Where to find Dark Mofo's free art and experiences in Hobart
Tasmania's festival Dark Mofo gets underway today, with thousands set to attend drawcard events like the Winter Feast, Night Mass and international musical acts.
There are lots of free art experiences in some unusual venues across Hobart — from a live car crash on Hobart's Regatta Grounds to a 5-metre goblin in a disused 1870s church, and a thought-provoking exhibition by a Tasmanian Aboriginal artist in the basement of an old furniture shop.
Hidden across the city, art lovers can also find a naked man covered in sand, a baptism in a Freemasons lodge and a collective scream in a "sprawling wasteland".
Dark Mofo creative director Chris Twite describes this year's festival as a "behemoth", set to light up the city in its signature red colour theme.
"It carries across all of the city, with everyone lighting up their businesses and houses red," he told ABC Radio Hobart.
It is Mr Twite's first festival in the key creative role, and his measure of success will be people emerging from the warmth of their homes into the cold and darkness to experience the festival.
"Success for me is that we see people on the streets getting involved, wandering around and talking to strangers and neighbours and exploring interesting, weird … and glorious things," he said.
The family-friendly Dark Park is back, taking over Macquarie Point near Hobart's port.
"It's a sprawling wasteland filled with incredible art and fire," Mr Twite said.
It could be the last time Dark Park will be held at Macquarie Point, as a stadium project is slated for the site.
"It'll be a different feel but it'll still be large and expansive with a couple of giant artworks for people to check out."
The area includes Dark Bar, which offers music nightly with "warm tipples, nibbles, purging fears and trips to the afterlife".
The trip to the afterlife is a nod to Simon Zordic's Coffin Rides, where festival-goers can get inside a coffin and receive a souvenir photo of the experience.
There's also the opportunity to view this year's Ogoh-Ogoh statue, a giant Maugean skate, and write down a fear to put inside it before it is burned at the end of the festival.
The sculpture Quasi, a grumpy-faced hand, will look over Dark Park from the roof of the Henry Jones Art Hotel.
It wouldn't be Dark Mofo without a warehouse full of lights, and that's what the installation Sora will offer, with "kinetic light beams".
A 12m-wide installation, Neon Anthem, asks visitors to take a knee and scream, and Channelling by Hannah Foley is a sound experience using tones from deep under the Gordon Dam.
Brazilian artist Paula Garcia's performance work Crash Body: Aftermath will be live on Saturday June 7 at the Hobart Regatta Grounds.
"It'll be tense and very strange," Mr Twite said.
"It's a choreographed, tension-filled two hours involving two drivers and two cars, racing around with a series of near misses until they finally crash into each other," he said.
It is the first time the artist has presented a work of this scale in Australia.
The performance will be replayed at Dark Park on Sunday June 8, and from June 12–15.
Inside an 1870s disused sandstone church on the corner of Brisbane Street and Elizabeth Street is Basilica, a free venue offering a "sanctuary of art" with fire and drinks.
Chocolate Goblin by Melbourne artist Travis Ficarra warns of nudity and adult themes, where a "naked, pregnant form lingers on the edge of desire and disgust".
Also exhibited is Mortal Voice, a single video of "extreme metal voicing and gesture, stretched to extend the artist's guttural voice into uncanny realms of spectral distortion".
Trawlwoolway artist and playwright Nathan Maynard does not shy away from difficult themes in his work We Threw Them Down The Rocks Where They Had Thrown The Sheep.
Housed in the basement of the old Coogan's building at 79 Collins Street, Maynard's artwork highlights museums' history of stealing and displaying the remains of First Nations ancestors.
It is open every night and you can check the times here.
Inside the State Library and Archive of Tasmania is Revolution & Silence, which includes an installation by Brigita Ozolins, a Tasmanian artist with a background in librarianship.
The exhibition is described as a collision of books, history, art and conversation.
Ozolin's installation in the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts considers George Orwell's novel 1984 and free speech, while looking at current politics, fake news, artificial intelligence and social media.
A collection of challenged, banned or restricted books will also be on display, and available to read in a Silenced Reading library.
Festival-goers won't have to be anywhere in particular to experience Everything Is Recorded, a project by British record producer Richard Russell.
It will come them via a sound system usually reserved for emergencies and mass evacuations.
The 30-minute, improvised meditation on the winter solstice can be heard up to 7 kilometres away in every direction and will be projected all over Hobart at 8pm on Friday June 6 and at 6pm on Saturday June 14.
