Dark Mofo’s Winter Feast dishes up rare treats

SEAFOOD has been a big hit with patrons as the Dark Mofo Winter Feast roars on.

friday night of Winter Feast.

CONES full of freshly cooked squid tentacles were sold out by 8pm as the Dark Mofo Winter Feast roared on last night.

More than 9000 people had filed through the gates by 9pm, with tonight expected to boom with clear weather forecast.

James Ashmore’s stall focused on sustainable seafood.

The squid were sizzling alongside salmon bites – made from offcuts – each dish costing $5.

Locally caught sardines will be added to the mix tonight.

“We’re using sustainably caught seafood, it’s byproducts. The salmon bites are Atlantic salmon bites marinated,” Mr Ashmore said.

He said the festival was “vibrant, happy, upbeat”.

GALLERY: DARK MOFO WINTER FEAST

Alongside him in a circle of barbecue hotplates and fire drums on the Princes Wharf No.1 Shed forecourt were other fast-selling offerings including the lamb cutlet, selling to huge queues for $5.

Calista Kerns-Stokes serves up some squid tentacles for John Smith.

Local food curator Jo Cook said the feast featured food to be found nowhere else.

“It’s going great guns. I’m looking down Salamanca and I can’t see a gap,” Ms Cook said.

She pointed out Rough Rice with its wallaby mole as a special dish.

“That’s something you don’t get anywhere else.”

She said chef Vanidol, formerly of Vanidol’s, was cooking beef and chicken satay, an opportunity for fans before he headed overseas.

She recommended Flamecake’s Flammkuchen, a kind of pizza, especially its Huon concoction with Tongola goat’s curd, quince and fig relish and bush honey.

“The Huon is so hot right now.”

One-man band Uptown Brown.

Jess Bicknell’s husband came to Dark Mofo to drum with musician Ecca Vandal.

“It’s the best festival ... a sensory overload,” she said.

From left, Eva Quinn-Walters, Gussie Vinall-Richardson, Zev Tropp and Jess Bicknell, all of Melbourne, inside the Princes Wharf shed.

Healthy attendance numbers are expected again tonight and tomorrow.

No rain is forecast, with a top of 11C after cool nights so far this week.

The Winter Feast is on today from 4pm to midnight, with entry costing $20. Tomorrow it runs from 4-10pm and costs $20. Children under 16 enter free. Tickets are available at the gate.

HEADLINE

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

■ Ash Keating: Remote Nature Response, Cradle Mountain Hotel, 9am-9pm.

■ Marina Abramovic: Private Archaeology, Mona, 10am-5pm.

■ John Kelly: Beyond Woop Woop, TMAG, 10am-4pm.

■ Ashes to Ashes, Narryna Heritage Museum, 10.30am-4.30pm and 6-10pm.

■ The Witches, Peacock Theatre, 11am and 2pm.

■ Douglas McManus: Laundry of the Terminal Psyche, Rosny Barn, 11am-5pm.

■ Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hennessey: The Shadows Calling, Detached (old Mercury building), noon-10pm.

■ Envelop(e), Contemporary Art Tasmania, noon-5pm.

■ Dark Mofo Films: Ruben Guthrie, Q&A with producer Kath Shelper, State Cinema, 1pm.

■ Dark Mofo Films: A Second Chance, State Cinema, 3.30pm.

■ City of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast, Princes Wharf 1, 4pm-midnight.

■ Anthony McCall: Landscape for Fire; Bastiaan Maris: Fire Organ; Byron J. Scullin and Supple Fox: Bass Bath; Ogoh-ogoh: The Purging; Hendrick’s Parlour of Curiosities, Dark Park, 4-10pm.

■ Lucy Bleach: Radiant Heat, UTAS Centre for the Arts, 4pm-7am.

■ Jason James: Angry Electrons, UTAS Centre for the Arts, 4-10pm.

■ Anthony McCall: Solid Light Works, Dark Park, 5-10pm.

■ Tyrone Sheather: Giidanyba, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, 5-10pm.

■ Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse Column, Detached (old Mercury building), dusk til dawn.

■ Allison Bell and members of the TSO, Farrall Centre, 6pm.

■ Anthony McCall: Night Ship, visible from Hobart waterfront, 7-7.30pm.

■ The Irrepressibles and Brous, Odeon Theatre, 7.30pm.

■ Dark Mofo Films: Partisan, State Cinema, 9pm.

■ Blacklist, Budgie Smugglers, 9pm.

■ Midnight Concert Series: Helen Gillet, St David’s Cathedral, 11.59pm.