Dark Mofo (Hobart)
Dark Mofo — MONA’s Hobart winter festival
Dark Mofo is the winter festival run by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, founded in 2013 as the winter counterpart to MONA’s existing summer Mona Foma festival. Dark Mofo runs for two weeks each June across MONA itself, the Hobart waterfront, the Salamanca and Battery Point precincts, the Theatre Royal, and bespoke festival-only outdoor spaces. The festival operates around the winter solstice — with the solstice swim at Sandy Bay beach on the morning of June 22 a defining festival event — and its programming identity is built around darkness, fire, the deliberately strange and the contemporary art that fits MONA’s broader curatorial sensibility.
What it’s known for
Dark Mofo has — through twelve editions over a decade — built a programming identity that has no real precedent in Australian arts festivals. The festival is built on contemporary art (large-scale installations, often outdoor and often built specifically for the festival), contemporary music (a programmed mix of art-rock, electronic, contemporary classical and experimental music with international headliners and Tasmanian acts), the festival’s signature outdoor fire installations, the winter feast (an indoor food and drink event in the harbourside Princes Wharf), and the closing solstice swim. The festival has also been responsible for some of the most controversial Australian arts programming of the last decade — pieces that have generated genuine public debate and occasional protest.
The Hobart geography is a key part of the festival’s identity. The combination of the small city’s compact harbour-front, the mid-winter darkness (the Hobart winter solstice has only nine hours of daylight), the cold weather, and MONA’s location across the river at Berriedale gives the festival a physical and atmospheric coherence that Australian summer festivals can’t replicate.
The programme pattern
A typical Dark Mofo programme runs approximately twenty ticketed mainstage productions, the contemporary music headline programme (usually three or four international acts plus a substantial Australian and Tasmanian programme), the outdoor installations and fire programme, the Winter Feast indoor food and drink event running across multiple nights, the visual arts exhibitions at MONA itself running concurrently, the solstice swim closing event, and a substantial late-night programme at Dark Park (the festival’s dedicated outdoor venue at Macquarie Point).
Key venues
- MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) — Berriedale, 25-minute ferry ride from the Hobart waterfront. The festival’s institutional home and visual-arts hub.
- Hobart waterfront — Princes Wharf, the Hobart docks, and the harbour itself. Site of the Winter Feast and the major outdoor installations.
- Dark Park — Macquarie Point. The festival’s dedicated outdoor venue with installations and contemporary music programming.
- Theatre Royal Hobart — Australia’s oldest continuously operating theatre (1837), used for the festival’s mainstage theatre programming.
- Salamanca Arts Centre — Salamanca Place, used for the festival’s smaller-scale theatre and contemporary music.
- Federation Concert Hall — used for the festival’s contemporary classical music programming.
How to plan a trip
Dark Mofo is the most planning-intensive of the major Australian festivals. The marquee outdoor events sell out within an hour of release; the contemporary music headline acts often go in fifteen minutes; the Winter Feast tickets release in waves and sell out fast. The programme launches in early April for the June festival; ticket releases happen across April and May with the major outdoor events going first.
Accommodation in Hobart in June is the festival’s principal logistical challenge. Hobart hotel capacity is limited and the festival genuinely fills the city; book accommodation when the programme launches in April, not when you’ve finalised your ticket selection. Pair the festival with MONA itself (which runs special programming and ticketed late-night opens during the festival), the Salamanca Market on the Saturday morning, and a day-trip to the Tasman Peninsula for the natural-environment side of the Tasmanian winter experience.
The Hobart winter weather is the most reliable factor in your trip planning — pack for cold (often single-digit daytime temperatures), rain, and the high-wind exposure of the harbour-front venues. The festival’s outdoor programming is built around the Tasmanian winter rather than against it; dress accordingly.
Recent highlights
The annual solstice swim at Sandy Bay — the festival’s defining closing event. The Winter Feast at Princes Wharf. The fire installations across the harbour-front. Recent contemporary music headlines including Anohni and the Johnsons, Nick Cave’s collaborative programme, and the major experimental electronic acts. The 2024 outdoor installation programme around Macquarie Point.
Useful links
- Official: darkmofo.net.au
- Where we cover the festival: Festivals