Julia Zemiro has been appointed Artistic Director of the 2019 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. She succeeds Ali McGregor, who has helmed the Festival for the last three years. The announcement came as the 2018 season, which delivered 53 shows over 16 days and nights, came to a close on Saturday evening.

Julia Zemiro. Photo supplied: Adelaide Cabaret Festival

“My mission has always been to have audiences and artists leave a gig feeling good,” said Zemiro, who has been the host of Australian trivia quiz show RocKwiz for more than a decade. “Nothing moves me more than watching someone singing on stage, be it from side of stage in the wings at RocKwiz… or from a commentary box in the Gods of a stadium in Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest… or indeed filming Home Delivery and busking with Billy Bragg at Barking Train Station (the police moved us on).

“I love to perform but I love to be entertained and I give good audience. What thrills me about cabaret is the combination of the political, the personal, the sublime, and the dangerous. It soars like nothing else,” Zemiro said. “There is dread around us in the world. And we keep...