RATTLE GROUND, FIRST WEEKEND, SAT 15th & SUN 16th JUNE
Enter through either the Lion's Gate or the Supreme Court pathway into the beautiful and wild dream of Sabio, called Rattle Ground.

At one entrance gate, you'll see pink-lit jets of atmospheric particles reaching up to eight storeys into the sky. Through the Salamanca precinct you’ll hear bells and the low frequencies of ship fog horns resonating through the city and waterfront. There may be almost permanent snowfall in the top east corner of the park. The playfulness of the haute couture costumes will be up to anything seen in Vogue. It will be impossible for the city to ignore.

St David's Park was once filled with gravestones and the cemetery burial plots of souls from other centuries. For two weeks in June it transforms into the subconscious and carnivalesque world of Sabio's innermost characters and fantastical mindscapes.

You can interact with and walk through "THE DREAM" . It's a strange dream, as they all are, like magical realism or those uncanny, unpredictable journeys with surprises at every turn. It occupies an expansive 20,000 m2 landscape with the most original, idiosyncratic and personalized characters you would ever be likely to find in the modern era, or even perhaps a corner of your own mind. Each of the personas has a profound link to one another, for you to discover, while they occupy their own geographical dream spaces, washed by a sea of their distinct colours.

At the core of the dream is a 360 degree wrap-around narrative , projection-mapped on all sides of the historic rotunda. It's like an unfolding, full-colour picture book hugging the ancient stone walls. From a distance it appears as a constellation or supernova within Sabio's galaxy. Close up it's almost 20 minutes of sequenced characters moving clockwise and anticlockwise around their internal world, with fantastical representations of well known Hobart landmarks where the everyday turns to magical.

See Sabio prepping for the dream in 30 seconds. Have your audio on and your eyes peeled:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4...

The expanse of Rattle Ground has its own bars with one-of-a-kind, dream-branded cocktails, spirits and mulled wines, food vans, sweets and savouries, and the resonance of raw-spirited, long-gone eras like the Middle Ages or story-filled Middle Eastern bazaars. Stepping into Sabio's rich mindscape, you'll find it's diffused with the mist of a time that didn't rob humans of their freedom and their mystery.

Experience the product of bespoke distilleries from Hobart and the East Coast of Tasmania. Taste the difference of once-off spirits and cocktails only made for The DREAM in Rattle Ground.

Special Audience Prizes: the first 8,000 ticket buyers for the opening weekend, Sat 15th & Sun 16th June, will be in the draw to WIN A TRIP FOR TWO to the Edinburgh Fringe.

The 2nd prize for weekend ticket buyers is a pair of tickets for two to attend the Crystal Ball on Saturday 29th June, which has strictly limited numbers and a value of $280 p.p. (not including VIP entry level).

Each night at Rattle Ground is likely to sell to capacity , with limits on the flow of people who can enter the dream each hour on each night.

Concurrent with the Winter Feast:200 steps across Salamanca Place is the City of Hobart's Winter Feast. From Friday 14th June until Sunday 23 June Rattle Ground @ St David's Park is on the very same nights as the DARK MOFO Winter feast: https://darkmofo.net.au/winter...

Other nights include:

Rattle Ground Opening Night, Fri 14th June
https://events.humanitix.com/rattle-ground-st-davids-park-opening-night

Rattle Ground second weekend @ St David's Park, Thu 20 to Sun 23 June at Dark Fringe

https://events.humanitix.com/rattle-ground-2nd-weekend-20-21-22-23-jun-at-dark-fringe

Family Friendly Value: Rattle Ground's entry fee is only $15 p.p. plus booking fees and charges for people sixteen and over. Children under 16 are free.

The Rattle Ground audience experience has a price-point that should be affordable for almost anyone. Importantly, the event is family friendly and, like Gulliver's Travels (published in 1726 and released as a film as recently as 2010), from an adult perspective the immersion will be interpreted and experienced differently from children. It will be compelling in different ways for different audiences.

Security: Rattle Ground has 24/7 security and is a fenced-in event. There are only two entry points which are also exits.

First aid : we have permanent first aid professionals on site.

The foundations of Rattle Ground take their inspiration from the writings of Mikhail Bahktin and the compulsive creativity of Tasmanian-born Sabio. The Executive Producer is Tasmanian, David Male and the amazing team of performers, technicians, makers, operations management, front of house and support staff are all Tasmanian. They're all locals. Rattle Ground is uniquely produced for the DARK FRINGE FESTIVAL through a not-for-profit company, Shadow Ground Ltd. Unlike other festivals, this ambitious project did not receive state government support for creative development or pre-production. However, it is generously supported by the City of Hobart and its wonderful events team.

Haute couture and the humble puffer jacket (or "Tassie tuxedo") is the essence of the amazing, originally designed and made costumes and outfits worn by the main characters moving through the park (as well as the characters within the projections onto the rotunda).

Opening hours: for the first weekend, SAT & SUN, 15th & 16th JUNE the event opens at 5:00 PM and closes at 10:30 PM.

Audience members are able to stay for as long as they wish per night inside the park, however they can only be scanned in once per night.

All Nights that Rattle Ground is open : Fri 14, Sat 15, Sun 16 June and Thu 20, Fri 21, Sat 22 & Sun 23 June.

For other nights, separate to the first weekend, please find separate Humanitix event listings and ticket pathways.

Caveat: the immersion and experiences in Rattle Ground may evolve and change each night, and from time to time some inclusions or dream elements may pop-up or disappear and then pop up again. Council and other regulations may define some experiences.

Dark Fringe Festival, Hobart: The fringe extends from 14 to 30 June, across 17 days and three weekends. It has venues from St David's Park to the City Hall, plus many private gig venues through to uncommon spaces and places not normally used for music, theatre, experimentation or audience experiences. In some ways the fringe has the ethos of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Adelaide Fringe. In other ways it has its own personality and DNA.

Our 2024 themes and projects:

The Dream
The Hallucination
The Crystal Ball
The Fringe

*In 2023 we organised 53 events at over ten different venues across Hobart.

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/darkfringe_hobart/

SUMMARY

Entry is $15 p.p. plus booking fees and charges, for sixteen years and older
Stay in the park for as long or as little as you like. Roam and experience Rattle Ground.
The event occurs in St David's Park, concurrent with the Winter Feast event, rain, hail or shine (we'll bring the snowfall)
This is an original, authentic, spellbinding Tasmanian event with Tasmanian creators, cast and crew
The first 8,000 ticket buyers for the first weekend (Sat & Sun) are in the draw to win a trip for two to the Edinburgh Fringe

Copyright Sabio & Male