Dark Mofo 2019: Your ultimate guide to this year’s winter festival
Interested in this year’s Dark Mofo winter festival but not quite sure where to start? We’ve scoured the program and picked out some of the highlights.
Events
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DARK Mofo has kicked off for another year with more than two weeks of events to tempt and test all your senses.
Not quite sure where to start for your entertainment? We’ve scoured the program and picked out some of the highlights.
We’ve looked at the free stuff, family-friendly events, some of the edgier attractions, old favourites, and must-see events.
DARK MOFO REVIEWS: ALL THE HITS AND MISSES
GALLERY: BEST PICS OF DARK MOFO 2019
SPECTRA IS BACK AND IT’S HERE TO STAY
DARK MOFO 2019: HOW TO SEE THE FESTIVAL ON A BUDGET
GOT A DARK MOFO QUESTION? WE CAN ANSWER IT
Starting on Wednesday night with the opening of the In the Hanging Garden precinct in Liverpool St, Mona’s winter festival continues to go from strength to strength.
All the favourites will be returning to this year’s program, including the Winter Feast, the nude solstice swim, Night Mass and the Ogoh-Ogoh ritual burning.
IS THIS DARK MOFO’S WEIRDEST ARTWORK YET?
The Winter Feast will feature more than 70 stalls sprawled across the waterfront plus a new interactive kids’ program, Fire and Ice, which will teach children first-hand about native foods.
The unavailability of Macquarie Point spelled the end of family-friendly event Dark Park, but in its place this year will be Dark Path.
Ryoji Ikeda’s ever-popular light installation spectra will, from June 20 to 23, be illuminated from sunset to sunrise in its new permanent location at Mona.
HUNDREDS HANG OUT IN THE GARDEN
GALLERY: OPENING OF IN THE HANGING GARDEN
FREE ACTIVITIES
DARK PATH
Regatta Grounds, Queens Domain, Government House and Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. SEE THE MAP
An art trail snaking through the Queen’s Domain, including the old Beaumaris Zoo, the Queen Victoria Powder Magazine and the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.
Exhibits include Julie Gough’s Missing or Dead, which is a memorial to 180 children stolen or lost during the early colonial years in Tasmania.
Note: Dark Path involves a lot of walking, roughly 4km from start to finish.
June 14-16, and June 19-23, 5-10pm. Free unless stated otherwise.
NUDE SOLSTICE SWIM
The mad rush into the freezing River Derwent has become an annual Dark Mofo pilgrimage, and the nude solstice swim is returning to Long Beach this year, although registrations to participate have now closed.
MIKE PARR: TOWARDS A BLACK SQUARE
Mike Parr was buried in a container under Hobart’s Macquarie St for three days during Dark Mofo last year, and he returns with Towards a Black Square.
Towards a Black Square will see him perform a lengthy, blindfolded performance in an undisclosed location with a live video feed, before appearing in conversation at the Odeon Theatre the following day.
ENIGMATIC PERFORMANCE PARR FOR THE COURSE
The location will be revealed and open as an exhibition for a short time, before the walls are painted out and returned to their original state. All elements of the performance are free.
Live stream performance: Friday June 7, 10am-8pm. The Tunnel, former Mercury building, access via Arglye St.
Conversation: Saturday June 8, 1pm. Odeon Theatre.
Exhibition : June 8-15, 12-6pm. Venue to be revealed.
MORE DARK MOFO
FULL PROGRAM FOR DARK MOFO UNVEILED
AIRBNB EXPECTS HUGE NUMBERS IN HOBART FOR FESTIVAL
NEW DARK PATH DETAILS REVEALED
MUSIC
Dark Mofo music lovers will be spoiled for choice this year, as the seventh instalment of the winter festival has loaded up a list of musical acts sure to whet the appetite.
Find out when and where your favourite artist is playing in the our guide to some of the top musical acts.
Night Mass, 69 Murray St, Hobart:
Friday June 14 + Saturday June 15, 10pm — late (Sold out)
Friday June 21 + Saturday June 22, 10pm — late (Sold out)
WEEK 2 ARTISTS:
Teto Preto
BADSISTA
Cashu
Empress Of
IC3PEAK
Junglepussy
Zaliva-D
Hyph11e
Gabber Modus Operandi
Sharon Van Etten — Sunday June 9, 7-9pm (sold out)
John Grant — Thursday June 20, 10pm-11pm ($79+ booking fee, $85 door sales)
Serpentwithfeet + Kelsey Lu — Thursday June 13, 7-9.30pm ($69 + booking fee, $75 door sales)
Anna Calvi — Saturday June 15, 6-7.5pm ($79+ booking fee, $85 door sales)
Candlemass — Sunday June 16, 11pm-12am ($79+ booking fee, $85 door sales)
Dirty Three — Sunday June 16, 1-2.30pm and 7-8.30pm (sold out)
Augie March — Saturday June 22, 1-2.30pm, ($59 + booking fee, door sales $65)
PROJECT X COMING HOME TO ROOST
DARK MOFO WINTER FEAST: WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
REVIEW: STAN GRANT’S DARK AND DANGEROUS THOUGHTS
EAT
Punters are unlikely to go hungry while moving between shows and performances, with the annual Winter Feast promising to be the biggest banquet yet and with food trucks nestled in various sites across the city.