Inside City Hall on Saturday June 14 at 7:30pm, Cuban-born artist Carlos Martiel will perform a one-off work called Custody, enduring "two hours of rising sand and crushing weight over his naked and restrained body", as a statement on black deaths in custody.
Martiel will also exhibit work relating to racial violence in the basement of an old bank at 84 Bathurst Street.
Hobart Central Carpark will host 1,000 Strikes, which warns of loud noise and low light and will contain orchestral gongs and improvised music and movement.
The Rosny Barn plays host to Nexus: Totality, featuring the silhouette of a Kunanyi boulder, and the Plimsoll Gallery will have Gordon Hookey's major new exhibition, A Murriality.
The Freemason's Grand Lodge of Tasmania on the corner of Davey Street and Sandy Bay Road will house a "relentless baptism" by performance artist Ida Sophia.
Getting the kit off and plunging into freezing water is so popular that the free Nude Solstice Swim on Saturday June 21 is at capacity, but the festival says to check the website in case more tickets become available.
There are also more free events on out at Mona, the Hanging Garden and Good Grief Studios.
The festival will come to an end with the burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh on Sunday June 15 and entry to the Winter Feast is free.
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"So exhilarating," she said post swim. "I was nervous but there was this almost primal moment of everyone being together that carries you along, and a sense of pure happiness." Dark Mofo festival returned to its full pomp in 2025 after running a reduced program in 2024 so it could find a more sustainable financial model. It has made a name for itself by courting controversy and in 2018 drew the ire of some by installing inverted Christian crosses along Hobart's waterfront. Festival artistic director Chris Twite said the swim was a tremendous way to bring things to a close. "The response in 2025 has been incredible," he said. "The streets of Hobart have come alive with locals and visitors celebrating winter and Dark Mofo again." University of Queensland psychologists surveyed swimmers in previous years before and after they took the plunge and found a significant boost in feelings of connection. "People told us about whether they felt pain and pleasure during the swim," Laura Ferris said. "And those who rated their swim as pleasurable also felt more social connection with the other people around them." It is an example of people seeking out aversive experiences, such as eating extremely spicy food or watching horror movies. "This is what psychologists call 'benign masochism'," Dr Ferris said. That could be the optimal term for expeditioners at Australia's four Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations, who also celebrated the solstice with a much-colder traditional plunge. At the three Antarctic stations, a hole is cut in the sea ice each year and expeditioners have a quick dip in the sub-zero waters. "The shock is closely followed by a rush, which is quickly followed by a scramble to the ladder to get the hell out of that water," Mawson Station leader Dave Roberts said. "Ironically, the water is warmer than the wind chill, so it's all a bit confusing but totally worth it." Those on the sub-Antarctic base at Macquarie Island have it mildly easier for their beach swims, with temperatures hovering from 2C to 4C. A shared meal and the exchanging of gifts and awards round out expedition festivities for the solstice, which is historically the most important day on the Australian Antarctic calendar. "It's the soul of the Antarctic winter," Casey Station leader Andy Warton said. Swimmers have stripped off and braved brisk waters on the shortest day of the year. Wearing nothing but red swim caps, 3000 souls took the annual nude sunrise plunge into Hobart's River Derwent to mark the winter solstice on Saturday. The water temperature was about 13C as the naked pack took to the river at 7.40am, sparking shrieks and anguished yells. Liz Cannard, who has been travelling around Tasmania for almost four months with her husband, said she was petrified before taking the dip. "I'm not a strong swimmer and I don't take my gear off for anybody ... so I've ticked off a couple of things today," the Geelong resident said. Lizzy Nash from Sydney was also in the mood for a bit of carpe diem. "It's about seizing the moment, seizing life and being inspired," she said. "This is the sort of thing that motivates you to want to do more and challenge yourself. It was awe-inspiring and I absolutely loved it." The free swim is part of the Dark Mofo festival and started with just a few hundred participants in 2013. Melburnian Belinda Chambers has been watching people do it on television for years and decided to work remotely from Tasmania for the festival so she could stay and leave on a high. "So exhilarating," she said post swim. "I was nervous but there was this almost primal moment of everyone being together that carries you along, and a sense of pure happiness." Dark Mofo festival returned to its full pomp in 2025 after running a reduced program in 2024 so it could find a more sustainable financial model. It has made a name for itself by courting controversy and in 2018 drew the ire of some by installing inverted Christian crosses along Hobart's