Adelaide has been recognised as one of the best festival cities in the world, with an exclusive invitation to join an international network of cities renowned for hosting some of the world's biggest and best festivals.

The peak body for arts festivals in South Australia, Festivals Adelaide, was invited to meet with industry heavy weights at the Edinburgh International Festival in August.

Meetings and workshops took place and it was there that the inaugural International Festival City Network was born.

The South Australian capital is the only Australian city invited to join the network, which will include representatives from Barcelona, Krakow, Montreal, Berlin and Edinburgh.

Festivals Adelaide executive officer Christie Anthoney said it was an honour to be the only Australian city invited.

"This a prestigious and rightly-deserved membership," she said.

"Adelaide is the festival city of Australia and at this stage as I understand there is no intention to invite another city from Australia, it's just us."

The invitation followed a survey which found Adelaide outperformed all other Australian states in ticket sales for festivals.

"We sell 56 per cent of all festival tickets in the nation in South Australia," Ms Anthoney said.

The network will largely be used for idea sharing and problem solving when it comes to common challenges faced by cities with a strong cultural festival presence.

"We will share understanding of what infrastructure makes for great festival cities, what government programs work, how we can connect with audiences and I guess just help each other to be the best we can," Ms Anthoney said.

"We have great ambition to be the best festival city in the world and through working with this network, we can certainly learn a lot and share what we already do brilliantly."

South Australia's biggest festivals include WOMAdelaide, the Adelaide Fringe, OzAsia, Adelaide Flim Festival and the Adelaide Arts Festival.

Adelaide also hosts the SALA Festival, Feast Festival, Cabaret Festival, Adelaide International Guitar Festival and the Come Out Children's Festival.

As a pilot for the network, representatives from each of the festival cities will meet over Skype and in person over the next 18 months.