Festival vibes? At a beach that’s not by the Bay? On a Wednesday? During the week of Christmas?

Sounds like a fantastic way to spend a beautiful, summery day in Adelaide!

Adelaide’s newest youth-based organization – The Adelaide Set – hosted their 1st ever Festival on December 22nd, 2015 at Lucky’s Beach Club – an extension of the Maid Hotel on Magill Road.

The Adelaide Food Central team were kindly invited to the media launch, where we had the opportunity to mingle and share ideas with other guests from the local Adelaide media scene, with complimentary food and drinks.

The idea of the Adelaide Set Festival is to provide local musicians, DJs and artists with a platform to showcase themselves and their work, and it is safe to say they succeeded. With over 500 attendees appreciating the stalls of artwork, flower crowns, Henna stations, DJ set, and local live musicians entertaining the crowd throughout the day (and well into the night), there was definitely some new talent uncovered that day.

When it came to the food and drinks, we were a bit disappointed with the quality of the service. While it was a busy event, the key issue seemed to be the apparent miscommunication between the venue and the event hosts, resulting in a slow service and confusion about what we could and could not order.

Having said that, the food and drink we sampled was enjoyed. We tried two cocktails, the Passionfruit Caprioska and the Aeporol Spritz.

The Passionfruit Caprioska tasted really refreshing, the perfect drink to help deal with the 35-degree weather in Adelaide. While it wasn’t overly strong, the sweetness really complemented the weather and truly made us feel like we having cocktails at the beach – in style!

The Aeporol Spritz was what you would expect from one. A classic summer cocktail, you either love it or you don’t.

Now, for the food that went with the cocktails. First, we enjoyed some Slow Cooked BBQ Pork Belly on Kimchi with crispy onion, chilli and spring onion. This dish delivered beautifully – both on presentation and taste. The Pork Belly was scrumptious; the meat was tender & crispy. While the chilli on top may have been a bit overpowering and the onions were not crunchy as advertised, this dish was an all-rounder and the favourite one of the night.

We were also served a tray of scallops on cucumber with sticky coconut rice. Topped with teriyaki sauce, wakame and sesame-infused seaweed, these serves made for a great appetizer dish and had a good balance of sweet and savoury.

Lastly, we had the opportunity to try salt and pepper squid that was presented in a Chinese takeaway-style box with garlic dipping sauce. While the sauce was far too garlic-y for my liking, the salt and pepper squid tasted delicious and was seasoned well enough to be enjoyed on its own.

While there was quite the crowd and getting a drink at the bar required some patience, looking around no one seemed to mind. Groups were enjoying the sunshine, beats and midweek catch up, a few even braving the dance floor for a boogie. We commend the Adelaide Set for doing something a little different and we look forward to what they do next.

Words by Fatema Sitabkhan and Olga Winter

WHERE: 1 Magill Rd, St Peters