Fans lapping up

THERE’S been a masked costume ball, a video call from a former jihadist after he was denied entry into the country, and a man entombed for three days beneath the city’s busiest streets.

It has been both deeply confronting and deeply controversial. And it is far from over.

While the festival wraps up on tomorrow night – culminating in the burning of the OgohOgoh effigy that leaves from Parliament Lawns at 5pm – there is still plenty to see, with a lot of it free.

Visitor numbers are clocking up, with the festival on track to top last year’s attendance, says Mofo marketing director Nicole Smith.

“There’s a big increase in interstate visitors this year,” she said. “Already we’re looking at 15,000 interstate visitors, which is up from 11,000 last year.”

Dark Mofo’s creative director Leigh Carmichael said this year’s festival had been the most expansive to date, with a plethora of dark experiences to wake Hobart from its winter slumber.

Mr Carmichael said this year’s themes of “time and incarceration” had been a broad brush, incorporating art as imaginative as the collective A Journey to Freedom — showing at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery — and as entertaining as the interactive light show Leviathan that punctuates the night at Dark Park.

For Frogmore Creek bartender Alexander Chaplin, the festival’s foodie collaborations are a highlight.

When visiting chef Andreas Padadakis, of Melbourne’s Tipo 00, staged a takeover of local Italian haunt Fico, Mr Chaplin was pleased to score a chat with the illustrious pasta chef while waiting for his meal at the restaurant’s bar.

“It was also really cool to see [owners] Federica and Oskar going on the floor instead of being in the kitchen,” Mr Chaplin said. “I’d say it rated a good 9 out of 10. Almost perfect.”

His colleague Edward Karr has also enjoyed the interlude the annual festival brings to the city in winter, heading out to see the light shows and fire circles at Dark Park.

“This year’s [Dark Park is] very good. The Leviathan light show was dark and ominous, and it brought a very odd angle to an old wharf by bringing in something more modern,” Mr Karr said.

There’s a big increase in interstate visitors this year. Already we’re looking at 15,000 interstate visitors

NICOLE SMITH