waterfront. Festival artistic director Chris Twite said the swim was a tremendous way to bring things to a close. "The response in 2025 has been incredible," he said. "The streets of Hobart have come alive with locals and visitors celebrating winter and Dark Mofo again." University of Queensland psychologists surveyed swimmers in previous years before and after they took the plunge and found a significant boost in feelings of connection. "People told us about whether they felt pain and pleasure during the swim," Laura Ferris said. "And those who rated their swim as pleasurable also felt more social connection with the other people around them." It is an example of people seeking out aversive experiences, such as eating extremely spicy food or watching horror movies. "This is what psychologists call 'benign masochism'," Dr Ferris said. That could be the optimal term for expeditioners at Australia's four Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations, who also celebrated the solstice with a much-colder traditional plunge. At the three Antarctic stations, a hole is cut in the sea ice each year and expeditioners have a quick dip in the sub-zero waters. "The shock is closely followed by a rush, which is quickly followed by a scramble to the ladder to get the hell out of that water," Mawson Station leader Dave Roberts said. "Ironically, the water is warmer than the wind chill, so it's all a bit confusing but totally worth it." Those on the sub-Antarctic base at Macquarie Island have it mildly easier for their beach swims, with temperatures hovering from 2C to 4C. A shared meal and the exchanging of gifts and awards round out expedition festivities for the solstice, which is historically the most important day on the Australian Antarctic calendar. "It's the soul of the Antarctic winter," Casey Station leader Andy Warton said. Swimmers have stripped off and braved brisk waters on the shortest day of the year. Wearing nothing but red swim caps, 3000 souls took the annual nude sunrise plunge into Hobart's River Derwent to mark the winter solstice on Saturday. The water temperature was about 13C as the naked pack took to the river at 7.40am, sparking shrieks and anguished yells. Liz Cannard, who has been travelling around Tasmania for almost four months with her husband, said she was petrified before taking the dip. "I'm not a strong swimmer and I don't take my gear off for anybody ... so I've ticked off a couple of things today," the Geelong resident said. Lizzy Nash from Sydney was also in the mood for a bit of carpe diem. "It's about seizing the moment, seizing life and being inspired," she said. "This is the sort of thing that motivates you to want to do more and challenge yourself. It was awe-inspiring and I absolutely loved it." The free swim is part of the Dark Mofo festival and started with just a few hundred participants in 2013. Melburnian Belinda Chambers has been watching people do it on television for years and decided to work remotely from Tasmania for the festival so she could stay and leave on a high. "So exhilarating," she said post swim. "I was nervous but there was this almost primal moment of everyone being together that carries you along, and a sense of pure happiness." Dark Mofo festival returned to its full pomp in 2025 after running a reduced program in 2024 so it could find a more sustainable financial model. It has made a name for itself by courting controversy and in 2018 drew the ire of some by installing inverted Christian crosses along Hobart's waterfront. Festival artistic director Chris Twite said the swim was a tremendous way to bring things to a close. "The response in 2025 has been incredible," he said. "The streets of Hobart have come alive with locals and visitors celebrating winter and Dark Mofo again." University of Queensland psychologists surveyed swimmers in previous years before and after they took the plunge and found a significant boost in feelings of connection. "People told us about whether they felt pain and pleasure during the swim," Laura Ferris said. "And those who rated their swim as pleasurable also felt more social connection with the other people around them." It is an example of people seeking out aversive experiences, such as eating extremely spicy food or watching horror movies. "This is what psychologists call 'benign masochism'," Dr Ferris said. That could be the optimal term for expeditioners at Australia's four Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations, who also celebrated the solstice with a much-colder traditional plunge. At the three Antarctic stations, a hole is cut in the sea ice each year and expeditioners have a quick dip in the sub-zero waters. "The shock is closely followed by a rush, which is quickly followed by a scramble to the ladder to get the hell out of that water," Mawson Station leader Dave Roberts said. "Ironically, the water is warmer than the wind chill, so it's all a bit confusing but totally worth it." Those on the sub-Antarctic base at Macquarie Island have it mildly easier for their beach swims, with temperatures hovering from 2C to 4C. A shared meal and the exchanging of gifts and awards round out expedition festivities for the solstice, which is historically the most important day on the Australian Antarctic calendar. "It's the soul of the Antarctic winter," Casey Station leader Andy Warton said.
