Since 2013, on Tasmania’s longest, darkest night, the Dark Mofo festival has illuminated Hobart with fire, light, music and art as part of a program of provocative events. The festival is taking a pause to refresh in 2024 – only its winter feast and nude solstice swim will take place. However, visitors to the island won’t have to travel far to find new chances to explore, discover and celebrate the festival spirit.
The year will still be filled with festive highlights for visitors and locals alike. Here are a few to add to your calendar.
Mona Foma – Hobart and Launceston
15 February-2 March 2024
A roaming festival with no fixed location, Mona Foma calls itself “ephemeral: a passing celebration of art, music and so forth”. In 2024, the festival, hosted by Mona, will take place at sites in Hobart and Launceston.
Its program is as eclectic as the environment in which it lives. The 2024 lineup includes headliners Courtney Barnett, Paul Kelly and Queens of the Stone Age, along with artistic wonders including cross-cultural showcases, meditations, “bespoke gin-based art”, and a light installation called Sastrugi – Sounds of the Antarctic Sea Ice.
Echo Festival – Swansea
22-24 March 2024
Well known as a singer-songwriter, Ange Boxall spent time in London and Nashville before the beauty and community of Tasmania brought her home. Listening to Boxall describe her beloved Swansea, on Tasmania’s east coast, is like watching a sculptor with her tools.
“We have those beautiful clear skies, very little wind, and fresh, clean air,” she says. “The wine vines are autumnal gold against the backdrop of that blue sky. As we move into the winter, we sit around fires drinking red wine under huge, dark skies full of stars.”
Now, as well as pursuing her love of music and co-owning a gin company, she’s the creative producer of the Echo Festival.
“This is a festival that’s very much based around traditions of harvest, new and old,” Boxall says.
In 2024, the festival will be held on the weekend before Easter, in and around an old stone barn and outbuildings in a sprawling rural setting.
Echo revolves around sensory experiences, incorporating music, First Nations storytelling, food, yoga and self-discovery. “It’s multidisciplinary,” she says. “We celebrate all sorts of things, but we combine it with science. It’s a festival where people feel a deep level of connection and engagement, but they also have fun and can be a bit naughty.”
Photograph: Dearna Bond
***
Festival of Voices
28 June-7 July 2024
For those looking to lift their voices to warm up the mid-year months, one of Tasmania’s first winter festivals may be just the ticket. The Festival of Voices brings joy and warmth to Hobart each July in the form of the Big Sing Bonfire, in which thousands of people come together for a legendary singalong in Salamanca Place.
This is a festival of creation and participation. As well as the bonfire, it offers multi-day workshops for people looking to hone their craft, with classical, contemporary, a cappella and songwriting intensives on offer.
Photograph: Lusy Productions
In these cold months, the Festival of Voices is a beacon that attracts vocal groups from across Australia and the world, and showcases “a varied and rich program of choral, contemporary and cabaret to enliven the darkest of winters”.
Willie Smith’s Mid-Winter Festival
12-13 July 2024
Island locals are, according to Rachel Valentyne, the coordinator of Willie Smith’s Mid-Winter Festival, adept at embracing the cool crispness of the darker months. “Tasmanians are great at making the most of the time – to embrace the warmth of creativity and connection,” she says.
The festival, held at the feet of the Sleeping Beauty mountain range in the Huon Valley, is “a time when the locals get to shine in all that is weird and wonderful”. While normally winter would be a cue to stay indoors, “we come out for fire, feasting and revelry”, she says.
Valentyne describes a “firelit wonderland”, with theatrical cooking, hay bales, music tents, roving performers and a secret speakeasy.
“We’re passionate about representing Tasmania to interstate and international visitors,” she says. “We feel there is a unique story and experience to be had here, that is everyday and real. It’s a fascinating place and we would love to inspire people to dive deeper into this beautiful, quirky island.”
Photographs: Natalie Mendham
Visitors to Mid-Winter Festival can expect to see the Big Willie in all its flaming glory (a towering effigy set alight to signify the start of the party); participate in the wassail, an all-in paddock performance of sung poetry to bless the apple trees and bring on a prosperous harvest; and hear folk bands and tales from Tassie’s best storytellers.
There’s also always the promise of a few surprises and plenty of merrymaking. “It’s a place to bring your dancing boots,” Valentyne says, “so wear your Blunnies and don your pagan finery.”
Mural Fest – Sheffield
4-9 November 2024
Since the mid-1980s, Sheffield, a small dairy community in the foothills of Mount Roland, has blossomed into a town of art. More than 140 colourful murals provide a centrepiece to a host of artistic endeavours, including photography, glasswork, fine art painting, pottery and even decorated letterboxes.
Since 2003, the town has also hosted the annual Mural Fest. Every year, mural artists arrive to create pieces inspired by a chosen poem. Nine winning works are selected to be displayed until the following year, when it all happens again.
There’s plenty to keep visitors busy beyond art, too: as well as being a gateway to 7,600 hectares of reserve, mountain views and water sports, Sheffield is part of the Tasting Trail, which offers opportunities to meet makers and devour local produce.
