Co-Founders and Creative Directors

Meet Illuminate Adelaide's Co-Founders and Creative Directors

Rachael Azzopardi
Co-Founder and Creative Director

Over a 25-year career in the arts, there isn’t much Rachael Azzopardi hasn’t done. From steering the musical spread of Barrie Kosky’s legendary 1996 Adelaide Festival program to overseeing the casting of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Rachael has travelled around the world to work with the industry’s biggest names across virtually every form and market, from Hong Kong to Broadway.

After many years spent living and working away in senior roles at Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Festival, and Chunky Move, Rachael returned to her hometown with a purpose.

She saw incredible things happening across the state’s arts and technology sectors and felt moved to break down old silos and expectations to give Adelaide something it had never experienced before: something accessible, immersive, and city-wide. Something new.

Rachael has put her depth of knowledge and experience to work exploring unchartered territory to bring Illuminate Adelaide to life together with Co-Founder and Creative Director Lee Cumberlidge.

Lee Cumberlidge
Co-Founder and Creative Director

After cutting his teeth with WOMADelaide and Arts Projects Australia, Lee spent the next ten years as a producer bringing major international artists and experimental independent works alike to audiences around the world, as well as staging large scale arts events such as the Cultural Festival of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and the World Theatre Festival in Brisbane.

In 2008, Lee and the company he co-founded, Insite Arts, were called upon by Brian Ritchie and David Walsh to bring a bold, untested vision of Hobart and Tasmania to life. More than a festival, Mona Foma became a Helpmann Award-winning experiment in reinvention, transforming the southern capital into an international arts destination.

In 2017, Lee returned to Adelaide, where his passion for working with artists and creating new experiences for audiences found new inspiration.

Lee produced the Adelaide iteration of the highly acclaimed experimental music festival Unsound in Adelaide in 2017 and 2018 before rejoining Arts Projects Australia as a co-Director to produce tours of international work. Since 2021, Lee has teamed up with Rachael Azzopardi to create Illuminate Adelaide, a city-wide winter event focused on art, light, music and technology.

Image: Shane Reid