Mona Foma reveals Tassie-flavoured 2021 program

Three hundred and fifty artists across 58 venues: the Mona Foma 2021 program has been revealed. What performances grab your attention?

• Mona’s Festival of Music and Art will be in Launceston and Hobart in 2021
• Festivalgoers Gorge on Mona Foma

TASMANIAN festival lovers starving for a good dose of music and fun can now scan Mona Foma’s 2021 Tassie-flavoured program and work out a game plan.

Ninety per cent of Mona Foma’s 350 featured artists are from Tasmania.

“It’s a year to celebrate the local and invite mainland friends to join in,” organisers said as they launched the program.

“More intimate experiences and smaller capacities than previous years suggest tickets will be a hot commodity, so get on it.”

Events will be spread across 58 venues in Hobart and Launceston, including the Old Car Museum, boatsheds around the Tamar and North Esk Rivers, Duck Reach Power

Station, Zinc Works, Potters Hill Reserve Labyrinth, Mather’s House, Paringa Archery Club and Hobart Archers, Cataract Gorge chairlift, Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart Synagogue, Blinking Billy Point and landmark hardware store, K and D Warehouse.

Highlights include Chairway to Heaven, the Acoustic Life of Boatsheds, Aqua Luma and Mofo Sessions at Royal Park in Launceston.

In Hobart, organisers point to Judith’s Return, The Masque of the Red Death, Forest Gin Walk and Mofo Sessions at MONA.

Jane Longhurst will perform at Mona Foma 2021. Picture: SUPPLIED

‘These are interesting times. Mona Foma has embraced them by engaging with many of the artistic and architectural gems of Launceston and Hobart,” curator Brian Ritchie said.

“We are thrilled to present site specific performances and installations that could only happen here and now.”

Van Dieman's Fiddles will perform at Mona Foma 2021. Picture: SUPPLIED

Kicking off in Launceston, Burnie’s arts and social justice collective, Big hART, takes festival-goers on a journey along the Tamar and Esk Rivers in Acoustic Life of Boatsheds, with musicians performing compositions inspired by each shed’s hidden culture and character.

The incredible landscape of Launceston’s Cataract Gorge plays host to the world premiere of Aqua Luma, by internationally acclaimed artist Robin Fox, with 12-metre-high water jets, lasers and an electronic composition beamed straight to your smartphone.

Also in the Gorge, artists Rachael Kim, Katerina Stathis and Mads Davey have created a Chairway to Heaven aboard the Gorge Scenic Chairlift, and visitors can also tune into Ancestral Eve, a podcast about phylogenetics, interconnection, evolution, and maths.

Professor Barbara Holland provides the smarts, with Brian Ritchie backing her up on various instruments of natural origin.

Both cities will experience Mofo Sessions — evening concerts celebrating Tassie performers, with live music, bars and food options aplenty.

Ticket holders can kick back on the bleachers or lounge upon the big yellow mats at Royal Park in Launceston or catch the ferry to Mona and set up on the lawn.

Slag Queens will perform at Mona Foma 2021. Picture: SUPPLIED

The line-ups include The Broken Girls Club, Dinette & Confetti, Glenn Richards (Augie March), Luca Brasi, Mainlanders, United States of Amnesia, Slag Queens, Slaughterhäus Surf Cult and The Sin and Tonics.

Mona Foma runs from January 15 through to January 24 with music and art taking place over two weekends in Launceston (January 15-17) and Hobart (January 22-24).

For more information, visit mofo.net.au

All Expenses Paid, Stompin. Mona Foma 2021 program launch. Picture: SUPPLIED