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I’m standing in a silent hall watching 36 men hold up a tower of tables using nothing but their teeth. Moments earlier, I watched five dancers in hot pink lycra hump a theatre floor for an evocative webcam stream. An hour before that, I marched with around 20,000 souls through the red-lit streets of Hobart to a cathartic, sacrificial burning. And tomorrow at dawn? I’ll be stripping naked with 3,000 strangers to plunge into ice-cold water on the winter solstice. You never really know what to expect at Dark Mofo – and that’s the beauty of Australia’s most outrageous midwinter arts festival.
Across two wild weeks, Hobart’s historic streets and waterfront transform into an unhinged playground for the annual Dark Mofo extravaganza. While most global festivals rely on sunny daytime vibes and main-stage headliners, this winter festival leans into Tasmania’s cold nights. It’s designed to be unexpected, uncomfortable and unlike anything else you’ve experienced – and after my first trip, I can definitely attest to this.
To fully immerse yourself in the underworld, you’ll want to base yourself in the heart of town. I stayed at the Mövenpick Hotel Hobart, which was located just a ten-minute walk from the historical Salamanca precinct (home to Winter Feast), and just 15 minutes from Macquarie Wharf (home to Dark Park). Being so central meant I could lose myself in the after-dark chaos, stumbling upon secret pop-ups and hidden happenings, before easily crashing at the end of the night.
I loved seeing how the whole city leans into the madness – Mövenpick included, with a red-lit hue illuminating the lobby. If you stay here, book a window table at Tesoro, the hotel’s Italian restaurant, which doubles as the ultimate vantage point for people-watching. From here, I admired the city’s most eccentric characters venturing out into the chill for their nightly adventures: think solo film screenings, naked performance art, underground gigs and silent art installations that I’m still trying to make sense of.
While each year’s program gets wilder and wackier, you can always rely on Dark Mofo’s core annual rituals to deliver. First, there’s Night Mass – a shapeshifting, multi-venue, late-night party that takes over an entire city block with more than 150 boundary-pushing artists and musicians. Half the fun is lining up in the cold to discover secret, unlisted events. My favourites this year? A quirky nail salon where you could only enter if the maître d' deemed you worthy, and a hidden ice bar complete with puppets and polar bears. It’s pure, choose-your-own-adventure chaos.
Equally crazy, this year’s Dark Park turned a 48,000-tonne Spirit of Tasmania V ship into a floating art gallery. I was always shocked to discover what was hiding around the next corner, whether it be autonomous robotic dogs, rapid-fire video montages or thought-provoking, text-based sculptures.
From here, it was a 15-minute walk to Winter Feast – Dark Mofo’s massive night food market. The inside is set up like a grand yet eerie medieval banquet, with long, communal tables stretched out beneath cross-shaped chandeliers. Outside, open-air fire pits warm the freezing night, while smoke from the open-flame kitchens floats through the sky. And the offerings are far from your average food truck fare. Everything I ate or drank here was elite – from slow-cooked possum bao and wakame butter scallops to olive oil ice cream and native botanical brews.
Drawing perhaps the biggest nightly crowd is the Ogoh-ogoh parade and burning. I felt like I was in a cult as I marched with around 20,000 festival-goers from Franklin Square to Regatta Grounds, where we then watched the fiery sacrifice of this year’s skink totem. Despite the heat, watching the giant reptile go up in flames gave me literal chills.
My Dark Mofo experience came to a spectacular finale with the Nude Solstice Swim. At the crack of dawn, I joined 3,000 other brave souls at Long Beach for an icy plunge wearing nothing but my birthday suit (and a red swim cap). The collective shrieks of terror, thrill and excitement perfectly captured the festival’s beautifully unhinged spirit. There's honestly nothing quite like it!