A new cultural precinct opens this week in Hobart and the people will decide on its culture

This week Mona’s DarkLab and Melbourne’s Riverlee will open a cultural and entertainment district in the heart of Hobart.

Occupying almost an entire city block, ‘In the Hanging Garden’ will be a live music and cultural precinct open to the public from 8pm on Wednesday 5 June, coinciding with the start of Dark Mofo 2019. After the festival concludes, the precinct will remain open and operated by DarkLab year-round, seven days a week.

The first stage development of the precinct has the Odeon Theatre in the middle, encompassing the renovated former Tattersall’s Hotel, with extensive outdoor dining, beer garden, and entertainment areas with food trucks, rotating pop-up kitchens with local businesses, and night markets. This is not the Hobart you thought you knew.

The ‘cultural’ precinct will first invite people in through its doors to learn what they need from a place like this, giving them the opportunity to explore the site, interact with the space and make the culture their own.

DarkLab Director Leigh Carmichael deems these types of projects as essential, saying “We have a vision for this site to become a significant cultural facility in the heart of Hobart. We hope it inspires a reinvigorated CBD, and that other businesses can also capitalise. There is momentum building in Hobart at present, and this project has the potential to be a game-changer for the city centre.” We wonder what this means for Chicken Feed? The future looks bright, or dark, it depends which lenses you prefer to look through.

ITHG_2 View from Liverpool St entrance — View from Liverence. Artist render. Image supplied.

IN THE HANGING GARDEN
112 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania
www.inthehanginggarden.com.au

Odeon Theatre
- Live music venue in one of Tasmania’s oldest theatres, 167 Liverpool St Hobart
- Live music programmed and promoted by DarkLab from September 2019
- Open weekends 7pm–11pm + more
- 1200 capacity
In the Hanging Garden
- Outdoor dining
- Beer garden
- Pop-up kitchens with local producers
- Open 7 days a week, midday to late
- 800 capacity
Altar
- Live music venue on ground floor of former Tattersall’s Hotel, 112 Murray St Hobart
- Operated, programmed, and promoted by DarkLab
- Open weekends 7pm–11pm + more
- 400 capacity
High Altar
- Nightclub on first floor of former Tattersall’s Hotel, 112 Murray St Hobart
- Open weekends 11pm–4am, from September 2019
- 300 capacity
Opening Night
Wednesday 5 June, 8pm, 112 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania
Free entry, $6.66 beer and wine In the Hanging Garden. Free music in Altar, including David Chesworth, Kim Salmon and a surprise headliner.

Dark Mofo’s Odeon programming begins on the precinct’s opening weekend, with ideas symposium Dark + Dangerous Thoughts running across four days, with keynote sermons, panel discussions, tattoos, and more.

Music highlights during the festival include Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld (ITA/DEU), goth rocker Anna Calvi (GBR), neo-soul wunderkind serpentwithfeet (USA), avant-garde cellist Kelsey Lu (USA), synth-pop crooner John Grant (USA), epic doom metal legends Candlemass (SWE), and Dark Mofo’s international multi-band metal showcase event, Hymns to the Dead, plus Australian artists Dirty Three, and the premiere performance of DarkLab-supported Tasmanian artist Costume(Adam Ouston).

The festival’s late-night multi-venue party Night Mass will occupy the entirety of In the Hanging Garden, including the Odeon and Altar Bar, across the festival’s final two weekends.

ITHG_3 View from Watchorn St garden — Artist render. Image supplied.

During Dark Mofo 2019, Altar’s live music series will include international artists such as American junkyard artist and musical visionary Lonnie Holley, classical dream-pop cellist Kelsey Lu, industrial machine noisemaker Author & Punisher(USA), Twin Peaks: The Return remix saxophonist Alex Zhang Hungtai (TWN/CAN), Moscow’s monastic throat-singing ritualists Phurpa (RUS) and grand organist Sarah Mary Chadwick (NZL).

Also playing at the Altar will be Australian artists Briggs, Kira Puru, Sui Zhen, Two People, Ecca Vandal, Kim Salmon, Totally Unicorn, Tralala Blip, Marco Fusinato, These New South Whales, Pagan, Elizabeth, and popular Tassie locals The Native Cats, Slag Queens, Ewah Duo, and 208L Containers, among many more.

After the festival concludes, Altar will remain open on weekends, year-round, with DarkLab operating, programming, and promoting, with post-festival programs to be announced in July.