David Walsh Announces The End Of Mona Foma
"Maybe the end started at Covid. Maybe it’s because the last festival was a poorly attended artistic triumph. But those aren’t the reasons I killed it."
Mona Foma (Credit: Rhys Anderson )
Mona Museum owner and founder David Walsh has revealed that Mona Foma, the beloved music, arts, and performance festival, has happened for the final time.
In a blog post, Walsh farewelled Mona Foma after 16 years. Walsh revisited the festival’s most pivotal moments, including sets from Peaches, David Byrne, Philip Glass, St Vincent, The Saints, Kate Miller-Heidke and many more.
You can read his statement about Mona Foma's end below or read his entire blog post here.
Mona Foma took us around the world. But it ends here. Maybe the end started at Covid. Maybe it’s because the last festival was a poorly attended artistic triumph. But those aren’t the reasons I killed it.
I know that we live for experience but, more and more, I seek permanence, a symbolic immortality. At Mona, I’m building this big thing, hopefully it’ll be a good thing, but it’s a costly thing. I’m addicted to building, and my addiction got out of hand. Some things have to go before I’m too far gone.
Mona Foma is one of those things. It’s been magical, but the spell has worn off. Only these words, from Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, remain: ‘Live by the Foma that makes you brave and kind and healthy and happy.’
Gratitude to all of you that came. And to those who didn’t, a silver lining: you’ll no longer suffer from FOMO for FOMA. And anyway, repetition is regimentation. And regimentation is ridiculous.
Greatest gratitude to those who helped put it together. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.
This year’s Mona Foma, unknowingly the final one for the punters who attended, locked in Courtney Barnett, Queens Of The Stone Age, Paul Kelly, Mogwai, Holy Fuck, Shonen Knife, Hiatus Kaiyote, TISM, and more for “17 days of summer mayhem”.
The Music’s Bryget Chrisfield went along for the 2023 edition of Mona Foma—check out her top 10 moments from the festival here.
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The end of Mona Foma arrives at a particularly tumultuous time for Australian music festivals.
Along with the most recent cancellation of Splendour In The Grass, Groovin The Moo, Coastal Jam, Tent Pole, ValleyWays, Now & Again, and Fairbridge also cancelled this year. The upcoming Pandemonium Rocks festival has also been hit with reports of impending cancellation. However, promoters of that event have staunchly denied them. Meanwhile, Wanderer announced that it’s moved to a biennial format, while Falls and Mona Foma‘s winter sibling, Dark Mofo have taken breaks in 2023 and 2024.
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