Dark Mofo 2019: Best acts you shouldn’t miss in Hobart’s winter festival
It is the event credited with revolutionising winter in Hobart, now Dark Mofo is back for its seventh year of fire, light, music and feasting.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT is the event credited with revolutionising winter in Hobart, now Dark Mofo is back for its seventh year of fire, light, music and feasting.
Starting Wednesday night with the opening of the In the Hanging Garden precinct in Liverpool St, Mona’s winter festival continues to go from strength to strength.
All the favourites will be returning including the Winter Feast, the nude solstice swim, Night Mass and the Ogoh-Ogoh ritual burning.
International acts FKA Twigs and Sigur Ros headline music performances over the three-week festival, with the biggest program of events on offer yet.
Never shying away from controversy, last year it was a series of inverted crosses on the Hobart waterfront that was the cause of outcry.
It has neither been confirmed nor denied whether the crosses will be making a comeback this year.
Associate creative director Hannah Fox said it was often a surprise to organisers what caused controversy each year.
“Some of the works that are considered deeply challenging are the ones that fly right under the radar,” she said.
“This year with the theme of ‘within a forest dark’, it is a bit more contemplative and exploratory — possibly less in-your-face than in the past.”
Associate artistic director Jarrod Rawlins said he was confident the festival would offer things people had never seen before.
“Like the approach we take at the museum, we don’t like to mediate your experience, we really trust people to work things out themselves,” he said.
Ms Fox and Mr Rawlins checked in on progress yesterday at the former Forestry Tasmania site in Melville St, which will be home to one of the festival’s main attractions ‘A Forest.’
The popular Winter Feast will feature more than 70 stalls this year sprawled across the waterfront plus a new interactive kids’ program, Fire and Ice, which will teach children first-hand about native foods.
MORE ON TODAY’S NEWS:
MEN-ONLY CLUB DOORS PRISED OPEN TO WOMEN
TASSIE ‘CASTLE’ HAS WOW FACTOR
DIARY OF TOP PUBLIC SERVANT SHOWS ASIA FOCUS
YOUNG ACHIEVER TAKES OUT TOP ACCOLADE
The unavailability of Macquarie Point spelled the end of family-friendly event Dark Park, but in its place will be Dark Path located around the Queens Domain.
The floating River Derwent wine and food bar known as Natty Waves has already sold out, as have many other musical events.
Returning after last year’s Macquarie St burial, Mike Parr’s new undescribed performance will be shown on a live video feed streamed to the former Mercury building.
A new exhibition at Mona will open on Saturday and continue until April 2020.
Simon Denny’s Mine is described as an “exploration into industrial mining — both natural resource and information data.”
GALLERY OF DARK MOFO FINALE 2018
Tasmanian Hospitality Association chief Steve Old said Dark Mofo had made winter “a viable option for hospitality operators to remain open and even put on more staff”.
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said she was proud of the festival and all it had done to turn around winter tourism in Tasmania.
“It’s a lot like Hobart itself — it’s interesting, creative, welcoming and a bit quirky,” she said. “I’m a big supporter and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the new Dark Path plays out.”
Last year, then acting lord mayor Ron Christie questioned whether the council should continue to fund Dark Mofo as it had crossed the line by displaying the inverted crosses.
He also said the festival “didn’t reap great rewards for tourism.”
Dark Mofo June 6-23. Tickets at: www.darkmofo.net.au
SIX THINGS NOT TO BE MISSED
1. A FOREST
79 Melville St
Lose yourself in a contemporary ruin of art, noise and performance, as the former Forestry Tasmania building and its glass dome entrance transforms into a diverse exhibition space.
More than 10 exhibits will feature during the festival, including Canadian artist Cassils’ ‘Inextinguishable Fire’ - a filmed performance of a 14-second full body burn, shot at 1000 frames per second and extended to 14 minutes of slow-motion.
June 12-16 and 19-23, 5—10pm, $20.
2. TERRAPIN, TEATRET GRUPPE 38 and TRICKSTER-P
Regatta Grounds, McVilly Drive
An interactive art maze on the banks of the River Derwent, in which 12 shipping containers with audio-visual projections and performances depict life beside, with and on the sea.
June 14-16 and 19-23, 5—9pm, $15, recommended for ages 8 plus
3. DARK MOFO and CITY OF HOBART WINTER FEAST
PW1
Perhaps the festival’s most popular event, the winter feast returns to Princes Wharf 1 with crackling fires, live music, comfort food and beverages. Featuring more than 70 stallholders.
June 14-16, $20
June 19, $10
June 20-22, $20
June 23, free
Season pass: Eight-night ticket with priority entry: $50 plus booking fee.
Entry is free after 8pm nightly. Under 16s free with registration. Door sales are available.
4. OGOH-OGOH
Write your fears on a piece of paper and stuff it inside a giant swift parrot, which will be burned at the close of the festival.
Visit the Goods Shed at Macquarie Point to write your fears ahead of the procession from Parliament Lawns to Macquarie Point on the last night of the festival.
5. DARK PATH
Regatta Grounds, Queens Domain, Government House and Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
An art trail snaking through the Queen’s Domain, including the old Beaumaris Zoo, the Queen Victoria Powder Magazine and the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. About seven exhibits including Julie Gough’s ‘Missing or Dead’ which is a memorial to 180 children stolen or lost during the early colonial years in Tasmania.
Note: Dark Path involves a lot of walking — roughly 4km from start to finish.
June 14-16, 5—10pm
June 19-23, 5—10pm
Free unless stated otherwise.
6. PROJECT X
Hastings Caves State Reserve, Geeveston
Take a journey into the far south and follow your guide into the trees where you’ll hear 2000 ravens coming in to roost — something not usually witnessed by humans.
June 12-16 and 19-23, 2.15pm — 9.20pm
Continues after Dark Mofo (dates to be announced)
jessica.howard@news.com.au
Kanye, Bianca ‘headed for divorce’
The marriage of controversial rapper Kanye West and his Australian wife Bianca Censori is believed to be over after just two years.
Pacino’s verdict on the afterlife after near-death experience
The Godfather icon has described his last moments before he was revived by six paramedics and two doctors.