Possum Bao, Puppet Confessionals And Nude Plunges: Everything To Expect From Your First Dark Mofo

In the black of winter, Dark Mofo returns with a vengeance to cast its red glow across Hobart. For the uninitiated, Dark Mofo is Mona’s midwinter flourish, a festival of music, performance, visual arts and flavour. Following a 2024 hiatus, 2025’s program sprawls across June 5-15 and 21, bringing Hobart (and beyond) alive in the weirdest ways.

Not confined merely to theatres and galleries, this festival takes over the city and bleeds art into the everyday (well, night), even reaching the Ulverstone planetarium this year. It feels bigger than ever.

So, how do you Mofo? It’s a choose-your-own-adventure for the curious. 

Image Credit: Dark Mofo | Instagram | Clown Core | Photographer: Jesse Hunniford

Grab Tickets Before They’re Gone

You can start by snagging passes to one of the world-class performances (often Australian exclusives) in the always-eclectic lineup. Where else can you see fresh Philadelphia rap sensation Tierra Whack one night, experimental anonymous clown jazz duo Clown Core another, witness the return of Portishead legend Beth Gibbons, hear the heartfelt crooning of Luritja singer-songwriter Keanu Nelson, and catch industrial rappers Angry Blackmen crowdsurfing in The Altar Bar? Not to mention VOID, a mixed-media dance with its own splash zone (ponchos provided). 

And that’s just the first weekend. There’s still The Horrors, Thelma Plum and more to come, with metal showcases and electronic and symphonic soundscapes, as well as cult classic film screenings throughout.

But hurry, the big shows sell out fast every year.

Taste All Of Tasmania

The Winter Feast is your food hub for the best of Tasmania, from local favourites like Analiese Gregory slinging fresh seafood and Lilly Trewartha with her pork katsu sando to international guest chef, Niyati Rao of Mumbai’s Ekaa, dishing up spicy wallaby wings and more with Launceston’s Stillwater.

The best way to feast? Go with a group, hit different stalls. One grabs oysters (Vegemite and cheese, maybe?), another gets curries, crispy squid or empanadas, and for dessert, share apple pies and Trophy Room doughnuts. Feeling daring? There’s even possum bao. Then, hug a boozy hot chocolate, mulled cider or Tassie pinot beside the crackling fire and listen to live music in a courtyard festooned with red lights and swirling smoke. 

Image Credit: Dark Mofo | Instagram | Coffin Rides | Photographer: Jesse Hunniford

Go On An Art Attack

2025’s extensive free program is bringing more art into unusual spaces for everyone to encounter. The industrial sprawl of the family-friendly Dark Park offers a winding path of curious experiences, from being lured into trancelike peace in Sora’s warehouse of flashing lights and whipping sound, to satisfying morbid curiosity by playing dead in Coffin Rides. In the city, a deconsecrated church is filled with Karina Utomo’s uncanny, echoing howls and a monumental pregnant monster, Travis Ficarra’s Chocolate Goblin, while musical rituals play out on a carpark. They even hijacked Hobart’s emergency broadcast system for Everything Is Recorded, bouncing haunting sounds across the city.

It can be intense and confronting, from the shock of witnessing a live car crash in Paula Garcia’s Crash Body to screaming until you can’t breathe at Nicholas Galanin’s Neon Anthem or facing violent colonial history in Nathan Maynard’s We Threw Them Down To The Rocks Where They Had Thrown The Sheep, 480 preserved sheep heads in jars lining an eerie basement. 

When you need a break from the city, jump on the ferry to Mona to catch visiting exhibitions like the tense, beautiful objects of Arcangelo Sassolino’s In The End, The Beginning (here until April 2026).

Worship The Dark At Night Mass

Night Mass returns with God Complex, an adults-only night-long labyrinthine playground where you run amok with strangers (and things far stranger). One staircase leads to a suburban Australian house party, another leads to a room of mirrors and a twisty slide to the DJ rave cave. Duck in one door, is it art? Or candy? Confess your sins to saucy puppets, commit acts of unexpected devotion or just dance for hours.

You’ve got until 4am to explore it all. 

Image Credit: Dark Mofo | Instagram | Nude Swim | Photographer: Rémi Chauvin

Purify Your Fears

The festival grand finale is always fire and ice. The Ogoh-Ogoh effigy (based on a Balinese ritual of purification) is filled with the handwritten fears of festival-goers and set ablaze. Then, a mass nude swim for the solstice. If you want to bare it all for the watery mid-winter plunge, you’ll need to sign up ahead of time. Spots are limited.

Repeat The Ritual

Even if you’ve been to Dark Mofo before, it’s still wildly different every year, with unpredictable encounters, challenging art and more than enough to feed your burning curiosity. No two Mofos are alike. 

Limited tickets are still available for Dark Mofo 2025's music and dining program.