Living in the East End brings out Amelia Jay’s social side, and though she’s noticed a drop in activity, she hopes through the Fringe awakening the city, life will come back to its streets long-term.

Amelia Jay is a “self-proclaimed people-person”, she tells CityMag.

This is demonstrated to us in the process of our interview, as she pauses our conversation to wave down a friend for a quick chat.

Amelia spent her formative years up the hill in Summertown, where she says run-ins like this were common – if not to the same degree as in the city.

“In Summertown, there were always the people you would see in the morning and, you know, say ‘Good morning’ as you’d pass,” she says.

“But people would still keep to themselves, and it was very, very quiet in comparison to where I am now.”

Amelia Jay

After packing up and moving to the plains with her family in 2016, the interior architecture graduate and retail store manager now calls a townhouse in the East End home.

Though she traded in a big block of land, the rolling hills and ambience of the countryside, Amelia is unfazed.

“When I first moved, I noticed some noise, but the sounds that come with living in the city just turned into white noise,” she says.

“Quite often we’ll have people after a night out stumble past our place, but it’s never a big deal, and to be honest I prefer to be amongst it.”

And on nights where she has spent an evening socialising and sharing bottles of wine at her neighbouring eating and drinking establishments, the benefits of living in the city have paid off.

“I just wish I was here when I hit 18, because I would go out all the time and, pre-Uber days, pay like $60 to get back home,” Amelia says.

“Now, to be able to go out and not have to worry, and to be able to walk home, catch a train or get on a Beam or whatever, it definitely is something I’ll struggle to give up.”

Amelia assures CityMag she didn’t move to the city purely for proximity to her favourite hospo haunts (though that’s a fair enough reason in our book), it’s also about the broader city lifestyle.

“Last year I started to do a lot of research around fast fashion, clothes and waste,” Amelia says.

“And having all these traders on my doorstep helped me put more of an effort into being more sustainable.”

Despite Amelia’s enthusiasm for her neighbourhood, she tells us her end of town became noticeably quiet amid Adelaide’s run-in with the Omicron variant.

“There are a lot less people around compared to other years, and it is a weird thing to see,” Amelia says.

“Usually, it’s for the whole of summer, East End really picks up, but I guess people are just wanting to stay safe.”

She expects the Fringe Festival to remedy this.

“The Fringe was a little bit different in 2021 with everything, and I think this year will be the same thing again,” Amelia says.

“Obviously people still got excited and wanted to go out and go see things and support.

“I really would love to see that happen again.”

Oh, to be so lucky as to have Hey Jupiter on your doorstep

In her fifth year amid the festival action, Amelia remains in full support of its presence in the East End.

“For me, it makes me want to go out,” she says.

“I normally probably wouldn’t go out on a Tuesday, but I’ll go to the Garden, go out for a drink or something and then go home.

“It really just makes the city come alive; there’s people everywhere and I love it.”