The second annual Southern Smoulder was a great success, held 9-12 March 2018, with 300 tickets selling out the week beforehand!
Many southern Burners took the opportunity of an event close to home to establish their own Theme Camps, filling the Paddock with new art and energy alongside veteran camps and spontaneous paddock camps.
The event kicked off with an opening fire on the Friday night, built by the MOFO (Ministry of Festival Organisation) crew. The Effigy was designed by MOFO leads Xanthe and Troy and was a Tesseract, reflecting the theme of this year’s event, The Multiverse, boxes within boxes, worlds within worlds, tessellating tesseract thoughts inside thought connections to the universe and all its dimensions, to infinity and beyond!
The Temple was constructed by Bruce and the Green Fairy team, and dedicated to Artemis, goddess chastity, virginity, the hunt, archery, the moon, and the natural environment. The three spires of the structure evoked the Triple Goddess – representative of the waxing, full, and waning moon and the feminine aspects of Maiden, Mother and Crone. The spires also signified the arrows of Artemis.
The art was brilliant and there were some amazing events; a massive pillow fight, fondue party, hookers and blow party, the mad tea party, a crystal garden, the eyes of Kiwiburn and Te Wheke the giant octopus god. Centre Camp hosted workshops, musicians and DJs throughout the event.
Site innovations and improvements included: Composting toilets, natural sandfly repellent, a moon cup station, along with massive improvements to site lighting. We also had our very own Paddock Post, with an exceptional postie who went above and beyond to make sure mail was delivered (and read on the way).
Thanks to everyone who made this event possible – hats off to the year round and build crew MOFOs, all the volunteers during the event, and the landowners who allow us to use the beautiful location of Fern Gully. Smoulder wants to keep growing and getting bigger and better, so if you want to get involved in the communal effort for next year, let us know.
