As Dark Mofo returns to Hobart for two weeks this June, Broadsheet Melbourne: Around Town hosts journalist Marcus Teague, who has attended the festival as a journalist every year since its inception.
If you attend the festival, you rush home to find out what Marcus has said about it. He really knows the festival,”
says host Katya Wachtel.
Listen to Marcus’ experiences at Dark Mofo on episode 30 of Broadsheet Melbourne: Around Town:
Marcus walked listeners through what to expect, attend and look for this year:
- To plan or not to plan?
“A key element of Dark Mofo is it’s almost intentionally overwhelming” Says Marcus. The lineup can be confusing for first-timers and the website is famously difficult to navigate.
Marcus says to make note of the key precincts and venues which are all a ten-minute walk from each other: In The Hanging Garden, Mac 2, Dark Park, and Princess Wharf.
Either you’ve got a ticket and you’re on your way to somewhere, or you see a red light on and there will be a little Dark Mofo logo outside so you know that’s a venue and you wonder in,”
says Marcus.
- The eight-hour sleep set
Bring your own pyjamas and toothbrush, Dark Mofo has got the beds and lullaby sorted.
You lie down and listen to or essentially go in and out of consciousness to this performance of Max Richter,”
says Marcus.
An over-night performance will help you melt away from the waking world, playing live from 11pm to 8am.
- The events that people come back for
The quintessential events are the Winter Feast where people fuel up before a big night out, the Blue Rose Ball for fancy dress and debauchery, and running into the ocean at dawn during the Solstice Swim.
Another thing not to miss is the Ogoh-Ogoh, a large spirit-animal sculpture that burns your biggest fears.
Throughout the festival, people write their fears on a piece of paper and put it in this thing, and at the end of the festival it gets marched through the streets and set on fire at Macquarie point,”
says Marcus.
- The events are not everything
The ticketed events are pieces of the puzzle that make up the Dark Mofo experience, but so are the people you meet, drinks you try and strange things you find.
Part of the Mofo experience is bumping into people, getting a real dive into Hobart and what it does, and being cold, and making friends with a bunch of randoms wearing light-up horns or nothing at all,”
says Marcus,
You can’t really articulate it unless you go down there.”
To hear about the time Marcus was kidnapped during Dark Mofo, listen to Broadsheet Melbourne: Around Town with Broadsheet Editorial Director Katya Wachtel.
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