One of Adelaide’s most unique features is its location in the heart of the city. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
2027 will be the lightest five-star season the sport has seen since Covid, with earlier news of the Maryland 5 Star’s uncertain future and now the announcement of a “gap” year for the southern hemisphere’s Adelaide Equestrian Festival to allow for the completion of the Adelaide Circuit Redevelopment Project. The Project constitutes a $96 million build of a new Australian Moto GP track on the Adelaide Park Lands.
We’d had an inkling that this news was coming, but it’s certainly not all doom and gloom in the southern hemisphere. Most importantly, the Adelaide Equestrian Festival announced a landmark five-year funding deal with the Malinauskas Labor Government (the current state government of South Australia) that will commence in 2028 and ramp all the way up through the 2032 Olympics, which will be hosted in Brisbane. Adelaide Equestrian Festival and the Adelaide Park Lands are not the equestrian site for 2032 — the designated venue has been tapped as Toowoomba, located in Queensland and nearer to Brisbane itself. It’s the hope of the driving forces behind the Festival that their new funding deal and the ability to improve the event’s infrastructure will continue to drive international interest in the lead up to the Olympics.
What’s complicating things for 2027 is the construction of a new motorcycle racing track for the Australian Moto GP. Below is an image that shows the 2025 cross country track (white) and the anticipated Moto GP track (red). Please note that this map is not 100% to scale but is intended for general visualization purposes only.
I had spoken with Adelaide’s newly-designated five-star designer Clayton Fredericks at Galway Downs last month, and he’d shown me a quick sketch of what his design for 2027 would look like. One of the biggest challenges, he told me, was that the construction of the GP track was making it difficult to create crossings and otherwise work around security fencing that surrounded the build. It wasn’t a huge surprise, then, to find out this week that the event would skip a year to allow the GP track construction to finish in full. The race itself will take place in November of 2027 and will be the first modern city circuit track in Moto GP history. It’s a cool concept for racing fans, as the track will harken back to its Formula One predecessor that ran from 1985-1995.
An image showing the plan for trees to be cut down ahead of the Moto GP track construction. Source: Crash.net.
The GP track construction hasn’t been without its own controversy: the installation of the track meant the axing or relocation of nearly 400 mature trees from the Park Lands. The tree felling began just yesterday, to the ire of local environmental advocacy groups. The government has pledged to replace the trees at a ratio of 10 to 1 within the Park Lands, but a “Lungs of the City” campaign against the plans was launched in response.
As a part of this $96 million build, the equestrian portion of the Park Lands will be left with a newly-added water complex that will add more options for Clayton and his building team from 2028 on.
The 2026 Adelaide Equestrian Festival attracted nearly 40,000 spectators and drove an estimated $14.8 million in economic activity. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Adelaide Equestrian Festival Deputy Chair Karlene Maywald said the decision not to stage the Adelaide Equestrian Festival in 2027 was not made lightly.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the efforts of the State Government, South Australian Motor Sport Board and City of Adelaide, who have worked collaboratively with us to explore every possible option to deliver the Festival in 2027,” Karlene said in a press release. “However, after careful consideration, the Board determined that the most responsible decision was to focus our efforts on delivering an exceptional return in 2028. The State Government’s landmark five-year commitment provides the certainty to take a longer-term view of the Festival’s future. We are confident the additional planning time will allow us to deliver our most outstanding Festival yet, setting a new benchmark for international equestrian sport in Australia as we build towards Brisbane 2032.”
Tickets for the 2027 Festival had not yet gone on sale, and it’ll be all systems go from 2028. What remains to be seen is how the GP track (parts of which will also be a fixture on the grounds through at least 2032, per the contract with Moto GP) will coexist with the cross country plans going forward. The Park Lands do not host equestrian facilities year-round — the course build only happens in the days leading up to the event itself — so there will be some mobility in terms of how the land is used with both sports in play.
The Adelaide Equestrian Festival will return April 20-23, 2028.
