Dark Mofo ends in flames as giant effigy of Tasmanian cave spider is set alight

THE popular mid-winter festival will end in a blaze tonight with the burning of the ogoh-ogoh.

Amanda Jordan, of Auckland, Bridget Slocum, of Melbourne, and Gillian Slocum, of West Hobart, place their fears in the ogoh-ogoh at Dark Park. Picture: FIONA HARDING

DARK MOFO will come to a blazing finish tonight when the festival’s ogoh-ogoh sculpture goes up in flames.

The giant effigy of a Tasmanian cave spider, nicknamed Bella, will make its way in a loud procession from Parliament Lawns at 5pm to Dark Park for a sacrificial burning.

The ogoh-ogoh will be accompanied by more than 50 musicians, including drummers, a New Orleans-style brass band and a man riding bicycle blaring horns.

A crowd of about 10,000 people is expected to be there when the spider takes its final resting place on a symbolic web made of knotted rope and hessian at Macquarie Point

Bella the spider, along with its egg sacks stuffed with handwritten notes containing the fears of thousands of Dark Park visitors, will then be hoisted on to the enormous web and ceremoniously lit.

In the Balinese Hindu tradition the scriber’s fear should evaporate up in smoke with the torching of the beast.

Dark Mofo executive producer Lucy Forge says the burning will cleanse us of our collective fears in one communal ritual event.

“It’s a powerful ritual. People take it very seriously and think about what their fear is before writing it down,” Ms Forge said. “There’s such an amazing energy. It’s an atmosphere of controlled chaos.

“This year we’ve amped up the scale of the Purging. It’ll be a surreal experience to be carrying these monsters down the street to the sound of beating drums, and children and lots of people clapping and cheering in the street,” she said.

And this year’s ogoh-ogoh is a monster.

“It’s the biggest we could physically make her and still be able to get her around the tightest corner of the procession, which is coming in to Dark Park,” Ms Forge said.

The abstract structure made of steel and encased in paper, fabric and towel will be accompanied by three other hand-wrought creatures on the march to Macquarie Point.

Bridget Slocum, of Melbourne, said of the ogoh, “If you have a phobia of spiders it’s definitely a bit confronting. At its home in the Goods Shed [at Dark Park] it practically takes up a whole room.”

There will be road closures on Davey St, between Murray and Campbell streets from 5pm–5.30pm.