MONA FOMA Promoter Unveils Plans To Relocate Event

At the heart of Tasmania’s thriving creative scene is MONA, with the brains behind the art gallery’s annual FOMA event, aka Mofo, today revealing plans to move the acclaimed festival.

As ABC reports, MONA founder David Walsh has announced a new vision for his legacy, and amid talks of a hotel and ‘anti-casino’ extension to MONA, comes a push to move FOMA to Launceston.

The summer festival curated by Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie currently runs across numerous days each January in Hobart, taking over Theatre Royal, Hobart Town Hall and more, but MONA are pushing to shift the event, which will happen if their request for government funding comes through.

"The festival's original 10-year plan - to change the culture in Hobart - has come to fruition ahead of schedule,” Ritchie told the ABC.

"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].

Walsh also runs winter festival Dark Mofo, which unfolded once again last month to record-breaking patronage.