Festival director Brian Ritchie said advance tickets were “commensurate” with the years the event has been held in Hobart, that have seen crowds of about 11,500 attending the music and arts festival. 

“There’s always the x-factor of who walks up on the day – we usually have pretty good walk-up and we’re hoping to see that in Launnie as well,” he said. 

“Last year, a lot of the people who came to the mini-mofo Block Party, they just came in on the door. But advance tickets sales are healthy too.”

From his perspective, the Launceston community has embraced their strategy of increasing their visual arts presence, and taking advantage of unique local venues for exhibitions and events. 

He also pointed to their billing of more than 50 per cent female artists on the program as a strategy that was leading the way for the 2019 festival. 

Dependent on funding, the team would like to stay in Launceston into the indefinite future. 

“The state government has given us another three years here, and it’s kind of up to them if they want to continue helping us – because although we provide a lot of the funding, we’re getting assistance from the state government, and the Launceston City Council is helping out a lot, so it’s not just our decision,” he said.

“But if it continues to go well, we’d like to keep it here.” 

Premier Will Hodgman said Mona Foma was part of the state’s rebranding as a “culturally creative and culturally confident Tasmania.” 

“We've had the highest rate of growth of international visitors of any state – Tasmania is the best performing tourism destination in the country,” he said.