Surprising art, stellar lineups, Australian exclusives and more to feast on.
Two cars scream around each other in a tense dance before crashing into each other for the grand finale. An enormous pregnant nightmare figure looms in a deconsecrated church. A man trapped in an hourglass appears, slowly crushed by the weight of time and imprisonment.
Music pulls you from the darkest metal to shimmering immersions of electronic light, worship of icons, symphonic waterscapes and more. The burning sacrifice of a Maugean skate purifies the fears of revellers with the power of fire, and the icy winter waters wash the last days of darkness from naked bodies.
Dark Mofo is back.
Check out our gig guide, our arts guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
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Following its brief hiatus, Australia’s celebration of all things dark, beautiful, blinding, challenging, alarming and delicious returns to Tasmania.
Under the eye of new artistic director Chris Twite, Dark Mofo is going further, a sprawl of art, music and feasting pulling international acts and flavours and reaching into fresh spaces.
“Once again we will bathe the city in red, filling it with art and taking over disused and hidden spaces all across Nipaluna/Hobart. Night Mass—the late-night labyrinth of revelry—will carve new paths through the city and a host of Australian-exclusive artists from around the world will storm our stages,” Twite said.
From June 5 to 15 and 21, an ambitious, packed curation of boundary-pushing art, music, theatre and otherworldly experience will take place across Nipaluna/Hobart, Launceston and Ulverstone. The Winter Feast is back, as well as a new location for the Night Mass: God Complex in the heart of Hobart city, featuring over 100 artists and musicians.
And Ogoh-Ogoh, the burning effigy, will once more consume your fears.
Art
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In terms of art, 2025 Dark Mofo holds true to the idea that this festival curates something that no one else in Australia can. It features new commissions like We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep, a challenging work by Trawlwoolway artist Nathan Maynard where flesh is the vehicle for discussions of cultural theft.
Australian exclusive work, Crash Body, by Brazilian artist Paula Garcia, is a two-hour performance by stunt drivers in the Regatta Grounds ending in a dramatic vehicle collision.
USA artist Nicholas Galanin invites audiences to take a knee in Neon Anthem, and Simon Zoric’s Coffin Rides will push you beyond the limits of the mortal realm and SORA by Nonotak (FRA)(JPN) turns an empty warehouse into a vast and vibrant sky.
These are just some in a vast geography of art unfurled across the city, Dark Park and gallery spaces, from audiovisual installations to theatrical performance, sculpture and open-air orchestral improvisation.
The film program returns as well, with 11 screenings across the festival, including Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal and David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
Music
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Within the epic music lineup itself, icons like Beth Gibbons (UK) have been drawn in to perform along with a slew of Australian exclusives, including The Horrors (UK), Baroness (USA), Rival Consoles (UK) and Tierra Whack (USA), and local talent like Keanu Nelson, Divide and Dissolve and Gut Health.
The program resists categorisation, spanning genres from darkwave to ecclesiastical hardcore, industrial rap, abstract symphony, psychedelia, prog metal, Hindustani chants and audiovisual takeovers, including the Nox Omnia project from Berlin Atonal. Metal fans will be glad to hear Hymns to the Dead is back as well, with hours of dissonance, darkness and mayhem.
Other highlights include Drain Gang member Thaiboy Digital (THA), cult favourite hardcore group Show Me The Body (USA), DIY indie-rockers DIIV (USA) and experimental electronic artist Machine Girl (USA).
In a new regional outpost, the Planetarium dome at The Hive in Ulverstone will show a psychedelic, hallucinogenic audiovisual journey, XYZZY, a joint work by artists Jess Johnson (NZ) and Simon Ward (USA) that features webs of flesh mandalas, self-replicating architecture, undulating worms, hallucinogenic patterns, and messianic alien deities. While Thelma Plum and Methyl Ethel will perform in Launceston.
Special events
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What’s on the dinner table? The Winter Feast feeds the masses across Princes Wharf and Salamanca Lawns, and this year’s guest chef is Niyati Rao all the way from acclaimed Mumbai restaurant Ekaa to join Craig Will of Launceston’s Stillwater for a fusion of world cuisine and Tasmanian ingredients.
As is tradition, the rites of darkness conclude with the Nude Solstice Swim on June 21. Nipaluna/Hobart will be transformed once more in the heart of winter. Get ready to explore, consume, crash and burn.
Tickets are on sale for subscribers from April 9.
For more information on Dark Mofo 2025, head here.
