Often cited as the crème de la crème of music festivals in Australia, MONA FOMA (aka MOFO) has a tendency to divide audiences. But what the hell is it?!
It is the last of the three festivals (held 14-18 January in Hobart) I have been attending over Tasmania’s summer, and I am about to find out.
Click here for photos from Day One.
MOFO is the brainchild of MONA darling and owner David Walsh and curator Brian Ritchie, who approached David in 2009 with the idea to host the Museum of Old and New Art's Festival of Music and Art, the 2015 festival sports music for music-lovers; artists who are on the cutting edge of the music industry and performance artists from around the world; while there are satellite events all over the city.
This is a festival that achieves what arts festivals around the nation aspire to – getting audiences attending and respecting acts that push their boundaries and knowledge around what music and art means.
DO come to the festival if you love experimentation and are passionate about music / DON’T attend if you hate surprises and only attend for the headliners
The first day of the festival and returning punters are pumped, while newcomers seem confused (this confusion grows, eventually morphing into a collective spirit of anticipation).The festival opens its lavish doors slowly, teasing its eager audiences. The first-day program includes a handful of free, tasting sessions; a German, sound-art installation enclosed with Cling Wrap and electric guitar aficionado Ava Mendoza (US) in an open rehearsal with two Tasmanian session musicians – it’s their second day of playing together and the opportunity to watch such a highly-regarded guitarist practice sans lights, sans sound guy, sans stage is a rare opportunity.
This exposing of the musicians’ process, performative rawness and come-or-go attitude summarises the festival’s raison d’être. Later that evening, we are in for another incredible (free!) treat. Anna Von Hausswolff, a Swedish musical genius whose voice soars like that of the organ pipes she plays in the beautiful Town Hall. Her music is spine-tingling, reminiscent of what I imagine a selkie would sound like – mythical and emotionally inducing.
The first day gives me an idea of what the festival is pushing – artists we don’t know, a strong, female presence, music that has life-changing qualities and understated support for musicians playing in ways that can re-imagine music for the 21st Century.
DO go to as much free events as you can – it’s not a secondary program / DON’T forget it starts on the first day – a lot of people missed out on this kick-ass program
The festival’s huge PW1 main stage opens on the second day, looming behind Exxopolis, an inflatable PVC cathedral that is touring the nation. Faces are flushed, costumes are on, hipsters are hot, babies sport gigantic earmuffs (necessary protection).The first, major day brings a surprise pop-up gig inside the colourful not-a-jumping-castle-but-an-art-installation venue, with Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) and The Electric Guitar Orchestra playing rock music inside.
Jim Moginie and The Electric Guitar Orchestra - Image © Stephen Sloggett
Live music evolves the installation from its attempt to be a plastic-fantastic spiritual space. I must make mention that MOFO did not have the blessings of the weather gods: opening over a week that included the longest rainfall in ten years, strong Antarctic-like winds and temperatures as low as ten degrees. Resultantly, festival conversation revolved around the fact that it was freaking freezing.
The festival hub is hosted on the docks of Hobart (perhaps explaining the unfortunate demise of our inflatable installation) and is akin to rocking out in a gigantic, warehouse party, only with fine (albeit expensive) food and drinks – including cocktail carts delivered by femmes in tulle skirts.
The Young Wagilak Group and Australian Art Orchestra - Image © Stephen Sloggett
PW1 consists of large stages at either end of the warehouse, bands playing either side with occasional live art popping up in the middle. This night sees The Young Wagilak Group and Australian Art Orchestra ooze beautiful sound (unfortunately the only indigenous-led representation at the festival), microphone-playing sound artists blowing punters eardrums off (MOFO’s signature trick) and Ben Frost bringing heart-thumping electronica to the party.
Ben Frost - Image © Stephen Sloggett
DO get free earplugs before they run out – you’ll need them / DON’T get angry at the lack of signage – use your eyes and ears
Thursday also heralds the first of the Faux Mo parties – the unofficial official after-parties of MOFO, running from 10:30pm-4am. These parties are festivals within themselves and I met my first with probably the biggest smile on my face since graduating freaking high school. These are seriously wicked art parties (for Australia, anyway) and are mazes of installation, sound, dance, roving performers and occasional celebs.See photos from Day Two.
Not since Edinburgh Fringe have I been less sure of whether people are performers, punters or plain insane. As you enter the Odeon Theatre you are greeted with a ginormous front stage, tonight sporting a ten-piece band in Day Of The Dead paint playing Mexican pop-folk.
Walking out the theatre backstage, there are a host of hidden delights – I discover a sound/ light installation triggered by one playing an electric keyboard, naked frog-leaping roving artists, vaginal-like doors leading into video installations, a courtyard with a dude playing songs about gardening on his ukulele, a DIY record room, a tiny-weeny-dance party with lasers and Ava Mendoza rocking out in a hidden whiskey bar.
Ava Mendoza - Image © Stephen Sloggett
On my way to see Ava, I notice a crack in a door and enter to find a ping pong table in a small room sporting angry women on megaphones screaming at players; “This is David Walsh’s table tennis table. If you fuck up, you are SHITTING ON DAVID WALSH.”
