Our beds are filling with visitors as major festivals draw near

MUSIC and performing arts fans aren’t the only ones excitedly awaiting the summer festival season.

MUSIC and performing arts fans aren’t the only ones excitedly awaiting the summer festival season.

Hobart hoteliers are eagerly anticipating the boost that events like MONA FOMA and the Spiegeltent season give their businesses.

Accommodation across the city is already starting to book out, with thousands of interstate and international tourists once again set to descend on the city during the summer months.

Crowds at this year’s MONA FOMA. Accommodation around Hobart is filling up fast for the dates of next year’s festival.

Alabama Hotel owner Kelly Cloake is one of many accommodation providers looking forward to the influx of vis­itors, as her hotel — which opened in the Hobart CBD late last year — is always buzzing when a major festival rolls around.

“We’ve gone through a Dark Mofo and a MONA FOMA, and we were completely packed out for both,” she said.

“And people book well in advance — for this upcoming MOFO, we sold out within a week of the dates being announced, before the program was even released.”

More than 28,000 people attended MOFO events last summer, with almost 45 per cent of tickets sold to interstate and overseas visitors. So far, 63 per cent of four-day festival ticket sales for 2015 have been snapped up by buyers outside Tasmania.

Running from January 15-18 and based at Princes Wharf 1, MOFO 2015 will feat­ure an eclectic mix of musical artists including Shonen Knife, Swans, The Clean, Dan Deac­on, Zammuto (featuring Gotye), Ben Frost, Marduk, Amanda Palmer and the TSO, Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie.

Amanda Palmer will be performing with the TSO as part of next year’s MOFO festival.

There will also be a floating performance on the River Derwent, a public smartphone orchestra and the official unveiling of a major new permanent installation at MONA.

MOFO will be followed by the return of the Spiegeltent, which will be in the PW1 forecourt from March 5-29.

Almost 15,000 tickets were sold for Spiegeltent’s debut Hobart season in March this year, totalling half a million dollars at the box office.

The 2015 season looks set to be even bigger, with sellout crowds expected to attend performances by comedians Ronny Chieng, Denise Scott, Colin Lane and The Axis of Awesome, musical acts like Breabach, Archie Roach, DJ Dexter, All Our Exes Live in Texas, James Morrison, L-FRESH The LION and Sóley.

Jess Love in La Soiree. Picture Viktor Wallstrom

All Our Exes Live in Texas.

Circa will headline the program with its circus/cabaret show Beyond. The hottest ticket, La Soirée, will return for more crazy circus and cabaret.

Pick up your copy of today’s Mercury for programs for the 2015 MONA FOMA and Spiegeltent seasons.