Homegrown artists making their musical ‘breakthrough’ at Hobart’s Dark Fringe
The fringe festival will once again take over Hobart’s CBD and not only will it liven up a gloomy winter season — it will provide the stepping stone for our homegrown talent. What to expect.
Tasmania
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Singer Maddie Townley is grateful for the musical “breakthrough” Dark Fringe provides for Tasmanian artists.
As the singer and lyricist for Hobart band Townie, Ms Townley has felt the struggle to get a foot in the door at live music venues.
“There are so many bands and people playing music in Tasmania, which is great, but there’s only so much room for the creativity, especially for small states like ours,” she said.
Townie formed last year as four friends looking to combine their solo musical skills, with guitar player Elijah Davies, bassist Jes Lewincamp and drummer Kieran Mulvany breathing life into Maddie’s lyrics.
“We are very much inspired by bands like Big Thief through their quite intricate songwriting and lyricism, but trying to incorporate experimental elements in guitar and drums, all while staying true to the indie pop genre,” she said.
Townie will join the hundreds of local artists bringing entertainment to city streets and venues for Dark Fringe 2024, including the opening night event at the Grand Poobah.
“Live music venues in Tasmania definitely have a lot of pressure on them to field all the great acts coming through their doors,” Ms Townley said.
“There’s not a load of funding for arts and live music at a grassroots level so it can make it tricky for groups like ours to breakthrough.
“That’s why Dark Fringe is such a great thing to be happening in lieu of DARK MOFO.”
Dark Fringe festival producer David Male said new artists would continue to be added to the festival line-up every day.
“That’s the spirit of Fringe, we can’t ignore that,” he said.
“Bringing those artists on the fringe to the foreground and to these great venues in Hobart to share in art, originality and that freedom of creativity.”
Winter on the fringes looms as cool idea
Tasmania’s only fringe festival will be returning for its second year on June 14, taking over the Hobart CBD with a series of concerts, installations, live performances and roving artists that will liven up a gloomy winter season.
Festival producers and Tasmanian artists David Male and Sabio have been hard at work this year to grow the festival and its performers, as well as developing new ideas and concepts to explore over more than two weeks.
Mr Male said this year’s festival will grow from the fringe to fill the void of the downsized DARK MOFO and Winter Feast.
“I think the beauty of this event is that we have built it around not quite knowing what to expect,” he said.
“We are holding back on some of the details of the festival and hope to see a growing interest in people exploring art and the city and these in-depth ideas that plague our society.”
The 2024 Dark Fringe festival has been split into three branches, including The Fringe, The Dream and The Hallucination.
The Fringe focuses on the new and emerging artists in Tasmania, with a simple application process allowing artists from all fields to join the festival in various venues and display places in Hobart.
The Dream is the major event for the festival, with other Dark Fringe producer and Tasmanian artist Sabio transforming St David’s Park into the Rattle Ground.
The Rattle Ground will run alongside DARK MOFO’ Winter Feast in two weekend showings, with the 20,000m2 of park space becoming a visual and virtual story space.
“Sabio is a visionary and has been working on this space for two years,” Mr Male said.
“She has this elaborate story developed, the rotunda, the costumes and the planning under her belt, all from her glimpse into Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin’s work.”
The Hallucination explores the collision between human and AI, with venues from City Hall to MAC02 housing artists and their work in the space.
“We’re also looking at how humans and AI, this growing technology, move ahead together,” he said.
“What happens when AI is way smarter than you and how will humans relate to each other?”
The Crystal Ball will be the major marker for this branch and will take over a still undisclosed location on Saturday, June 29.
Over 40 cyborg skaters Bec Collins and Sophie Keegan will appear at the Crystal Ball as well as roaming street performers during the Dark Fringe festival, performing as a machine-meets-man hybrid.
“We sort of leave it up to people to interpret, but we’re trying to portray the melding of Ai and humanity and what we see happening in the future,” Ms Collins explained.
“We are portraying both but together, and hopefully bringing together all the art on show around Hobart.”
Tickets are on sale at Dark Fringe’s Humanitix website.
Program highlights
Rattle Ground at St David’s Park
Enter into the carnivalesque world of Tasmanian artist Sabio’s innermost characters and fantastical mindscapes, with a storybook rotunda, food vans, dreamy one-time cocktails and haute couture all enclosed inside the fences of St David’s Park.
Crystal Ball
The Crystal Ball is the VIP gala of the Dark Fringe festival, with a roaming tattoo artist, soundscapes and dancers dedicated to the human versus AI discussion making this the most exclusive event on the Fringe’s 17 day calendar.
EWAH & The Vision of Paradise at The Grand Poobah
The takeover of Hobart’s Grand Poobah bar by Dark Fringe provides the perfect stage for up-and-coming Tasmanian post-punk band EWAH & The Vision of Paradise, as well as a glimpse into the hyper-local music scene with performances from Q.E., Ally Oliver and Townie.
Hobart City Town Hall Underground
The Town Hall Underground is guaranteed to be the party palace of 2024’s Dark Fringe, with one of the city’s oldest buildings hosting local, interstate and international artists like DJ and club music artist D V D or Tasmanian DnB heavyweight Pooka Impyaga.
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In the middle of the night, a Tasmanian sailor was thrown from his Sydney to Hobart yacht, leaving him 4km from his crew. This is his remarkable tale of survival and the decision which saved his life.