Yep. It is a disobedient, Alice In Wonderland playground at Faux Mo.
DO book early to Faux Mo – it sells out and queues can be for over an hour / DON’T shit on David Walsh’s table tennis table
Friday night and I’m expecting some kind of drunken fiasco to play out, but it doesn’t. Maybe they’re better behaved in Hobart – or it’s the festival spirit of listening, respecting and discussing that tapers off drunken hooliganism.It’s a big night for MOFO, with Paul Kelly leading an impressive line-up that includes Dan Sultan, Clairy Brown, Kira Piru & Vika and Linda Bull. This brings an older crowd, who largely find themselves confronted when Lin Binyuan, a Chinese performance artist, begins his attempt at smashing 250 solid hammers consecutively. Lin almost passes out in the process of this ambitious art and within this I saw the pain and destruction of working class China played out in Lin’s body.
Australian’s seem to meet any unusual activity with the rigour of sport and a huge roar erupts from the crowd every time Lin picks himself back up to re-meet his task. This was both harrowing in its paradox and incredibly exciting for performance art in Australia, that often struggles to get audience participation of this scale. It is a great example of art/ music integration and those who weren’t open to new experiences left in frustration, while those who are found themselves a new experience to think about.
Paul Kelly & The Soul Sessions - Image © Stephen Sloggett
Nowhere else but MOFO would this be in the lead up to Paul Kelly and the fierceness with which performance art is promoted is admirable.
DO dress up in your hipster finest / DON’T leave just ‘cause you don’t understand – take time to look, listen, think
Saturday and after a couple of consecutive festival days and then after-parties, we’re all feeling pretty wrecked.Luckily the festival takes this into account and provides tea ceremonies and meditation music from 10am in the Baha’i Centre, a Tibetan retreat in the CBD. By this stage, I no longer feel like I’m at a festival – I feel like the festival is a part of me.
See photos from Day Three.
Discussing this with friends over a hair of the dog, we agree on one thing – MOFO is not about individual acts, rather it is the experience of each and every day that brings such unique sounds and sights.
Adding to my list of loves in Australia’s oldest, working theatre (the Theatre Royal), Neil Gaimon reads his new book with a stunning live string quartet in the background. It’s dark and beautiful and cheeky.
Back at the main stage, wedding singer-come-music celebrity (and Syrian dark horse) Omar Souleyman has people trying out their best middle-eastern inspired dance moves.
Omar Souleyman - Image © Stephen Sloggett
Nothing, however, prepares us for Swans – a no-wave rock group to end all rock groups, who play no less than 120 decibels, who put an end to all conversations during their set while they blast our entire bodies with sound.
Swans - Image © Stephen Sloggett
DO move to the music – it doesn’t really matter if you can dance or not / DON’T attempt to go to every single event plus Faux Mo – you will need emergency medical attention… or an unhealthy amount of narcotics
Finally we crawl to the finish line on Sunday, hangovers held diligently above our heads.Amanda Palmer, controversial show girl that she is, delivers a set with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Her uneven vocals seem somewhat mismatched with the orchestra’s perfect sounds, but they find their harmony in collaborating with performativity and humour.
Amanda Palmer - Image © Stephen Sloggett
Next up is a somewhat disastrous attempt at conducting bands on separate boats from the jetty; it turns into a mish-mash of sound that we forgive after Brian Ritchie hilariously tries to rescue the performance.
It is punk night at PW1 and all-girl Japanese punk band Shonen Knife capture our hearts with their angry kitsch. Adorable.
Shonen Knife - Image © Stephen Sloggett
A ground-breaking Kiwi punk band that hardly ever perform live, The Clean smash their drum stickers clean off with a grinding set.
The Clean - Image © Stephen Sloggett
Cider in hand, I meet a guy with a broken foot – he broke it at 10am the morning before and refuses to go to emergency until after he sees Dan Deacon. Once I see Dan, I understand why. This crowd-control aficionado gets the entire audience interpretive dancing, dance battling and creating the largest tunnel game (where you run under people’s arms to create a tunnel) I’ve ever witnessed. It’s good, clean fun with a bunch of costumed, music-high, loved-up punters (not so fun, I imagine, with a pair of borrowed crutches and a bung foot).
Image © Stephen Sloggett
Tonight is space-theme night at Faux Mo and the roving performers look more demented than ever – everyone’s been induced with something, a girl runs up to our group frantically kissing everyone, people explode with colour and craze. While surprise acts including Gotye and Amanda Palmer and Aphids transmit the evening into outer space via radio waves – why not?!
See photos from Day Four.
It really is the official after-party and the musicians and festival royalty are seen among the crowd. Brian Ritchie and David Walsh are seen at almost every event, and as a festival run by people who understand artists and musicians intimately, everyone is well-looked after and cruisey enough to say hello to as you’re passing by.
There’s no more to say for MONA FOMA other than it’s to be seen to be believed, an intensive explosion of sound, light and art. It is wicked fun, and an integral part of the changing face of our interaction with music and the art industry itself. Kudos.
Eloise Maree at MONA FOMA - Image © Stephen Sloggett
