This weekend Rundle Street will be flooded with patrons of the Clipsal 500 and devotees of the Adelaide Fringe festival.

It’s an Adelaide melting pot like no other. Although there’s a degree of crossover, it doesn’t take a sociologist to note some distinct differences in taste, politics and choice of lanyard. And, generally speaking, they’re not always each others’ biggest fans.

But why should this be so? After all, there’s more that unites us than divides us. Here are just a few of the things that bring together the yobs and the wankers, united as one.

Going to see Burlesque

Burlesque is an art form which empowers and glorifies women, but it’s also, on a more immediate level, a genre of show where ladies take their clothes off for money. Whether you’re looking for “a subversive performance” or just “a great arse”, burlesque is the answer. Might we recommend the (pictured below) sexy/satirical Becky Lou?

Smashing Tinnies

For your eastern suburbs types, Coopers Pale is invariably the drink of choice. Clipsal and Fringe followers, however, have a taste for the draught brewed over in the west end. They drink it by the can, glass being the preserve of the bourgeois.

For the proletariat (Clipsal fans) and the lumpenproletariat (Fringe fans), beer is best served in aluminium. Whether you’re the kind of person who likes rocking out to Triple M or triple j, there’s no better way to get refreshed than with a couple of cheeky ‘tins’ – or ‘tinnies’ as they’re colloquially known.

Flannies

The flannelette shirt is comfortable, stylish, affordable, and inappropriate attire for anybody with a white collar job. It’s also perfect both for those who don’t care about how they look, and also those who desperately care about looking like they don’t.

For the actual racing season, Clipsal fans will typically don shirts in support of their preferred car manufacturer. However, once the checkered flag waves, the checkered shirts return.

With the simple addition of spectacles, one can straddle both worlds  via GIPHY

Loving Wil Anderson

Some Aussie comics appeal especially to the latte sipping, ABC2 viewing crowd: your Hannah Gadsbys, your Josh Thomases. Other performers are the preserve of the sunbeaten and nasal: think Rodney Rude, or Kevin Bloody Wilson.

Wil Anderson is the biggest comic in the country because he unifies those two, almost always mutually exclusive groups, better than anybody since Bob Hawke. Anderson is narrow of jean, but broad of accent. He is just as often seen in Doc Martens as he is in thongs. He has a show on the ABC, but it’s the show that’s “got all them funny fuckin ads in it”. Yes, he’s making filthy dick jokes, but somehow he makes it all seem progressive.

Essentially, by being liked across class divides, he’s the opposite of Joe Hildebrand.

Oh, look, he’s probably just said something ‘controversial’.

Listening to Peking Duk

Peking Duck are one of the few bands in recent years to successfully transition from triple j to commercial radio. They dominate the Hottest 100, but they’re also playing in the Clipsal concert. Perhaps their widespread appeal is because of the universally heightened emotion in their music; High is conceivably one of the few songs you could listen to either in celebration, or mourning, of the demise of the Grid Girl.

Thinking the other are full of it

The Festival types can’t stand the sound of the cars interfering with the performances, especially in the Garden and Gluttony where the only soundproofing is a thin tent.

On the other hand, Clipsal fans have to contend with all these bloody cyclists whizzing by on the drive into the race, and hipster bartenders rolling their eyes at a perfectly reasonable request for some post-race Barnesy. The reasons differ, but the loathing itself is the same.

It’s beautiful, and not a little melancholy, to think that even at our most divided, we still, at least, have our divisiveness in common.

More you might like:

7 shows about sex at the Adelaide Fringe
Hidden gems you didn’t even know were Adelaide Fringe venues
Clipsal 500 local opening acts revealed

Image:

Stuart Elflett / Shutterstock.com / Andreas Heuer