Adelaide is transforming. You can see it as the fences go up in the parklands, the fairy lights are strung, buskers roll into town and colourful event posters plaster our stobie poles.

Festival season is on our doorstep, when the city transforms from being too often regarded as quiet and conservative to brash, bright, a bit tipsy at times, overtly adventurous and just a little saucy.

Performers take over alleyways, pop-up venues, theatres in backstreets, riverbank venues and country halls during festival season, which includes the Adelaide Fringe – the second largest event of its kind in the world after Edinburgh – the Festival of Arts, WOMADelaide and Adelaide Writers’ Week.

South Australia becomes a veritable cultural and linguistic melting pot, generating economic opportunities as tourists flood the city and regional hubs, and locals come out to celebrate and be entertained.

Adelaide’s festivals account for just under 50 per cent of all arts festival ticket sales across Australia. For a small state, our festivals are batting well above the national average.

Last year, more than 650,000 tickets were sold to comedy, cabaret, magic, visual arts, live music, children’s theatre and street performances, generating more than $81 million for the state.

Close to 20,000 interstate and international visitors flooded across our borders, staying more than 80,000 nights between them, and spending more than $24 million. That’s a fair cash splash on food, drinks, accommodation, transport, tickets and shopping.

Our festivals generate thousands of part-time and casual jobs from hospitality and entertainment to events management, equipment hire, cleaning and even electrical contractors. That festival employment alone helps drive our economy in late summer and early spring, as young people with cash in their pockets spend it on hot nights out in the city.

Adelaide is also the prime Australian city where thousands of acts are discovered, particularly through the Honey Pot launching pad, which allows more than 150 international curators to watch shows, scout for talent and sign up acts for other festivals around the world. We are an exporter of ideas and talent.

But we take our events for granted, and fail to realise how great a show we put on for the masses. If you’re in Sydney when the Sydney Festival is on, you can walk the streets and not know it’s festival-time. In Adelaide there’s no avoiding it.

Festival season gives SA confidence and makes people more creative and happier. We should participate with pride.

We know we put on a good show, but sometimes we don’t realise how well we do it.

With world-leading events at our fingertips, the time is ripe to get out and enjoy them, experience the cultural offerings in arts, literature, music, comedy, magic, acrobatics, theatre, busking and even fashion. And live a little.

This article was originally published in the Souh Australian Business Journal on Tuesday 6 February 2018.