Dark Mofo 2022 Resurrection wrap

Airport-Dark-Mofo-2022-photo-by-Rosie-HastieAnother thrilling Dark Mofo has come to a close in nipaluna/Hobart, with organisers buoyed by the community’s hearty support for the midwinter festival, which ran over 14 days with 45 ticketed performances and offered many free events and exhibitions.

“We are pleased with the results of this year’s festival – after surviving a challenging period, it’s nice to be back. This year we endured some uncertainty around Covid-related restrictions during planning, venue shortages, some staffing hurdles, and changes to programming with artists canceling travel due to ill-health,” said Dark Mofo Creative Director Leigh Carmichael.

“Somehow we managed to navigate all that and it’s a relief that the festival was able to be presented in full again. We thank the Tasmanian Government, Hobart City Council, all our key supporters and suppliers, all those who painted the town red, and most importantly our community, for having patience with us during the past few weeks,” added Mr Carmichael.

While adhering to venue capacity guidelines and safety protocols, nearly 72,000 tickets to Dark Mofo 2022 were sold, generating around $3.5 million. This included the festival’s most successful single ticketed event to date, The Kid LAROI performing at MyState Bank Arena, which sold more than 5,200 tickets.

“The support that the local community and interstate visitors have shown has meant so much to all of the hard-working staff at Dark Mofo, and encourages us to move forward next year with renewed enthusiasm. This year has been quite the resurrection,” said Drew Berridge, Dark Mofo Director of Marketing and Business.

Interstate ticket buyers accounted for 65% of all sales, and over 300,000 general entries were counted to festival venues overall.

The festival’s signature opening event, the Reclamation Walk, attracted about 5,000 people to walk with our First Nations community through the city, a huge increase on 3,000 in attendance at last year’s inaugural event.

The City of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast welcomed close to 23,000 people through its doors on its final night alone.

Ogoh-Ogoh-The-Burning-Dark-Mofo-2022-photo-by-Rémi-ChauvinThe Ogoh-ogoh Burning attracted a crowd of over 10,000 thrilled onlookers, who witnessed the giant Tasmanian Masked Owl sculpture being paraded aloft through the CBD streets, then set spectacularly alight, purging their fears with fire, and accounting for another huge increase on around 8,000 attendees last year. A significant heft of fears expunged.

The festival’s most attended artwork was the charming Rainbow Dream: Moon Rainbow installation by artist Hiromi Tango in collaboration with neuroscientist Dr Emma Burrows, attracting more than 23,000 patrons to the exhibition space across the festival period.

And for the festival’s closing ceremony, more than 2000 brave souls plunged into the chilly River Derwent to welcome back the sun after the longest night of the year, at the Nude Solstice Swim on Wednesday 22 June 2022.

“Congratulations to DarkLab on yet another spectacular program of Dark Mofo events,” said Madeleine Ogilvie, Minister for Small Business. “This year’s event has been another success story for our economy, enticing locals out of their homes while attracting visitors to the State in the traditionally quiet winter months.

“The Government and Dark Mofo share the vision for Tasmania to be a world-leading destination of choice for both national and international visitors, and I look forward to the event continuing for many years to come,” said Ms Ogilvie.

Dark Mofo 2022’s fundraising efforts achieved more than $130,600 for Voices for Children – a charity providing support assistance to Ukrainian children and families affected by the current Russian invasion.


The dates for Dark Mofo 2023 will be announced later this year. For more information, visit: www.darkmofo.net.au for details.

Images: Airport, Dark Mofo 2022 – photo by Rosie Hastie | Ogoh Ogoh: The Burning, Dark Mofo, 2022 – photo by Rémi Chauvin | Images courtesy of Dark Mofo 2022