Coronavirus: Axing Dark Mofo festival an easy call with $8m in play

Hobart's midwinter festival has been cancelled due to fears a coronavirus outbreak closer to the event could have ‘wiped it out forever’.

Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael in Hobart following the announcement that the midwinter festival had been cancelled. Picture: Richard Jupe

Hobart’s midwinter festival has been cancelled due to fears a coronavirus outbreak closer to the event could have “wiped it out … forever” and impacted the ­Museum of Old and New Art.

 Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael said the decision, announced on Wednesday, to cancel the June event was “sad and disappointing” but ultimately “easy”, given a risk assessment.

This included that an outbreak impacting the 13-day festival while it was under way or about to get under way would cause losses of up to $8m.

“This decision is about ensuring it isn’t the end,” Mr Carmichael said. “If (Mona owner and Dark Mofo benefactor) David (Walsh) took an $8m hit, then that would wipe us out for years, if not forever, as well as impacting the museum operations.

“David is wealthy but that sort of money coming out unbudgeted is not something he can cope with. It’s disappointing. It’s sad. But it was an easy decision.”

He said an artist or staff member falling ill with COVID-19 just before or during the pagan-influenced festival would have caused shutdowns and cancellations, with big losses. Many of the artists were coming from overseas, including one from Italy, on which travel bans were on Wednesday imposed by Australia.

Mr Walsh, who has ploughed much of his gambling-related personal fortune into Mona and its festivals, said he had no real choice.

“Right now, the (state) government and Mona are each on the hook for $2m to run Dark Mofo,” Mr Walsh said. “That’s bad.

“What’s worse, as far as I’m concerned, is that if we ran Dark and nobody came, I’d lose $5m or more because I would have to cover the absent ticket revenue.

“If a staff member contracted COVID-19 a week out from the festival, we’d have to cancel because the staff would need to self-isolate for two weeks, but we’d also have to pay all the artists.

“That kind of blowout would affect Mona’s program, and I’d be back to subsisting on the diet I had when I was 18 — pineapples and mint-slice biscuits.”

The decision came as Tasmania on Wednesday night ­recorded its third case of corona­virus, with a patient admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

Tasmanian Premier and Tourism Minister Peter Gutwein said the cancellation was understandable.

“We will work with Mona and our tourism and event stakeholders, as well as the Hobart City Council, to identify opportunities to attract local and domestic ­visitors during this upcoming winter season,” Mr Gutwein said.

Official attendance at the modern art festival is about 400,000, with 120,000 tickets sold for ticketed events and 20,000 people travelling from interstate.