This morning I downloaded 80 photos which I took last night at the 2023 Dark Mofo Winter Feast and Dark Park extravaganza.  A humungus thanks must go to David Walsh of MONA and his team for their continuing generosity, enthusiasm, foresight and willingness to profoundly change the Tasmanian winter landscape.   Last night, the first night of the Winter Feast, buzzed with thousands of people wandering the Hobart wharf area near the Salamanca precinct.

The ticket boxes opened on the dot of 4pm and a couple of hundred people flowed through quickly and efficiently. Within moments we entered the inner sanctum of the elaborately dressed wharf building.  Acres of rich red crushed velvet fabric fell from the ceiling to the floor and bunches of shiny red material glowed. We hadn’t entered hell, rather this offered a heaven of creativity.

We ambled passed elaborately staged stalls selling Tasmanian wines, spirits, and all manner of food stuffs some of which was prepared with a cultural flavour.  Staff members occasionally surprised us when dressed to connect with the products they were selling.

I loved one stall with clouds hanging overhead and another where the proprietor was melting sugar into an alcoholic punch.

The whole experience offered a feast for the eyes and the nose.

Having seen what was on offer in the shed we headed outside to dozens and dozens more stalls.  Fire pits, benches and blocks of wood stood adjacent beneath the synthetic-star lit trees. Occasionally one lone firework would arc through the air, tiny silver stars would appear and then these fragments would fall into oblivion.

Early on we had decided to look at everything before we made a purchase but it didn’t take me long to buy a ‘coffee walnut negroni’ – a most delicious concoction, the specific contents of which are lost from memory – this may have something to do with my finding two other alternative concoctions of negroni during the evening.  The last, a mulled wine negroni, was simply awful on my palate and undrinkable – but it was marvellous to be presented with options and to try cocktails that I have never experienced.  And, all night, customer service offered endless smiling examples of best practice behaviour.

Food wise, and being inspired by memories of Spain, we ordered a Patatas Bravas ‘to keep the wolf from the door’. Despite sharing one bowl it was simply too much for a starter meal, despite being wonderfully tasty and enjoyable.

Moving on, the Moroccan Cigars were a great success.  Roasted cauliflower with harissa spices plus other ingredients, now forgotten, wrapped and deep-fried somewhat like spring rolls. A tahini and harissa-waggled line zig-zagged across each Cigar.

I have never tasted or eaten truffles and was keen to do so when we came across two indoor stands that offered meals with truffles.  If you are going to the Feast and want truffles, I would recommend you choose the pizza with truffles (not that I tried it but it looked amazing) rather than the cardboard textured tiny dumplings with tasteless contents that did not look like nor resemble mushrooms and/or truffles.  That stall was situated next to the pizza truffle set up. Check before you buy.

Meanwhile my companion had been entranced by the idea of a Crème Brule Pavlova and purchased one. Despite no longer being hungry she devoured it easily and was most satisfied and very grateful.

We enjoyed sitting at the long tables and talking with other visitors – each of us asking what is it that you are eating – the most astonishing was the number of tempura battered whole squids.

After we had consumed more than our fill of food and drinks, we left the building and strolled towards Macquarie Point. The night was extremely mild and exceptionally pleasant, people wandered comfortably everywhere, and Dark Mofo’s red light signature brightened the night everywhere we looked, thanks to property owners across the CBD.

On route we called into an exhibition in the Plimsoll Gallery, a part of the University of Tasmania’s art school precinct. I was delighted to chat with a Melbourne artist and to talk about his work.

Onwards we trod until the brilliant Dark Park sign was in view.  Dark Park, entered from Evans St, is the site for many freebies that form part of Dark Mofo; for various installations and performance art.  I wasn’t disappointed.

The highlight for me for the night was to have internal access to Spectra, to the powerful beams of light, which at a distance appear as one beam, that extend skywards way up past the clouds.  Years ago, when Spectra was purchased and installed on Hobart’s Domain many people, but not me, visited it at ground zero and found what I found last night. Spectra offers bell-like sounds and seems to sing, moan and cry.  Loudly. The vertical beams appear smoky and to waver as the heat rises from the light boxes. Both visually and aurally I found standing and walking below the lights a mesmerising and hypnotic experience.   

Spectra announces itself from great distances. From the eastern shore of the Greater Hobart Area where I live, the upward reaching light beam is clearly visible.  Last night as we walked from the Feast to Dark Park, Spectra grew larger and for the first time I was aware the ‘one’ beam wasn’t; the light structure has many beams which at a distance appear as one.

Watch this video as a way to understand the effect of immersion in Spectra.

In Dark Park we dragged ourselves away from Spectra and followed a trail of lights to what seemed to be a multifaceted and multidirectional wooden structure. We remain puzzled. With shapes at angles to another we couldn’t be sure of the exact shape of the structure; visual illusions seemed to be at play. What initially seemed like a structure with planes extending outwards may be lots of flat surfaces only.  We decided it was very clever how industrial sand had been mounded up in ways at the base which further emphasised the confusion we felt.  It was like we couldn’t be sure what we were seeing.

Onwards and past a dead tree trunk in the centre of a sand-like circle with silvered ‘worms’ layered over.  This wasn’t sufficiently well lit to be able to form an idea of what we were seeing.

Later, as we approached a large building, we could hear a voice and instruments making music that suggested to me the sound was something akin to Filipino, Indonesian or Nepalese although I may be wrong. Visually there was a great deal going on.  A woman sat with microphone in hand singing to a heater. Musicians at the centre of the room played on. A man danced slow movements to complement the music.  Around this centre, painted mats lay fanned out on the floor, each the length of a fully stretched human being. On one was a white clad figure over which a man wafted ochres and black powders.  As he walked, he covered his feet with powder leaving behind a white trail of his feet, marking the absence of powder, as he progressed.

I walked around the whole large space, defined by hanging fabrics, and could see most of the floor mats had been ‘worked on’ in some way.  The whole performance event suggested ritual, mindfulness, and other realities – all of which were the province of others and obscure to me.  Visitors, like me, watched thought fully with respect– no one rushed away.  It created quiet puzzlement and a calm opportunity to wonder at the richness of human kind and the activities which can be important to us.

Time to go with one last building to approach; the goods shed closest to the entrance and exit gate which we passed on arrival.  Via an uphill entrance passageway swathed in more crushed velvet fabric, we arrived in a very large lounge with couches and comfortable chairs and a bar so that Dark Mofo guests could chill out for as long as they wanted. Overhead were chandeliers of every shape and size – wonderful madness.

The Dark Mofo Winter Feast experience continues and all manner of concerts and performances are scheduled across the city as part of the Festival.  Rug up and go out.  You will be so glad you did so.