Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael says festival may not be able to get any bigger

As the largest Dark Mofo festival drew to a close on Sunday night, the event’s creative director Leigh Carmichael revealed it may not be able to get any bigger. He also announced how many millions in box office sales the event had made this year.

TASMANIA’S now iconic winter festival that brings in thousands of tourists each year may not be able to get any bigger says the event’s creative director.

As the largest Dark Mofo festival drew to a close last night, Leigh Carmichael revealed there had been a 25 per cent increase in box office takings this year.

More than 100,000 individual tickets were sold in 2019, bringing in $4 million in box office sales, up from $3.1 million in 2018.

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Mr Carmichael said they felt incredibly supported and were really proud of the event they had put on.

But when asked about growth and where to for future editions, he said: “I not sure we can get much bigger”.

Dark Mofo 2019 Ogoh-Ogoh Parade and Burning

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“We stretched to three weeks this year which was a bit of a challenge for our team,” Mr Carmichael said.

“It feels like we’ve reached capacity in some areas.

Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael discuss the success of this year’s festival. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

“We’re going to just make sure we change it up, push out into new spaces, maybe push into the regions a little more — but that’s a question we’ll have to sit down and try to find an answer for.”

He said about 25,000 tourists had graced the state’s shores this year, with 65 per cent of all tickets sold to interstate guests.

Dark Mofo 2019 Winter Feast

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He said the winter feast had been bigger than last year with about 100,000 people through the doors and the new Dark Path had taken organisers by surprise.

“I don’t think any of us expected 15,000 people to walk that path at night,” Mr Carmichael said.

“When we promoted it as a 4km walk up through the Domain, I think we thought it might be a little thinner than it was. It’s definitely created some challenges, traffic’s been an issue, but at this stage we think it was successful enough to continue.”

Destination Southern Tasmania chief executive Alex Heroys said Tasmania now truly had a peak winter tourist season.

Premier Will Hodgman was all praise for this year’s Dark Mofo festival. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

“Dark Mofo kicked the door open over the winter solstice and opened this stream of festivals,” he said.

Mr Heroys said Festival of Voices would kick off soon on the East Coast which would be followed by the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival.

Premier and Tourism Minister Will Hodgman said Tasmania had never been as “culturally confident” than what it was now.

“It’s a credit to Leigh and his team — the 2000 odd staff that look after us — for a willingness to embrace what’s special about our state, including in our darkest, coldest month,” Mr Hodgman said.

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