Tasmania's MONA FOMA announces end of its summer festival

Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has announced that it is to close its summer festival with its recent February/March edition to be its last.

Advising that after 16 years MONA FOMA (MONA’s Festival of Music and Art) has been held for the final time, MONA owner and founder David Walsh released a statement yesterday explaining “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.”

The boundary-pushing event, established in 2008, featured international and local artists and ran over several weeks.

MONA FOMA is the latest in a string of scrapped festivals across the nation.

Friday's news follows the cancellation of this year's Splendour in the Grass festival which was halted due to "unexpected events".

Groovin The Moo also cancelled its 2024 event only a couple of weeks after announcing its line-up.

Walsh went on to say “some things have to go before I’m too far gone”, going on to say that the experience had "been magical, but the spell has worn off".

He also expressed the “greatest gratitude to those who helped put it together. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me."

Images: MONA FOMA's main stage (top) and a performance at Launceston's Cataract Gorge during the festival (below). Credit: MONA/Jesse Hunniford.