Dark Mofo Set to Take Over Tasmania With a Killer Lineup

The sixth annual Dark Mofo festival is popping up in and around Hobart in June and it’s shaping up to be the best and darkest winter solstice celebration we’ve ever seen.

The 2018 lineup features names like St Vincent, ex-Crystal Castles member Alice Glass, Marlon Williams and The Haxan Cloak. As well as acts from further afield such as Japan’s Ryoji Ikeda, and Britain’s Electric Wizard.

Spread over three weekends, the festival will showcase more than 750 artists and 22 exhibitions.

Dark Mofo is created and curated by the team behind Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art, also known as MoNA. Creative director, Leigh Carmichael, says Dark Mofo 2018 is their “most expansive” festival to date. “It’s always difficult to know exactly how the festival will unfold for the audience,” he said. “We just strive to try and find new ways to experience the darkness.”

One of these new ways is their symposium, Dark + Dangerous Thoughts, a series of intense live talks from “people with their skin in the game”, where you can rev yourself up before hitting the late night party precinct, Night Mass. The area will have interactive sculptures and installations at Dark Park.

If that wasn’t enough, there is an insane nightly food festival named “Winter Feast”, featuring local Tasmanian food and alcohol vendors, along with a few well-known classics. The expansive food selection gives you a chance to fuel up before the burning of the giant effigy called “ogoh-ogoh” on the final night of the festival, or before you take a plunge for the naked solstice swim.

Whatever you’re into, Dark Mofo is almost guaranteed to have it. The eclectic festival will take over Tasmania between the 13th and 24th of June. But why not ease into it with their prelude festival between June 7th and 10th?