Ticket scalping. Absolute pain in the butt practice committed by people out to make a quick and easy buck.
And though the north of the state is currently drenched with record floods, southern Tasmania remains reasonably dry, and is gearing up to host arguably the nation’s biggest and most revered winter festival.
DARK MOFO is becoming nationally and globally renowned for being a badass, cold-as-hell, grim spectacle of art, music, and everything in between. Held annually during the longest nights of the year in the crisp embrace of Hobart, the festival kicks off today and runs through until the winter solstice on June 21st.
Thanks to its increasing popularity, the festival is now able to throw up the much sought-after “SOLD OUT” sign on a bunch of its events.
But because the world is the way it is, a select few types have been taking advantage of this by reportedly flogging off fraudulent tickets to certain events. Some for as much as $200.
DARK MOFO issued a statement earlier today cautioning punters who are heading down to Tassie against purchasing tickets from non-authorised sellers – literally just Dark Mofo and MONA.
Noting events that are either sold out or in high demand such as the performances by ZHU, Chelsea Wolfe, Savages, Ryoji Ikeda’s supercodex, Heart of Darkness, and late-night event Blacklist, festival creative director Leigh Carmichael reiterated the risks involved with attempting to buy tickets off places like Gumtree.
“Dark Mofo and Mona are the only place to purchase tickets to our events, and we can’t guarantee the validity of tickets purchased through any other channels.”
“Due to capacity and safety concerns, we can’t let more people in to shows even if we want to. We want everyone to have a safe and enjoyable time at Dark Mofo events.”
A huge number of Dark Mofo events are actually free to the public, and many of those that are ticketed still have “legit” tickets still available. The full program of events can be checked out over at the Dark Mofo website.
Seriously though, why anyone would even *dare* try to affront the vicious Tasmanian winter gods is beyond me. THEY FREEZE THE GRASS IN THE MORNINGS TO REMIND YOU TO KEEP YOUR SHIT IN LINE.
To all heading down to Hobes over the coming couple of weeks to get involved in some grim winter madness, we are jealous.
Toasty warm, but jealous.
Source: Dark Mofo.
Picture: YouTube.
