Latest news with #WinterFeast
Economic Times
39 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
What drives thousands of Australians to swim nude in winter? Inside the Dark Mofo tradition
Why People Do It? Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Thousands gathered at Hobart's Long Beach before dawn on 21 June for the annual Nude Solstice Swim . The dip marks the end of Dark Mofo , Tasmania's winter arts the morning of Saturday, under the rising winter sun, nearly 3,000 participants, wearing only red swim caps, rushed naked into the cold Tasmanian waters. Lifeguards from Surf Life Saving Tasmania were on hand, and the water temperature was about 12 °C, a few degrees warmer than the chilly Nude Solstice Swim began in 2013 as a community ritual triggered by the winter solstice. Initially banned, it now draws around 3,000 eager participants each caps off Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, Winter Mass, and other events. The festival is designed to explore extremes, light, darkness, warmth, and exposure, with ritual at its many, the plunge is about liberation, camaraderie, and self‑challenge. Veteran swimmer Ms Knight, 64, said the swim is 'liberating and empowering.' She said how the supportive atmosphere lets participants 'shed their inhibitions', their bodies, no matter the shape or age, are accepted spoke of connection and inclusion. Stranger-turned-friends groups, like Brisbane's Dave Abary, described meeting new people in the past years and returning for the shared residents, such as Alana, called it a 'sense of unison' in vulnerability. The mix of euphoria, joy, and shock during the run and swim is cited as a ritual that bonds year set a new record for participation, up to 3,000 swimmers. Safety measures include 40 lifeguards, briefing sessions, and on‑site thermal blankets and tea for post-swim Mofo, the swim, winter feast, and other events draw hundreds of thousands of visitors. The Nude Swim is the festival's biggest single ritual moment—a bold communal act in the depths of winter.
Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
What drives thousands of Australians to swim nude in winter? Inside the Dark Mofo tradition
Thousands gathered at Hobart's Long Beach before dawn on 21 June for the annual Nude Solstice Swim . The dip marks the end of Dark Mofo , Tasmania's winter arts festival. On the morning of Saturday, under the rising winter sun, nearly 3,000 participants, wearing only red swim caps, rushed naked into the cold Tasmanian waters. Lifeguards from Surf Life Saving Tasmania were on hand, and the water temperature was about 12 °C, a few degrees warmer than the chilly air. The Nude Solstice Swim began in 2013 as a community ritual triggered by the winter solstice. Initially banned, it now draws around 3,000 eager participants each year. It caps off Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, Winter Mass, and other events. The festival is designed to explore extremes, light, darkness, warmth, and exposure, with ritual at its core. Why People Do It? Live Events For many, the plunge is about liberation, camaraderie, and self‑challenge. Veteran swimmer Ms Knight, 64, said the swim is 'liberating and empowering.' She said how the supportive atmosphere lets participants 'shed their inhibitions', their bodies, no matter the shape or age, are accepted equally. Others spoke of connection and inclusion. Stranger-turned-friends groups, like Brisbane's Dave Abary, described meeting new people in the past years and returning for the shared experience. Many residents, such as Alana, called it a 'sense of unison' in vulnerability. The mix of euphoria, joy, and shock during the run and swim is cited as a ritual that bonds participants. This year set a new record for participation, up to 3,000 swimmers. Safety measures include 40 lifeguards, briefing sessions, and on‑site thermal blankets and tea for post-swim warmth. Dark Mofo, the swim, winter feast, and other events draw hundreds of thousands of visitors. The Nude Swim is the festival's biggest single ritual moment—a bold communal act in the depths of winter.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I am genuinely on my own': The TV chef living the wild life in Tasmania
Chef Analiese Gregory vowed to tone down the 'adventuring' for the second season of SBS Food's female-centric answer to the River Cottage franchise, A Girl's Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Cooking. But there she is in the first episode, preparing to scuba dive for crayfish off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, where the Michelin-star trained chef lives since trading the London-Paris-Sydney high life for a simpler existence on the land. 