Dark Mofo 2025 opens to audiences in Lutruwita/Tasmania today (June 5). The midwinter festival commences with The Gathering (a First Nations-led night of music and ceremony at the Winter Feast), the opening of Dark Park, and performances by Beth Gibbons and Joshua Serafin, among others.
Dark Mofo continues through 15 June, with sprawling late night parties, annual rituals, a wealth of Australian-exclusive acts, and a boundary-pushing contemporary art program, as well as shows in Launceston and Ulverstone. The festival fortnight is followed by the cleansing Nude Solstice Swim on the 21st to mark the shortest day of the year.
Artistic Director Chris Twite said: “I’ve been talking about how excited we are to open Dark Mofo 2025 for a year now. Finally, we get to share that excitement with audiences here to encounter our brilliant artists, performers, musicians, and chefs. The banners are flapping, and Quasi is in place, looking back across the city towards kunanyi. Let the fun begin!”
Over 50,000 tickets have already been sold, and that number is expected to exceed 100,000 by the end of the festival. Festival Executive Director Melissa Edwards said: “We’ve been so heartened by the support we’ve received for the festival’s full-scale return. Tasmania has rallied behind us yet again—including state and local government, and the local businesses and residents who are helping to Paint the Town Red. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
About Dark Mofo
Dark Mofo is Tasmania’s midwinter festival celebrating the dark through large-scale public art, food, music, fire, light, and noise, in Hobart. Each year, Dark Mofo delves into centuries-old rituals to explore the links between ancient and contemporary mythology, humans and nature, religious and secular traditions, darkness and light, and birth, death and renewal.
