{"id":258907,"date":"2025-11-03T03:56:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258907\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T03:56:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:56:04","slug":"dark-mofo-sees-drop-in-interstate-visitors-despite-return-of-full-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258907\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Mofo sees drop in interstate visitors despite return of full program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dark Mofo’s return to full programming this year resulted in a slight decrease in interstate visitors, but an uptick in local attendees.<\/p>\n

The winter music and arts festival is one of Tasmania’s big draw cards during the quieter winter tourism season.<\/p>\n

Home of the famous nude solstice swim, experimental art displays and late night dance parties, 119,196 people attended the festival in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Thousands take part in the nude solstice swim this year. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

This was up from 116,643 people in 2023, which was the last year of full programming before the program took a hiatus in 2024.<\/p>\n

Dark Mofo cancelled<\/a><\/p>\n

Hobart’s popular winter tourist drawcard, Dark Mofo, is cancelled for 2024, but two festival staples \u2014 the Winter Fest and Nude Solstice Swim \u2014 will still go ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The festival’s artistic director Chris Twite said there was a slight decrease in interstate visitors \u2014 down to 49,000 in 2025 compared to 52,000 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Attendance20232025Unique attendance116,643119,196Interstate attendance52,04549,298Total interstate & overseas attendance53,80151,341<\/p>\n

“I think budgets are tightening for everyone around the country,” Mr Twite said.<\/p>\n

“But we are so excited to see an increased number in Tasmanian visitors coming to Dark Mofo; seeing more people moving around the state is great.”\"Man<\/p>\n

Mr Twite has been Dark Mofo’s artistic director since 2023. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Dates for next year<\/p>\n

On Monday, the organisers announced the 2026 festival would kick off on Thursday, June 11 and conclude with the nude solstice swim on Monday, June 22.<\/p>\n

The state government has invested $21.6 million to support the delivery of the festival through to 2027.<\/p>\n

A briefing to the Tasmanian arts minister, obtained by the ABC<\/a>, warned the local arts sector was “nationally uncompetitive and highly vulnerable” due to “sub-optimal” investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This year’s Ogoh-Ogoh effigy was in the shape of an endangered Maugean skate. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)<\/p>\n

Clarion call for ‘highly vulnerable’ underfunded Tasmanian arts<\/a><\/p>\n

“Dangerously low” arts sector funding has rendered the Tasmanian industry “highly vulnerable”, with funding stagnant since 2016-17, the state government has conceded.<\/p>\n

Mr Twite said he was very grateful to the state government for their support of the festival.<\/p>\n

“Tasmania is an incredibly creative place,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is a privilege to be able to profile so many Tasmanian artists and musicians as part of the festival.<\/p>\n

“That is part of our big push to make sure that we support Tasmanian culture each year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dark Mofo’s return to full programming this year resulted in a slight decrease in interstate visitors, but an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10968,5871,56128,64,63,152477,152478,134,11141,145163,27697,2801],"class_list":["post-258907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-10968","tag-announcement","tag-attendance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dark-mofo","tag-dates","tag-entertainment","tag-interstate","tag-mona","tag-numbers","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}