Mona Foma festival moving from Hobart to Launceston to make room for hotel

The idea was first mooted four years ago but now it’s official – arts entrepreneur and professional gambler David Walsh is moving the ground breaking Mona Foma festival from Hobart to Launceston.

He needs space on the 3.5 ha. Berriedale site for a huge five-star $300 million 172-room Hotel At Mona (aka HoMo) which will overhang the River Derwent (see image above).

It is understood that some of Mona’s activities will move to Launceston for next January’s event, and fully by 2019.

The complex will take three years to build (although some aspects will open this December), and will include a concert stage, a 1075-seat theatre, a spa treatment centre, a three-storey circular library, conference and auditorium centre.

The innovative and experimental Mona Foma (Museum of Old and New Art: Festival Of Music and Art) has been one of the success stories since it was set up in 2008 when Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds was its headliner.

Curated by Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes, its mix of left-of-centre music, dance, theatre, visual art, performance and new media this year saw it draw over 11,500 to its events between January 18 and 22.

About 35% of attendees came from intestate or overseas, which has translated into a multi-million dollar cultural and tourism event that other regional cities are enviously looking at and hoping to adopt.

The move comes at a significant time for Mofo festival.

At the end of this January’s festival, there seemed to be a feeling among organisers that it was time for a change, and new challenges to be addressed.

At the same time, its three-year funding deal with the State Government for $350,000 a year also came to an end this year. It is bound to be extended, but Brian Ritchie wasn’t sure what plans the Government had for the festival.

Obviously a move to Launceston would be beneficial to its struggling economy, and the Government would gain two significant cultural and tourism draws.

“The festival’s original 10-year plan – to change the culture in Hobart – has come to fruition ahead of schedule,”Ritchie said.

“We’d like to embark upon a new creative journey — to relocate to Launceston in search of new challenges, new collaborations, fresh partnerships and novel creative models.

“We want to make it bigger, better, more creative, more diverse and more famous — and by famous, we mean infamous.”

Mofo’s dark winter sister Dark Mofo set a new attendance record of 427,000 this June – up from 297,000 last year – and a 43.7% increase in sales to $2.44 million at the box office.