The 2014 Adelaide Fringe Festival is just days away from launching and is already looking like on ‘the’ top cultural events in Australia.

This year the fringe festival feature a record 966 events.

The program includes 198 music concerts by artists including Josh Pyke, Kate Miller Heidke, The Audreys, Dan Sultan, James Reyne, and Fringe ambassador Katie Noonan, who will perform in the Garden of Unearthly Delights with circus troupe Circa.

Among the comedy line-up is Dave Hughes, performing at his first Adelaide Fringe in five years, Wil Anderson, Tom Ballard, Paul McDermott, Tom Gleeson, Charlie Pickering, Denise Scott, Hannah Gadsby and Stephen K Amos.

UK circus show and 2013 Pick of the Fringe Award winner Limbo will return in 2014, as will Best Emerging Comedy winner Wolf Creek: The Musical and “seductive comedy monster” Red Bastard, while black-light circus and body-art show Luminous promises to bring some neon-lit magic to Gluttony, in Rymill Park.

Fringe director Greg Clarke said that in addition to “the enormous number of award-winning artists”, 2014 would also see the debut of a 13m-long disco cuttlefish named Stobie, which will dance through the  East End every Saturday night during the festival.

“Everyone will be able to join in the fun by going online in January to adelaidefringe.com.au to learn a specially choreographed cuttlefish dance and then be able to ‘strut’ their stuff whenever he appears,” Clarke said.

Re-developed Victoria Square will become the centre of a new Fringe hub, housing pop-up venue The Royal Croquet Club, the Spirit Festival celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture, and the Fringe Street Theatre Festival.

There will be another 23 Fringe venues in the streets surrounding the square, including the popular Tuxedo Cat in its new Pulteney Street premises.

The push to take the festivities beyond the CBD continues, with special events planned for Port Adelaide, Unley, Salisbury, Goolwa, the Barossa Valley and Port Augusta.

Adelaide Fringe 2014 kicks off with the Fringe Parade on February 14. The full program is available online.

This article was first published on InDaily.