The 1966 Adelaide Festival of Arts was held from March 10 - 26, 1966.

Sadly Professor John Bishop who was the Artistic Director of this Festival passed away in December 1964 during the middle of planning for the 1966 Festival of Arts programme.

As a result, for the first time in the 1966 Festival Programme there was a lot more local content. The "Other Events" (fringe activities) section in the Souvenir Programme was also boosted with six major theatre/review/opera performances featured. There also was an increased number of local visual arts and craft exhibitions, as well as twenty-one exhibitions listed separately as "Other Exhibitions".

Other Events and Exhibitions included: 6 Theatre Productions, 3 Collections; 4 Conferences; 6 Handicrafts Exhibitions; an International Photographic Exhibition; and 26 other Visual Arts Exhibitions.

There was also a growing list of 'unofficial fringe' activities listed in The Advertiser. See What's On in Adelaide issued by the South Australian Tourism Commission, March 4, 1966.

Some of the growing list of unofficial fringe activities that were listed in The Advertiser were:
Arms And The Man at Stow Theatre, Cavalcade of the Orient at Arkaba Hotel and The Set Up at Stow Hall.

It has been identified by Martin Christmas that by the 1966 Festival – the Other Events and Other Exhibitions sections were looking like an "undeclared Fringe Festival."

Again, there was an increasing number of articles written about "fringe productions".

Sources:

• Martin Christmas, Briefing paper 'fringe activities' to Focus 76, 2009
• "The Open Platform – From Fringe to Focus in Pursuit of the Adelaide Fringe Festival", Martin Christmas, Adelaide, 1999.
• What's On in Adelaide - A guide to events in and around Adelaide during the Festival produced by the South Australian Government Tourist Commission - March 4, 1966