It's Tasmanian
for winter

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The Off Season

A winter festival for curious adults Smart, surprising, and seriously entertaining: Beaker Street Festival is bringing its signature mix of science, art, and connection back to Lutruwita/Tasmania this August. Beaker Street Festival is Tasmania's annual celebration of science and culture. This year, the Festival takes place 6 to 17 August, with a Nipaluna/Hobart hub as well as events around the state. It's also their 10th birthday, so expect an even bigger party than usual! For two weeks, Beaker Street Festival brings scientists, artists, musicians, chefs, storytellers, adventurers, and audiences together for a program of talks, performances, field trips, workshops, food experiences, live music, nightlife, and large-scale public events. It's one of Australia's most distinctive winter festivals: playful, thought-provoking, social, and deeply connected to Tasmania's landscapes, creativity, and scientific culture.

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The Off Season

Chocolate Winterfest is Latrobe's wickedly delicious festival celebrating all things chocolate. It is no coincidence that the Latin name for cocoa, from which chocolate is made, translates as "food of the gods". Some cultures even valued chocolate more than gold, and who could blame them. Just the mere mention of chocolate turns heads and that's what Chocolate Winterfest, Latrobe will do to you. Chocolate Winterfest, Latrobe will indulge, inform, astound, amuse but above all celebrate chocolate as you escape from the bleakness of winter. Be indulged by events individually or successively as you immerse in this chocolate experience. Don't deny one of life's pleasures - join them at Latrobe on the central northern coast of Tasmania for this unique celebration.

The Off Season

Unwind is a winter wellness festival in Launceston, inviting you to slow down, warm up (or cool down!) and truly relax. Across ten days, the city becomes a sanctuary of saunas, yoga, meditation, nourishing food, beauty rituals and nature experiences. Discover bite-sized workshops, indulgent treatments and introductory offers designed to help you reset during the darker months. Whether you're craving stillness, movement or connection, Unwind is your excuse to step away from the rush, breathe deeply and embrace Tasmania's cool-season magic.

The Off Season

A celebration of all things maritime, fishing, seafood and fine food more widely, accompanied by the best local beverages and an eclectic program of entertainment. Acknowledging the fishing and farming heritage of the North East with the nation's best wines on its doorstep. Coinciding with the start of the commercial scallop season in the depths of winter, what better reason to celebrate!

The Off Season

The Winter Challenge Tasmania is a community focused multisport event held on Tasmania's pristine east coast on the 16th August 2026. 1 - Multisport. Competitors will kayak in pristine east coast waters, road cycle along coastal roads from beach to beach, mountain bike through some amazing Tasmanian forest, and trail run along beautiful coastal terrain. 2 - Egg and Spoon Racing National Championships. An all-accessible, community focused event. Cold is temporary, Egg and Spoon glory is forever! The Winter Challenge Tasmania is a family friendly event.

Featured

The Off Season

Presented by Hadley's Orient Hotel, the Hadley's Art Prize, Hobart is an acquisitive Australian landscape prize, which offers $100,000 to the winning entry. Hadley's Orient Hotel has a long history with art starting with art-loving landlords in the late 1800s. The Hadley's Art Prize contributes to the art community, celebrates excellence in contemporary landscape art, promotes cultural tourism in Tasmania, and restores art to the historic walls of Hadley's Orient Hotel through a landscape prize similar to the competition won by Howard Hadley in 1895. Judged by a panel of art specialists, the prize is open to Australian artists over the age of eighteen working in two-dimensional media. Artists at all career stages are invited to enter.

The Off Season

Step Back in Time at the Heritage & Bullock Festival, an unforgettable celebration of tradition, craftsmanship and community spirit. Get ready to journey into the past as the much-loved Heritage & Bullock Festival returns, bringing the rich history of the region to life with a vibrant celebration of tradition, skill, and authentic rural culture. Set against the stunning backdrop of our historic village, the festival honours the legacy of the bullock teams that once powered Australia's early transport and timber industries. Central to the event are the magnificent bullock teams—led by Brian Fish—whose live demonstrations provide a rare and moving glimpse into a way of life that helped shape the country we know today. But the festival is more than just bullocks. Visitors can stroll through a bustling heritage village, where skilled artisans and craftspeople demonstrate and sell traditional trades—from blacksmithing and leatherwork, sandstone and enamelware. Each stall is carefully selected to reflect the festival's core values: heritage, craftsmanship, integrity, and authenticity. The festival begins with the Street Parade starting at 10.30am, making its way down High Street, led by the Scottish Pipes and Drums, with the bullock team, lion dancers, historic machinery, vintage vehicles, and community groups all on proud display. It's a colourful and nostalgic procession that captures the spirit of the festival and the pride of our region.

The Off Season

Old Church Painting Retreat in Campbell Town, Tasmania with Lee-Anne Peters You will focus your wanderings around the old St Michael's Church (1857) in King St, Campbell Town- a short walk from the workshop location. Here you can photograph and sketch out your ideas and inspirations to take back to the warm and open workshop space to map out your composition and plan on canvas. Exploring colour, shape, and lines, you will apply some layers of paint and - depending on your skill level and the time available, intricate detail can be added. Suitable for open-minded beginners, young adults, intermediate and advanced artists. Accommodation and meals are not included Sat 5 Sept 9.30am - 4.30pm (1hr lunch break) Sun 6 Sept 10am - 2pm Morning / afternoon tea provided. Payment: Pre bookings are essential. These materials are provided: a selection of paint brushes, acrylic paint, palette, pencil. Advice, tips, and support as you create Morning tea on Saturday and Sunday, Afternoon tea on Saturday

The Off Season

Some seeds need support to grow. What would you risk for a packet of Mi Goreng? Lachlan's out on bail from his youth detention centre but he's hungry, too. His life's about to change in less time than it takes to cook a packet of instant noodles. Saplings tells the story of four vulnerable young people who come face to face with Australia's youth justice system. Yani just wants to have some fun at the Easter Show and Lachlan wants his noodles; Shanika misses her mum and Kai's feeling lost and isolated by the world he inhabits. Hilarious and heartbreaking, Saplings sees four talented young actors take on multiple roles in this poetic, personal, and unexpected production that will leave you asking who's really to blame To create Saplings, playwright Hannah Belanszky (Yuwaalaray) and director Abbie-lee Lewis (Kalkadoon) met with young people in a series of workshops designed to give voice to those who have lived experience of the youth justice system. Soundtracked by original music from talented young artists, Saplings is raw, impassioned theatre. It asks how young people are meant to grow in a system that is designed to cut them down.

The Off Season

When the past loosens its grip, what must we face? In a quiet, suburban house, Kate is deeply in love. Her husband Steve is charming, intelligent, and volatile. Her mother Bess urges her to action, while Billie, her daughter, is watching closely, inheriting the silences that shape them. Over the course of one night and a lifetime of memory, Kate and her family navigate the fragile space between care and control, safety and longing, staying and leaving. Invisible threads bind them together; sometimes tender, sometimes tightening. Directed by Bindy Stephens and underscored by an original piano composition by Travis Hennessy, enough asks how we untangle ourselves from what we love, how we recognise when enough is enough, and what it takes to break a cycle without breaking ourselves or those we care for. Darkly funny, deeply human and achingly familiar, this powerful new work by Tasmanian playwright Gabrielle Adkins explores family, love and control, and the many meanings the word enough can hold at the threshold of change. "Its themes are important, its writing is skilled and authentic… 'enough' is a play with a captivating, lyrical beauty and imagination, delivered with courage, craft and skill." Jane Bodie, Playwright/Dramaturg