A special delivery was made to Harvest Launceston’s Cimitere Street site as the sun rose on Saturday morning: Mona Foma’s Soma stage.
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Market manager Caroline Williamson said the stage arrived early and then the market stalls went up as usual.
“They brought the Soma in, which was in Civic Square earlier this week. They brought that in about 6 o’clock this morning on this huge truck. It was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but they managed with ease,” Ms Williamson said.
“They were in, down and out before most of the stallholders got here,” she said.
With Mofo being new in Launceston, just to get that uptake from local people is quite good.
- Caroline Williamson
The Soma stage almost obscured Harvest’s storage and toilet facilities, which had been painted ‘Hot Lips’ pink some time between Thursday and Friday in readiness for Mona Foma’s arrival.
“We found [the containers] on Friday morning in hot pink with a Mofo Heat Up sticker on it. It was a complete surprise – it was the Mofo Minions,” Ms Williamson said.
“The pink containers were to tie in with the Mofo theme and we’re really thrilled with how the weekend is turning out so far. It’s been great having this live music here and the crowds have come out in force.”
Harvest’s customers were treated to three performances on the Soma stage during the market.
“We had Orimo first. He played his flutes for just over half an hour and that was a beautiful way to start the day,” she said.
“We have Hanba!, which is a real toe-tapping band, and then we’ve got Bansheeland. They’ll be a bit louder at the end of the day – we’ll go out with a bang.”
The Harvest committee contacted Mona Foma organisers and offered to work in partnership.
“We got in touch with Mona as soon as we knew Mofo was going to be up here and said it would be great if we could work together and do something at the market,” Ms Williamson said.
“With Mofo being new in Launceston, just to get that uptake from local people is quite good. We have been having 5000 to 6000 people each week in January.
“It’s a good way for them to promote their event and build some hype. They want to max out those ticket sales and this is a good way to do it,” she said.
Stall holder Rod Wyker, of Southern Sky Cheese at Invermay, said Mona Foma’s pop up stage brought “a lot of different people in, which is good”.
“That’s half the reason we do the market, because it’s social,” he said.
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