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The Adelaide City Council has decided to "celebrate failure" and allow the Adelaide Festival to keep its Riverbank Palais barge on the River Torrens until April 2019.
The structure will be refurbished to make it more attractive and useful for other city events and festivals.
The "unsightly" barge has drawn widespread criticism after staying in place — in a deconstructed form — for several months following the end of the 2017 festival.
The barge had supported a night club alongside the bank of the River Torrens in Elder Park.
On Tuesday evening, the Adelaide City Council agreed to allow the barge to remain, on the condition that festival organisers re-clad the structure and made it available for other events.
Councillor Houssam Abiad said while keeping the barge on the Torrens was not council's original plan, it was now hopeful the structure would help to attract more visitors to the area.
"I think what was promised initially, and what was delivered on, is completely at odds," Mr Abiad said.
"However, the [festival] is a very important asset and contributor to the social and economic development of the city.
"We have an obligation as a council to be able to, to some degree, celebrate failure and to assist organisations so they are financially stable [and] able to deliver such events."
Photo:
The floating night club proved popular with the public, attracting 47,000 people. (Website: Lucesco Lighting)
Mr Abiad said he was confident other event organisers would take advantage of the structure in the future.
"The plan that we've seen ... clearly showcases that the [festival] is taking this very seriously," he said.
"They are planning to clad and beautify the pontoon and connect it better to the riverbank, but also they are looking at a plan to be able to activate that precinct."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, local-government, carnivals-and-festivals, adelaide-5000
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