The Paint the Town Red campaign has delivered its biggest year yet, with record business registrations and nearly 100 homes joining in and lighting up in red for the first time.
Alex Heroys, CEO of Destination Southern Tasmania, said the initiative had grown well beyond Hobart’s CBD this year.
“Paint the Town Red this year was certainly our biggest, brightest and reddest of all of the Paint the Town Reds that we’ve done since the beginning, which was with the first [Dark Mofo] festival,” Heroys said.
The campaign spread across the state, with businesses in Launceston signing up and creative activations on the east coast including a dining trail linking vineyards in Swansea.
“We also this year successfully encouraged houses to light up red, and we had nearly 100 houses on the first year, which we’re really happy about,” Heroys said.
“That means we’re spreading sort of away from the businesses into the suburbs and lighting up the suburbs around the place.”
A photo competition attracted thousands of entries from both smartphone users and professional photographers.
Winners will be announced in the coming weeks, with a public vote also forming part of the judging process.
Heroys said industry prizes were being supported by local businesses such as Pulse, while a partnership with Aurora Energy would see five of the most creative red-lit homes win a free month of power through the Power Hours program.
“It’s a great community activation,” Heroys said.
“It’s just a great fun community experience for everybody to get involved, light up red, do something fun.”
He said Hobart’s smaller scale made it uniquely suited to lighting up an entire city around a major festival.
“Whenever you open your social media feeds during June, the entire feed seems to be red,” he said.
