Family friendly things to do at Dark Mofo 2019

Despite garnering a reputation for some dangerous and debaucherous delights, Dark Mofo is a surprisingly family-friendly festival. The streets are lit with red lights like Christmas in Australia, a bunch of festival events and exhibitions are free and welcoming to people of all ages, and of course the annual Winter Feast goes down a treat (plus it’s free for kids under 16).

Rug up the kids and hit the streets this solstice on the southern isle - here are some Dark Mofo events that will charm the whole family.

Dark Mofo’s Dionysian feast returns for 8 nights over two weeks, sprawled across Princes Wharf 1 on Salamanca’s waterfront with crackling fires, live music, warming comfort food and delectable drinks. The Winter Feast is a contemporary take on pagan solstice celebrations and the hedonistic hub of the festival, where the community gathers to indulge together as the longest night of the year approaches in Australia’s southernmost city.

+ Friday 14 - Sunday 16 June

+ Wednesday 19 - Sunday 23 June, Princes Wharf 1, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, 4 - 10pm (open until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays), $10 - $20

Free after 8pm nightly, and for under 16s with a parent or guardian. Free on Sunday 23 June.

Season pass: Eight-night ticket with priority entry: $50 + booking fee. Under 16s free with registration.

A sprawling interactive art maze on the banks of the Derwent River, in which 12 large shipping containers with audio-visual projections and performances depict life beside, with and on the sea.

+ Friday 14 - Sunday 16 June

+ Wednesday 19 - Sunday 23 June, Regatta Grounds, McVilly Drive, Hobart, on the hour every hour from 5-9pm, $15, recommended for ages 8+

Peep through the windows of Hobart’s waterfront art school to see Hieronymus Bosch’s grand allegory of indulgence, sin, revelry and apocalypse, reimagined by artists, actors and musicians from the University of Tasmania’s School of Creative Arts.

Curated by John Vella, Toby Juliff and Asher Warren

+ Friday 14–Sunday 16 June,

+ Friday 21–Sunday 23 June, Centre for the Arts, Hunter Street, 6–10pm, free. 

Write down your fears and commit them into the feathers of a giant swift parrot, an endangered species that breeds in Tasmania and is the shape of this year’s ogoh-ogoh. Following Balinese Hindu tradition the demon-like totem, crafted in collaboration with Balinese makers, will be burned along with the community’s fears at the close of the festival.

+ Friday 14 - Sunday 16 June

+ Wednesday 19 - Sunday 23 June, The Goods Shed, Macquarie Point, Hobart, 5-9pm, free

Parade around the waterfront in a massive communal ritual of purification and renewal, as we sacrifice our swift parrot-shaped ogoh-ogoh—and our fears with it—in a blazing forest of smoke, fire and noise.

+ Sunday 23 June, Parliament Lawns to Macquarie Point, 5pm, free.

Drive or take the MR-1 ferry from Hobart’s waterfront to Mona, to enjoy new exhibitions and subterranean museum space.

• SIMON DENNY

MINE | MUSEUM OF OLD AND NEW ART

A journey underground, into a theme park of mining, data collection and augmented reality.

Aotearoa-born artist Simon Denny represented New Zealand at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and at Mona during Dark Mofo, opens his biggest exhibition yet: a playful exploration into industrial mining–both natural resource and information data)

+ Opens: Saturday 8 June, 10am–8pm
                + Continues until Monday 13 April 2020

+ Museum of Old and New Art, 655 Main Rd, Berriedale
                + More info: media@mona.net.au

• SILOAM | MUSEUM OF OLD AND NEW ART

Long-awaited new tunnel network at Mona, containing works by Ai Weiwei, Alfredo Jaar, and Oliver Beer.

+ Wednesday–Monday, Mona, 10am–5pm, $28 / $25 museum entry, free for Tasmanians and under 18s.

Some artworks require an additional ticket.

Information included in this blog is correct at the time of publishing. Please contact individual operators for further information.