Moving Australia Day is inevitable, Aboriginal activists say, but most South Australians have spent the holiday contemplating less serious issues.
Thousands headed to Adelaide Oval for the one-day cricket international while others flocked to the city's beaches and parks as the mercury climbed into the low 30s.
The bureau had forecast a scorcher but cloud cover and even some early rain took the sting out of the conditions.
At parliament house, several hundred people gathered on the steps to call for Australia Day to be moved.
Aboriginal elder Tauto Sansbury told the crowd recognising the hurt caused by celebrating on the day the First Fleet arrived must be the start of a wider conversation.
"People have said there's other issues to deal with, well no there's not," he said.
"This is the first one that breaks down the barriers. Then we can move on to all of the other things that are not right for Aboriginal people."
Mr Sansbury said he believed change was inevitable.
"January 26 means nothing to us except that we've got to break it down and get rid of it," he told reporters.
"It's the wrong date and the wrong time to celebrate.
"Just like the Berlin Wall went down, I believe we'll knock this down too."
Last year a rowdy group of activists blocked the traditional Australia Day parade down King William Street to Elder Park, the prelude to the annual concert.
But none were present this year, apparently heeding calls from political and community leaders not to disrupt the event.
Despite the cooler than expected conditions on Friday, an extreme heat warning remained in place with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting the mercury to climb into the early 40s in Adelaide on Saturday and Sunday.
The three-day blast will be Adelaide's second heatwave this month with similar conditions last week leading to 40 people being admitted to hospitals with heat-related conditions.
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