'I'm always putting myself in moderately dangerous situations, maybe because it makes you feel alive,' says the Kiwi chef, who is on during a break in preparing the Winter Feast for MONA gallery's Dark Mofo festival. The Huon Valley farmhouse we watched her restore in the first season is still a work in progress, as is the kitchen garden, from which she plucks lovage for the crayfish omelette she plans to cook on the beach. Sheep have joined the yard, as has a dog named Kana (a Maori word for 'sea urchin'). An Italian truffle-hunting breed called Lagotto Romagnolo, Kana has so far managed to forage a mushroom. There is another addition to the farm that upsets the image of solo female independence – Gregory's partner, Hobart chef and restaurateur Kobi Ruzicka. 'He lives in Hobart, so it's a very modern relationship,' says Gregory. 'But I am genuinely on my own in the country with my dog most of the time, just trying to muddle through.' Gregory was just 16 when she left the family dairy farm on New Zealand's North Island to train in London. 'I've always lived that way. I'm like, 'I'm going to move to France!', and I just do it.' But after regular restorative escapes to Tasmania during her years with chef Peter Gilmore (who appears in season two) at Sydney's Quay Restaurant, the pull of the quieter island state and its abundance of produce became too strong. 'Being part of big-city life for many years, and having high-pressure jobs, I think I needed to do that to value [farm life], and to want to come full circle.' A post-pandemic diagnosis helped Gregory make sense of her exceptional ability to focus under stress. In the series, she rarely appears ruffled, even when experiencing a panic attack during the crayfishing dive. 'From my 20 years in a commercial kitchen, you learn to internalise stress,' she says. 'And I've been diagnosed with autism, so maybe I do have a bit of that blank face. But it doesn't mean there aren't things going on below the surface … I went through a period of grieving for life being harder than maybe it needed to be, and then acceptance, and then learning to understand myself better … I think that in ways [autism] makes things harder for me, and in other ways it probably makes things easier. I do get hyper-focused and will stay up all night building bee frames to go in the beehive and things like that.'
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘I am genuinely on my own': The TV chef living the wild life in Tasmania
Chef Analiese Gregory vowed to tone down the 'adventuring' for the second season of SBS Food's female-centric answer to the River Cottage franchise, A Girl's Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Cooking. But there she is in the first episode, preparing to scuba dive for crayfish off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, where the Michelin-star trained chef lives since trading the London-Paris-Sydney high life for a simpler existence on the land. 'I'm always putting myself in moderately dangerous situations, maybe because it makes you feel alive,' says the Kiwi chef, who is on during a break in preparing the Winter Feast for MONA gallery's Dark Mofo festival. The Huon Valley farmhouse we watched her restore in the first season is still a work in progress, as is the kitchen garden, from which she plucks lovage for the crayfish omelette she plans to cook on the beach. Sheep have joined the yard, as has a dog named Kana (a Maori word for 'sea urchin'). An Italian truffle-hunting breed called Lagotto Romagnolo, Kana has so far managed to forage a mushroom. There is another addition to the farm that upsets the image of solo female independence – Gregory's partner, Hobart chef and restaurateur Kobi Ruzicka. 'He lives in Hobart, so it's a very modern relationship,' says Gregory. 'But I am genuinely on my own in the country with my dog most of the time, just trying to muddle through.' Gregory was just 16 when she left the family dairy farm on New Zealand's North Island to train in London. 'I've always lived that way. I'm like, 'I'm going to move to France!', and I just do it.' But after regular restorative escapes to Tasmania during her years with chef Peter Gilmore (who appears in season two) at Sydney's Quay Restaurant, the pull of the quieter island state and its abundance of produce became too strong. 'Being part of big-city life for many years, and having high-pressure jobs, I think I needed to do that to value [farm life], and to want to come full circle.' A post-pandemic diagnosis helped Gregory make sense of her exceptional ability to focus under stress. In the series, she rarely appears ruffled, even when experiencing a panic attack during the crayfishing dive. 'From my 20 years in a commercial kitchen, you learn to internalise stress,' she says. 'And I've been diagnosed with autism, so maybe I do have a bit of that blank face. But it doesn't mean there aren't things going on below the surface … I went through a period of grieving for life being harder than maybe it needed to be, and then acceptance, and then learning to understand myself better … I think that in ways [autism] makes things harder for me, and in other ways it probably makes things easier. I do get hyper-focused and will stay up all night building bee frames to go in the beehive and things like that.'
ABC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
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.
