KarryOn’s very own Mofo, Jeremy Drake journeys to Hobart to uncover the now legendary annual festival of Tassie’s curiously dark secrets.
“Everything that man touches turns to gold,” Sharon my Uber driver remarks as we round the corner into Salamanca.
“The Market used to be the only thing that brought people to town,” she says.
“He’s done wonders for Hobart.”
It’s a brisk Winter’s morning on the Apple Isle, but the sun is shining and Sharon is upbeat about her day ahead. It’s going to be busy. She hasn’t been driving for long today and already she’s made more money than she’d normally make in a weekend.
As we continue to talk, she reflects on how Hobart was once one of Australia’s ‘best kept secrets’. The problem about tourism secrets, Sharon says, is that there’s very little money in them.
Enter local gambler, turned philanthropist and eccentric – David Walsh.
Sharon is a big fan of Walsh’s.
She speaks about him with a mix of trepidation and revere – almost like he’s a demigod. The economic and social uplift he’s brought to the city has “restored her faith” that this could still be a place where her kids might now stay and start a life, instead of shipping off to the mainland in search of more jobs and better wages. Something that Sharon definitely doesn’t want.
MONA, Hobart, Tasmania
Walsh founded the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) back in 2011 at a time when tourism in Tasmania had seriously lost its mojo. MONA is now heralded as one of Australia’s premiere visitor destinations and has used this reputation to build the equally fascinating Dark Mofo, a 10-day festival which attracts thousands of Winter visitors to the once sleepy convict town.
I’m visiting during the final weekend of the fifth instalment of Dark Mofo. The now Tasmanian Government backed brainchild of Walsh is a celebration of all things darkness and artistic expression amongst the backdrop of the (southern hemisphere’s) Winter solstice.
MONA, Tasmania, Hobart
Dark Mofo, like MONA, represents an opportunity for us ordinary people to explore and celebrate extraordinary art in unique and often confronting environments – but the real winner during this time is not the art, but local business.
Organisers have released figures this week showing that 2017 was their biggest yet. More than 427,000 people attended the festival, up from 297,000 last year representing a 43.7 per cent increase in ticket sales.
Waiting for a coffee, my barista (like Sharon from earlier) nods his head in appreciation towards the P&O cruise ship casually parked at the end of Macquarie Point. It dwarfs everything else around it, including the new 5-star Hotel that it floats adjacent to.
Dark MOFO, Hobart, Tasmania
The first Sydney to Hobart Dark Mofo cruise ship entered port on a special 6-day round trip, bringing an additional 2,000 people. Tickets ranging from $600 to $4,000 per person.
666 artists performed at 67 events across 25 venues this year, including Anti-Russian and Vladimir Putin Rock Band Pussy Riot.
For the uninitiated, Dark Mofo is never without a controversy. This year protesters and international activists petitioned against Austrian performance artist Hermann Nitsch who used locals to interact with the carcass of a dead bull and 500 litres of blood during his 3-hour show.
It sounds macabre, but really it’s all about just pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. If art is meant to make you feel something, then this is what Mofo is all about.
In conversation with one of the festival curator’s Jarrod Rawlins he remarks on the three things that might make up one’s experience when here – “Fun. Drunk. Risky,” he says with a wry smile.
I reflect on this last word for a moment.
This festival is risk and mystery personified. It’s something that just wouldn’t happen in Sydney or Melbourne. Dark industrial parks, dimly lit scaffold bridges, open fire drums (with real fire) and wine glasses (with real glass) where random conversations with strangers are frequent and encouraged.
The culinary brilliance and local flavour of Mofo’s iconic Winter Feast coupled with the light shows and performances within Dark Park provide not only entertainment but perspective on who Tasmanian’s are and what this festival means to them.
Tassie continues to shoot tourism goals with international numbers surging 16 per cent to 250,000. The latest International Visitor Survey shows Tasmania recorded the nation’s fastest growth in international tourist arrivals over the twelve months to March. This compares with just a 9 per cent rise nationally.
The Nude Solstice Swim. Mona: Pic: Rosie Hastie
The tourism demand of Dark Mofo is an obvious economic boon for the city, but as laws of economics dictate, with demand comes issues of supply.
Hotels are groaning under the weight of bookings. Airbnb is trying to take up the slack, but can’t and flights from Sydney and Adelaide edged close to $800 one way.
Even towels were hard to come by at the nude solstice swim after a surge in numbers to 1,020.
There’s definitely some work to do when planning for growth, but my mate Sharon the Uber driver wouldn’t have it any other way.
Next year’s festival dates are tentatively booked for June 14 to 24.