Disco Cuttlefish at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2014

Stobie the Disco Cuttlefish was the mascot of the 2014

Adelaide Fringe Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is Australia’s biggest arts festival and is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

.McDonald, Patric
"Stobie the disco cuttlefish poles apart from usual Fringe fare"
'' The Advertiser'', South Australia (2014-02-20). Retrieved 2014-02-20. Its design was inspired by the

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

species the Australian

giant cuttlefish The giant cuttlefish (''Ascarosepion apama''), also known as the Australian giant cuttlefish, is the world's largest cuttlefish species, growing to in mantle (mollusc), mantle length and up to in total length (total length meaning the whole ...

(''Sepia apama''). Stobie was a 13 metre long mechanised parade float which featured blinking eyes, waving tentacles and an elaborate sound, light and dance show."Adelaide Fringe gets ready to buzz"
''Canberra Critics Circle'', ACT, Australia (2014-01-21). Retrieved 2014-02-20. It made appearances each Saturday night during the festival, accompanied by a professional dance troupe which performed a set routine. This was followed by an original dance called 'The Cuttlefish' during which crowd participation was invited. Stobie also played a pre-recorded soundtrack of disco hits including a megamix of "

Stayin' Alive "Stayin' Alive" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees from the ''Saturday Night Fever'' motion picture soundtrack. The song was released in December 1977 by RSO Records as the second single from the ''Saturday Night Fever'' soundtr ...

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Billie Jean "Billie Jean" is a song by the American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 3, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, ''Thriller (album), Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson, produ ...

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You Should Be Dancing "You Should Be Dancing" is a song by the Bee Gees, from the album '' Children of the World'', released in 1976. It hit No. 1 for one week on the American ''Billboard'' Hot 100, No. 1 for seven weeks on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, and in ...

" and "

Le Freak "Le Freak" is a funk-disco song by American disco band Chic, released in September 1978 by Atlantic Records as the first single from their second album, '' C'est Chic'' (1978). It was written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, a ...

". The opening set routine was performed to the theme-song from the 1980 dance movie, ''Fame''.

Development

Adelaide Fringe director Greg Clarke claimed responsibility for suggesting the adoption of a giant Australian cuttlefish as a festival mascot. He said that the festival team "wanted to create a creature unique to South Australia and were inspired by the uniqueness and beauty of the giant cuttlefish that inhabits the gulf waters of South Australia." The idea was first announced with the release of the event program in November 2013. The concept was realised by a team of South Australian artists and technicians accredited as follows: * Original drawing – Slade Smith * Creation and construction – Steve Hayter and Martin Murray * Lighting design – Geoff Cobham and Chris Petridis * Music composition and compilation- Harry Covill * Choreography – Larissa McGowan * Performers- Lisa Lonero, Andrew Haycroft, Penelope Shum, Chris Mifsud, Kialea Nadine-Williams, Jaeger Man A

ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

provided the scaffold around which the cuttlefish was constructed. Sound and lighting systems were placed in the tray of the vehicle. The finished cuttlefish changed colour, featured blinking eyes and emitted smoke as a proxy for ink.

Sponsorship

The Disco Cuttlefish was sponsored by

SA Power Networks SA Power Networks is the principal electricity distribution, electricity distributor in the state of South Australia, delivering electricity from high voltage transmission network connection points operated by ElectraNet. It is the successor t ...

. Adelaide Fringe's 2014 Principal Partner was

BankSA BankSA, formerly known as the Bank of South Australia, the State Bank of South Australia and the Savings Bank of South Australia is the largest bank in South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Westpac. History The Savings Bank of South Austral ...

, and its government partners were ArtsSA, the

South Australian Tourism Commission The South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC), also known as the SA Tourism Commission, is an organisation set up by the Government of South Australia to promote tourism in South Australia. The legislation to establish the SATC was introduce ...

and the

Adelaide City Council The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council, is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia. It is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...

Controversy

The Adelaide Fringe attracted criticism for using the image of the cuttlefish without referring to the decline of the Northern Spencer Gulf population of the giant cuttlefish in South Australia. The decline has been described as 'catastrophic' by conservationists,Cuttlefish
''

Conservation Council of South Australia The Conservation Council of South Australia, also known as Conservation SA and Conservation Council SA, is an environmental organisation serving as a Peak organisation, peak body, representing over 50 member groups, representing over 90,000 indi ...

''. Accessed 2014-02-21. as their population has dropped from over 170,000 in the late 1990s to 13,500 in 2013."Disco Cuttlefish to raise awareness"
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Whyalla News ''The Whyalla News'' is a newspaper serving the town of Whyalla on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia since 1940. It was later sold to Rural Press, previously owned by Fairfax Media, but now an Australian media company trading as Australian Commun ...

'', South Australia (2014-02-20). Retrieved 2014-02-20. Scientists believe the Whyalla aggregation of Giant Australian cuttlefish may represent a separate and new species, and this population collapse, if continued, may lead to extinction as soon as 2016. The festival organisers responded by acknowledging that they were aware of the decline via Twitter and Facebook. The Twitter announcement was made on 17 February and read:

"@SaveCuttlefish Adelaide Fringe as an organisation is aware of the Giant Cuttlefish plight and we hope that by highlighting Stobie the Giant Cuttlefish in this way, we will make more people aware of the issues these creatures are facing..."

The Fringe also added a footer to the Disco Cuttlefish event page on their website, linking to additional information from the

.Disco Cuttlefish
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218002257/http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/free-events/cuttlefish , date=2014-02-18 ''Adelaide Fringe Festival'', South Australia (2014). Accessed 2014-02-20.

References

Marine conservation Disco Cuttlefish