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Bites Beneath the Lights: What to Eat & Drink at Illuminate 2025
Art, appetite and after-dark bites — Illuminate Adelaide brings the flavour.
As Adelaide glows under the spell of Illuminate 2025, so too does its flavour scene — and trust us, it’s positively radiant. This year, the city’s top venues are stepping into the spotlight with Illuminate Hosts, a brand-new culinary program dishing up limited-edition menus, bespoke cocktails and glowing bites inspired by the festival itself. From neon brambles to wintery skewers, the program transforms Adelaide’s most loved bars and restaurants into sensory extensions of the light trail.
Pop-up bars shimmer beneath twinkling canopies, exclusive menus light up the city’s top tables, and every bite feels like part of the spectacle. Sip, graze and glow your way through winter — here’s your ultimate guide to eating and drinking at Illuminate 2025.
Base Camp at Lot Fourteen
The official hub of Illuminate Adelaide is back — and it’s hungrier (and glowier) than ever. A winter village built for indulgence, Base Camp transforms Lot Fourteen into a glittering maze of fairy lights, fire pits, food trucks and festival fun. Once you’ve flung yourself into a 10 Minute Dance Party and posed beside the City Lights, you’ll want to hit pause and hit the food stalls.
Here’s the vibe: grilled sandwiches stuffed with mac and cheese or spicy roast chicken, crispy potato spirals, sticky bao buns, pho bowls that steam like dragon breath, laksa dumplings, and deep-fried mozzarella that just makes sense in this weather. Add hot mochi doughnuts, soft serve with fairy floss, and drinks from Bowden Brewing, Chalk Hill Wines and Never Never Distilling Co, and you’ve got a fire-lit feast worth staying out in the cold for.
This is a choose-your-own-adventure for tastebuds — part street party, part gourmet playground.
Until 20th July, Free Entry
Lot Fourteen, Adelaide
Chalk Hill Wines: The Sensory Odyssey
Wine tasting, but make it multisensory. Chalk Hill Wines is throwing out the rulebook with The Sensory Odyssey, an award-winning experience that pairs vino with vibey tunes — yes, you’ll be sipping and grooving.
Pop on some headphones, settle into the sleek Alpha Crucis Lounge, and prepare to have your perception of wine utterly rewired. Five wines, five perfectly matched tracks, and one deliciously immersive journey through taste, sound, and scent. Think smooth reds with soul, zesty whites with synths, and a welcome drink to get you in the groove.
Normally $75, this Illuminate-only experience is yours for $49. Go on, taste with your ears — and brag about it later.
Until 16th July, $49 per person (Illuminate special)
Chalk Hill Wines, 56 Field Street, McLaren Vale
Night Visions Dining at Botanic Lodge
Equal parts enchantment and edible theatre, Night Visions Dining at Botanic Lodge is Illuminate’s most dazzling feast. Set beneath a canopy of stars and glowing installations, this immersive experience pairs seasonal South Australian produce with a touch of sensory magic. Expect communal tables, Golden Gaytime parfaits, and the dreamiest lakeside setting in town. It’s $135 well spent for a two-hour journey where food, light, and sound collide.
Go early, stay late, and let the night wrap around you like a silk scarf dipped in neon.
Available to book Fridays – Sundays during the Night Visions season
Main Lake (Kainka Wirra), Adelaide Botanic Garden, Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide
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2KW Rooftop Is Serving Cocktails With a Side of Cosmic Glow
High above King William Street, 2KW is dialling up the drama this Illuminate with Black Ruby — a dazzling light-and-sound installation turning the rooftop into a kaleidoscopic wonderland where your Negroni comes bathed in ruby light, your whisky bramble sparkles with theatrical flair, and even your bar snacks feel a little more elevated (thank you, Sam Christopher’s supper menu).
Open every night from 5pm ‘til late and walk-in only, it’s a glittering reminder that the best festival moments often come with a view — and a very good drink in hand.
From 5pm daily
Level 8, 2 King William Street, Adelaide
Fine Dining Meets Festival Sparkle: Aurora’s Illuminate Degustation
At Aurora, Illuminate is more than just a glow-up — it’s a philosophy plated with flair. Executive Chef Robin Wagner’s boundary-pushing, plant-forward degustation doesn’t just nod to the future of food, it dives in fork-first. Think experimental textures, global flavour fusions, and vegan dishes so artfully realised, you’ll forget you ever needed a steak.