Find out when and where to stop for a feed or a beverage.
Dark Mofo and City of Hobart Winter Feast
The Winter Feast will this year host close to 80 stallholders, all featuring quality and ethically sourced Tasmanian produce.
The feast’s Fire & Ice event will allow children to taste and shuck Pacific oysters, cook and eat native periwinkles, smash roasted spuds and hear from Tasmanian Aboriginal elders about native ingredients each night between 4 and 5pm.
This year’s guest chefs include Formosa Bites and Anchovy, Meatsmith and Meat Mistress from Friday June 14 to Sunday June 16 and Hamlet Cafe and Miznon, Holly Davis and Megan Broadfield-Brown from Friday June 21 to Sunday June 23.
To wash down your tucker, choose from a variety of bars, plus there will be a range of live music both interstate and local.
June 14-16, $20
June 19, $10
June 20-22, $20
June 23, free
Season pass: Eight-night ticket with priority entry: $50 plus booking fee.
Entry is free after 8pm nightly. Under-16s free with registration. Door sales are available.
AWARD-WINNING FESTIVAL IS RED-DY TO RAMP UP
Food at Dark Path
Finish the festival’s art trail with your pick of food at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, which will be set up for the duration of Dark Path with a range of food vans, pop-up cafes and bars.
Friday June 14-Sunday June 16, 5-10pm
Wednesday June 19-Sunday June 23, 5-10pm
Access to the botanical gardens is free.
Eating out In The Hanging Garden
Hobart’s new cultural precinct will form a new CBD lunchtime outdoor dining destination from the first week of June and will carry on long after Dark Mofo.
There will be multiple food trucks trading on the Watchorn St side of the precinct, local businesses occupying rotating pop-up kitchens in the centre, and 24-hour food offerings on the Murray St side.
The intention is to remain flexible with a diverse and vibrant cultural mix, in line with the vision for the site to develop responsively to community engagement.
HUNDREDS HANG OUT IN THE GARDEN
GALLERY: GRAND OPENING OF IN THE HANGING GARDEN
Food will include:
Pilgrim’s Progress — a bold new offering from award-winning barista Will Priestly of Pilgrim, permanently occupying the Red Room premises on Murray St and open 24 hours a day.
Vigil — A new Hobart street-food concept from Jonathan Kincaid and Brianna Clancy, graduates of Ethos, Etties and Dier Makr and founders of Ruckus Fried Chicken. With Vigil, they will offer a locally and ethically sourced menu with craft beer and natural wines, with the menu changing weekly.
Kavorka — a Latvian Orthodox term meaning “the lure of the animal”, an exciting new food project from Megan Quill (former co-owner of Tricycle cafe in Salamanca), inspired by her Latvian and Lithuanian heritage.
Open seven days a week from noon.
FAMILY FRIENDLY
spectra
Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda is bringing his light installation spectra to Hobart for another winter solstice.
While spectra is running Mona will operate a frequent ferry service into the evening.
.spectra runs from Thursday 20 — Sunday 23 June; the museum will be open until 6pm and ferries will be running every half-hour until 8:30pm nightly.
The Aftermath Dislocation Principle by Jimmy Cauty
Peer through holes cut into a forty-foot shipping container at a vast landscape modelled in a miniature scale of 1:87: a desolate, mythical English town frozen in the aftermath of a riot, where only police and media crews remain.
Explore the art with the Children of the Aftermath:
Thursday 13 — Sunday 16 June, 4—10pm
Wednesday 19 — Sunday 23 June, 4—10pm, in front of Hobart Town Hall, Macquarie Street
Or see it on your own, 24-hours a day:
Thursday 13 — Sunday 23 June, in front of Hobart Town Hall, Macquarie Street
Terrapin + Teatret Gruppe 38 + Trickster-P
Suitable for those aged 8 and over, find this interactive art maze in 12 shipping containers on the banks of the Derwent. More details here.
