The 1980 Focus Adelaide Festival Fringe was held from 7 - 29 March.

This was the third Focus Festival since the incorporation of Focus Inc in 1975. This Festival saw a much larger festival, more promotional material and a new image with Peter Tregilgas as the Administrator.

The 1980 Focus Promotional Brochure stated: Focus Incorporated is Adelaide's Festival Fringe; Focus has been established to allow for the coordination of the hundreds of small but important events to take place as an integral and complimentary part of the 1980 Adelaide Festival.

The 1980 Focus Festival saw the adoption of a new image, the piping strike. "The State's emblem seems an apt title for Focus Inc. which began its life squawking and fluttering on the outer fringes of the 1974 Festival and has earned over successive Festivals a major role in the community." (See Focus' New Logo - Press Release)

Focus aimed to present all kinds of events - all over the place - anywhere from parks to pubs, trucks to trapezes. It did not see itself as an "arbiter" of taste nor did it see itself in a largely entrepreneurial role.

In 1980 Focus offered those participating several key aids:

• It helped groups find venues and accommodation where necessary.
• It also provided publicity, namely advertisements, poster placement, free previews and reviews and also contact with the media for specialist articles or interviews.

Highlights of the 1980 Focus:

• The first 'A Lark in the Park' event – A series of midweek children's events were in midcity park locations
• The  establishment of a Focus Club in Kintore Avenue
• The First Fringe Awards - The Advertiser announced it would make a special award to a Focus (Fringe) production each week of the Festival. See Fringe Awards 1980.
• Comedian Martin Gergman a member of the successful  Cambridge Footlight Revue was presented with the The Advertiser inaugural special award for Focus Fringe productions.
• Focus ran out of programs and had to print another 20,000, and had to raise funds to do so.

Focus was assisted by the Arts Grants Advisory Committee of the South Australian Government Department for the Arts, and the Community Arts Board of the Australia Council.

Sources:
1980 Focus' New Logo, Press Release
1980 Focus Promotional Brouchure
Press Release – Rosemary Miller
Student Report – Focus the Adelaide Festival Fringe
Teachers Journal Article – Festival Fringe Schools program