{"id":730230,"date":"2026-06-11T19:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730230\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:05:23","slug":"dark-mofo-opens-with-100000-expected-to-brave-tasmanias-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730230\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Mofo opens with 100,000 expected to brave Tasmania\u2019s winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dark Mofo has thrown open its doors today, with more than 100,000 people expected to descend on Tasmania for a fortnight of art, music, fire and feasting.<\/p>\n

The Hobart mid-winter festival runs until June 22, closing with the annual Nude Solstice Swim at Long Beach.<\/p>\n

More than 55,000 tickets have already been sold, with some still available.<\/p>\n

The festival kicks off tonight with The Gathering, a First Nations-led night of music and storytelling at the Winter Feast, alongside the opening of Dark Park on the freight decks of the new Spirit of Tasmania V.<\/p>\n

\"\"Premier Jeremy Rockliff with artistic director Chris Twite on Thursday. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Artistic director Chris Twite said the launch marked the moment the festival came alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next two weeks we\u2019ll see artworks spreading across land and sea, live music ringing out in Hobart and Launceston, late night revelry and feasting by firelight,\u201d Twite said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Winter Feast opened on the Hobart waterfront today. Image \/ Pulse (File)<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twite said the festival cost far more to stage than it earned at the box office.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we do is a gift to the state and to the people of Tasmania,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A centrepiece of Dark Park is Soundspace, a new commission by Dutch artist Boris Acket, built from 135 light and speaker winches that form a shifting cloud of sound and light.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Winter Feast opened on the Hobart waterfront today. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Premier Jeremy Rockliff put the festival\u2019s economic value at about $67 million, with around 120,000 unique visitors expected. <\/p>\n

The event is backed by a $21 million state commitment over three years.<\/p>\n

The Winter Feast remains a major drawcard, running for eight days on the Hobart waterfront with 75 stalls and 40% of stallholders new this year.<\/p>\n

Curator Amanda Vallis said vendors had come from across the state, from the north-west to Bruny Island.<\/p>\n

\"\"Around 120,000 unique visitors were expected over the fortnight. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

She flagged some unusual offerings, including possum bao buns and a course by Italian guest chef Floriano Pellegrino.<\/p>\n

Executive director Melissa Edwards said the feast was the accessible heart of the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love seeing people just hang out and have a drink and eat and kinda regroup before they go out into the wild of Dark Mofo,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

She said other states had begun copying the idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"Around 120,000 unique visitors were expected over the fortnight. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real shout-out to Tassie and I think it\u2019s a credit to the state,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dark Mofo has thrown open its doors today, with more than 100,000 people expected to descend on Tasmania…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-730230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730230","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=730230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}