For Illuminate, Aurora is offering a free wine pairing with every five-course degustation booked between 6pm and 7pm — just use the code ‘ILLUMINATE’ at checkout. A golden-hour experience that shines as brightly as the festival itself.
Until 20th July (Illuminate menu from 6pm to 7pm)
Ground Floor, ILA, 63 Light Square, Adelaide
Garçon Bleu at Sofitel
If Illuminate had a dress code, Garçon Bleu would be it. High-gloss luxury and French flair meet golden-hour indulgence at this luminous Sofitel restaurant, where the pre-show begins on the plate. Start your evening with the Garçon Électrique — a glittering mandarin-spiked cocktail with just enough citrus zing to match the city’s sparkle.
From there, it’s two courses of pure decadence: melt-in-your-mouth Beef Cheek Bordelaise with silky pomme purée, then a dark chocolate and orange Bombe Alaska ablaze with toasted meringue. Dining, elevated — literally and figuratively.
Until 20th July, every evening
108 Currie Street, Adelaide
Lumen Bar: Where Vinyl, Vino and Art Collide
Beneath a glowing canopy on North Terrace, Lumen Bar returns for Illuminate Adelaide — a winter pop-up that lingers in your memory. A dreamy collision of retro charm and modern flair, this 70s-inspired lounge wraps you in warmth, vinyl beats and low-lit ambience. Sink into a conversation pit, sip Grenache Noir from alumni winemakers, and graze on kangaroo osso bucco or whipped ricotta with honey. Local DJs spin live-to-air via Unicast, happy hour hums daily, and the whole thing glows with community spirit. Created with the National Wine Centre, Lumen Bar is the beating heart of City Lights and the ultimate way to drink in the art.
4th to 20th July, 4pm to late
Daily happy hour: 5pm to 6:30pm
Goodman Lawns, North Terrace, Adelaide University
Station Road’s Set Menu and Sparkling Extras Make for a Dazzling Illuminate Detour
If Illuminate Adelaide has you craving a little glamour with your glow, Station Road is your pre-show rendezvous. From 6pm to 7pm, they’re offering a refined two-course set menu with a glass of wine for just $50 — but that’s just the opening act. Illuminate visitors in the know can also unlock a secret off-menu pairing: a bespoke cocktail matched with a snack for $25. Think late-night lounge energy, but make it curated and clever.
And just because, there’s Station Road’s pièce de résistance — a roving cheese trolley and effervescent Champagne cart that’s near impossible to resist. It’s a glorious nod to the golden era of dining. Add some sparkle to your evening and let this East End gem set the stage for a truly sensory night out.
1 Station Road, Adelaide
The After-Dark Appetite Awakens: Illuminate’s East End Late-Night Crawl Is a Glutton’s Delight
Illuminate Adelaide’s night-time glow doesn’t end with the final light show — in fact, that’s when the city’s tastiest secrets come alive. Start your twilight trail at Monica, where things get fruity, foamy, and fire-kissed. Two Illuminate-exclusive cocktails (the Ube Sesame is pure dessert theatre) and a skewer-Asahi combo for $25? That’s your opener.
Roll down Vardon Avenue and into NOLA, where fried chicken still sizzles after 10:30pm, best chased with a beer or a beignet-laced trio of cocktails. Just across the way, Mother Vine is shaking up the Luminous Bloom — a dusky blend of Adelaide Gin, Aperol and Lillet Blanc that’s as photogenic as it is potent.
Still hungry? East End Cellars is slinging customisable platters of charcuterie, cheese, baguette and all the trimmings until late. Ideal for picking at between light installations and deep conversation.
This is Illuminate’s unofficial midnight feast — a moveable, mouthwatering procession of everything good.
Various venues around East End
Glowsticks down, appetites up — Illuminate 2025 proves that the real magic happens between courses. From first sip to final sparkle, this is winter dining at its most dazzling. For more seasonal brilliance, explore these cosy, utterly romantic South Australian stays — and don’t miss our full guide to what’s on this Illuminate season, right here.
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