What's on winter 2022 - events

Tasmania's Off Season is open to just about anything

During winter, Tasmania fires up. Any time of the year is a fine time to visit – but the Off Season is when things get wild, weird, and wonderful. It's a time to gather around blazing log fires and slow-cooked feasts, to plunge into festivals and dance wildly, talk long into the night and dream deeply.

Tasmania’s Off Season returns again in 2022. Across the state, tourism businesses join the celebrations with unique and creative winter offers and experiences, only available during the cooler months. Visitors can dive into nature, stoke their creative fires, let their inhibitions drop with the mercury or just get cosy – the Off Season is open to just about anything.

Festivals weave their way across the state. Hobart's annual winter festival Dark Mofo (8–22 June) will be at its unconventional best. Look forward to large-scale installations and obscure (and not-so-obscure) performances. Then there's the burning of the ‘ogoh ogoh’ and feasts of fine local food. Tasmanian craft beer, cider, wine, whisky, and gin fuel the revelry – a cacophony of music and sound, topped-off by a bracing nude solstice swim in the River Derwent.

The sounds of choirs fill Hobart’s winter skies during the two-week Festival of Voices (1–10 July). Further south, the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest (15–17 July) is an offbeat celebration of pagan rituals and nature’s bounty. Look forward to hot cider, towering bonfires, ‘wassailing’ to banish evil spirits from the apple orchards and raucous sing-alongs.

In Launceston – a UNESCO 'Creative City of Gastronomy' – agriCULTURED (4–7 August)  takes foodies on a journey through Tasmania's agricultural landscapes, with plenty of good things to eat and drink.

Warm up with some single-malt at Tasmanian Whisky Week (8–14 August), sharing Tasmania’s passion for whisky and spirits. The flagship event, the Tasmanian Spirit Showcase, happens on the Hobart waterfront.

As winter draws to a close, the Winter Light Festival (11–21 August) at Hobart’s Salamanca Arts Centre shifts the focus back towards the returning sun. Music, theatre, dance, film, cabaret… It's the Off Season in motion.

For more Off Season celebrations and events, check out the What’s On in Winter guide.

When the summer crowds dissipate, Tasmania’s wild places take on an otherworldly atmosphere. Winter is a great time to go exploring.

On the east coast, the Aboriginal-owned and led wukalina Walk takes hikers on an odyssey through the larapuna / Bay of Fires area, celebrating living palawa culture. Over two nights, walkers engage with cultural activities, bush tucker and storytelling – an immersive experience amidst wild coastal landscapes.

Under clear winter skies, Walk on kunanyi runs stargazing tours on the flanks of Hobart’s very own mountain. Guides from the Astronomical Society of Tasmania point telescopes towards galaxies far, far away.

In the north, Ben Lomond Snowsports takes you up the hairpin bends of Jacob's Ladder into lofty Ben Lomond National Park, for a day of skiing, tobogganing and snowy revelry. Tasmania's winter mountaintops are anything but chill.

Off Season is also when Tasmania’s oysters and scallops are at their most succulent. Visitors can shuck a dozen at Blue Lagoon Oysters near Dunalley, or cruise to a remote east-coast beach with Tasmanian Expedition Cruises for an oyster masterclass. And don’t miss a curried scallop pie while you’re here – Tasmania’s unofficial (and fabulously ugly) state dish.

For more Off Season natural inspiration, check out the Rewild Yourself in Nature guide.

Winter in Tasmania is also a chance to stoke your creative fires. Get hands-on with cooking lessons, ceramics classes, singing workshops, writing sessions… special Off Season experiences provide the spark.

Down at Deep Bay south of Hobart, shake off the winter chills alongside the glowing kiln at Bronwyn Clarke Ceramics. Making pottery is an ancient, meditative art – and ‘throwing’ on a potter’s wheel is harder than it looks.

Continuing the ceramics theme, Campo de Flori Farm at nearby Glen Huon offers the chance to learn about raku firing techniques and dazzling ceramic glazes.

Winter cooking classes abound: the Farmhouse Kitchen in the Huon Valley will nourish body and soul with a generous southern Italian cooking class.

In Spreyton in the north west, open the door to the rich aroma of leather at Simon Martin Whips and Leathercraft. The makers here can help Off Season wanderers craft their own leathery memento.

In Launceston, walk into the fiery world of Glass Manifesto. Visitors can learn how to turn molten glass into beautiful beads.

Out on Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula, view the Three Capes Lodge Walk and the Aurora Australis through a camera lens on a ‘Nature and Night Photography’ experience.

Here are some more ways to spark creativity this Off Season. It’ll warm your heart and stir your soul.

The Off Season campaign commenced on Sunday, 17 April. Bookings are available for Off Season experiences via the campaign website for travel between 1 June and 31 August 2022.

Visit: discovertasmania.com.au/off-season