Dark Mofo 2026 returns for a second round of festivities, following an opening weekend which saw 240,000 entries across live performances, art installations and winter rituals.
The music program roars back to life with US thrash metal band Power Trip in an Australian exclusive at the Odeon on Thursday 18 June, ahead of the quiet rapture of Kelly Moran’s two-show day at Altar Bar on Friday 19 June. Manchester outfit WU LYF resurfaces after a decade-long silence to round out this year’s music program at the Odeon on Sunday, 21 June.
Candela Capitán’s SOLAS sees five spandex-clad dancers create a kaleidoscope of commodity and capitalism (and loneliness and labour) at Hobart’s Theatre Royal, while Pianos Warehouse features two one-off live art performances: Kiyo Gutiérrez’s Hairline Border on Friday 19 June (doors at 8.00pm) and Regina José Galindo’s Times of War on Saturday 20 June (doors at 7.30pm).
On Sunday 21, Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) unveils Phrontisterion—the library that David Walsh has been fantasising about since before he was born. Housing Walsh’s collection of rare books, manuscripts, maps and more, the Phrontisterion completes Mona’s new wing.
Festival rituals continue full-steam ahead: audiences surrender to life below the stairs at late-night party Night Mass on Friday and Saturday nights, and the 48,000-tonne Spirit of Tasmania V returns as the floating gallery at Dark (P)ark. More Katsu Sandos and Unhappy Meals are on offer at the Winter Feast, which concludes with the City of Hobart Free Entry Day from 4–10pm on Sunday, 21 June.
Weekend two goes out with a bang as the Ogoh-Ogoh Procession parades from Franklin Square to the Regatta Grounds, with audiences encouraged to farewell their fears in a ceremony of fire, smoke and ash at the Ogoh-Ogoh Burning. This year’s ogoh-ogoh is an endangered lizard—a Pedra Branca Skink found only on a windswept island off Tasmania’s south coast. The Nude Solstice Swim takes place on Monday, 22 June at Sandy Bay’s Long Beach, following the longest night of the year.
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