Salamanca Arts Centre.
Free art and performance installations, including award-winning play The Irresistible.
Only The Penitent Shall Pass
Spin, push, turn and climb a series of geometric and kinetic sculptures, as the Rosny Barn becomes a risky, anarchic playground. Featuring a performance by dancer and choreographer Nicole Morel. Free for under-13s. More details here.
Panopticon III: The Garden of Earthly Delights
A free installation at the UTAS Arts school produced by creative arts students. More details here.
The Ogoh-ogoh
Commit your fears into the heart of a giant swift parrot, an endangered species that breeds in Tasmania and forms this year’s ogoh-ogoh: a totem-like sculpture derived from a Balinese Hindu community purification ritual and crafted by Balinese artists.
The Purging runs from June 14-16 and June 19-22. The Burning takes place on June 23 from 5-6pm.
Dark Path
With many different exhibits and installations from the Regatta Grounds to the Royal Botanical Gardens, there’ll be plenty to entertain kids with.
See details above.
Dark Mofo and City of Hobart Winter Feast
With live music, multiple food vans and a new program Fire & Ice designed for children, the annual Winter Feast is a not to be missed by families.
See details above.
Project X
There’s nothing quite like a family trip into the forest of the Huon Valley to hear the sound of 2000 ravens roosting.
Project X is a 12-month vision that will include a major public art venture for the region that was devastated by the bushfires this year.
The first installation announced is by English musician Chris Watson titled Hrafn: Conversations with Odin.
Beginning on June 12, groups will walk through the Hastings Caves State Reserve at dusk where speakers hidden in the trees will sound the roosting of 2000 ravens, in an experience not commonly experienced by humans.
See details below or at project-x.net.au
MINE
Mona’s new exhibition by New Zealand artist Simon Denny revolves around mining as a reflection of hope and anxiety about the environment, technology, and development.
Featuring new sculpture, a giant board game and augmented reality, Mine maps the inextricable links between resource and data mining.
Opening June 8, 10am, $28/$25, free for under-18s and Tasmanians.
Dark Mofo at Rosny Barn
Dark Mofo heads to the city’s eastern shore with an interactive exhibition at Rosny Farm until June 30.
Only the Penitent Shall Pass, by Melbourne-based artist Andrew Hustwaite, will turn Rosny Barn into a playground of geometric sculptures.
Free entry.
MORE DARK MOFO
NEW HOBART CULTURAL PRECINCT IN THE HANGING GARDEN OPENS
RED CROSSES FLIPPED TO CONVENTIONAL CHRISTIAN DIRECTION
NOT TO BE MISSED
A Forest
Lose yourself in a contemporary ruin of art, noise and performance, as the former Forestry Tasmania building and its glass dome entrance transforms into a diverse exhibition space for A Forest.
More than 10 exhibits will feature during the festival, including Canadian artist Cassils’ Inextinguishable Fire — a filmed performance of a 14-second full body burn, shot at 1000 frames per second and extended to 14 minutes of slow-motion.
June 12-16 and 19-23, 5-10pm, $20.
Terrapin, Teatret Gruppe 38 and Trickster-P
Regatta Grounds, McVilly Drive
An interactive art maze on the banks of the River Derwent, in which 12 shipping containers with audio-visual projections and performances depict life beside, with and on the sea.
June 14-16 and 19-23, 5-9pm, $15, recommended for ages 8 plus.
Dark Mofo And City Of Hobart Winter Feast
PW1
Perhaps the festival’s most popular event, the Winter Feast returns to Princes Wharf 1 with crackling fires, live music, comfort food and beverages. Featuring more than 70 stallholders.
June 14-16, $20
June 19, $10
June 20-22, $20
June 23, free
Season pass: Eight-night ticket with priority entry: $50 plus booking fee.
Entry is free after 8pm nightly. Under-16s free with registration. Door sales are available.
OGOH-OGOH
Write your fears on a piece of paper and stuff it inside a giant swift parrot, which will be burned at the close of the festival.
Visit the Goods Shed at Macquarie Point to write your fears ahead of the procession from Parliament Lawns to Macquarie Point on the last night of the festival.
Dark Mofo June 6-23. Tickets at: darkmofo.net.au
Extra tickets released for Cold Chisel’s Hobart show
Around 100 extra tickets have been made available for Cold Chisel’s previously sold-out upcoming show in Hobart.
Warning: This hobby could become an obsession
A thriving Tassie festival will celebrate our beekeepers and world-renowned honey industry while highlighting dangers of introduced pests to the small but mighty heroes of our gardens and farms.