Festival Board also announced that Brett Sheehy AO will return as Artistic Director of the 2025 Adelaide Festival, a role he held previously from 2005 to 2008. Sheehy will finalize the programming of the 2025 Festival, oversee its delivery next March, and continue preparations for the 2026 program until the appointment of the 2026 Artistic Director.

In a statement, Adelaide Festival Corporation Chair Tracey Whiting AM said, “We thank Ruth for her incredible service and the difference she has made to Adelaide Festival in her time with us. The record attendance we saw in 2024 is a testament to the public’s engagement in her extraordinary program. We wish her well in this exciting new position.”

Sheehy said: “I’m delighted to be able to maintain the delivery of an array of events already planned for 2025 and to be joining the exceptional Festival team. My mission is to ensure that we present Adelaide with an outstanding 2025 Festival, as engaging, challenging, entertaining and irresistible as any before, and to hand over to the 2026 Artistic Director a festival in the best possible health. To be able to return to Adelaide to contribute again to Australia’s greatest international arts festival is an extraordinary privilege and an opportunity which I could not resist,” Brett said.