The Beatles in 1964 most legendary of Adelaide Centennial Hall's star concerts; also for shows, exams
Centennial Hall, built to commemorate the first 100 years of South Australian colonisation, was opened in 1936 at Wayville showgrounds, Adelaide.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
The Beatles concerts in 1964 were the most legendary of decades of performances at Adelaide Centennial Hall in the Wayville showgrounds.
Roy Orbison, Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong, Manfred Mann, Chubby Checker, Gene Pitney, Dave Brubeck, the Boston Pops Orchestra were among the scores of famous performers at the hall.
The Rolling Stones, still with Brian Jones, were a sensation in 1966 but the Beatles’ four performances over two nights were incredible for the music being drowned out from the first chord by the screaming girls.
Concerts were only part of Centennial Hall’s role in Adelaide life. It became the main pavilion for the Royal Adelaide Show that moved to the Wayville showgrounds in 1925. During that week, it was glory of flower exhibits and cake judging, with poultry and small-breed animals in other corners. Another favourite was The Silhouette Man who stood by the stage with his scissors, creating miniature silhouette portraits cut in black card and mounted on a white background.
Another life-changing experience for university and second school students was sitting in the hall filled with desks for examinations, often in sweltering summer heat.
Centennial Hall was built to commemorate the first 100 years of South Australian colonisation. It opened on March 20, 1936, as one of the largest buildings to be constructed in mid 1930s Australia.
The Liberal Country League state government pushed ahead with the project in the hope of raising voters’ spirits through the Great Depression. The hall’s first major eight-week event was the Centennial Empire Exhibition, an event described by press as “the largest collection of Empire products ever assembled in Australia … with exhibits from 25 British Crown Colonies and dependencies … including a display from Palestine.”
By 2007, Centennial Hall had developed “concrete cancer”, with its steel reinforcing rods corroded, and the building declared unsafe. It was demolished and replaced with the Adelaide Event and Exhibition Centre, opened in 2008.
