Dark Arts Festival WinterWild is returning over two weekends in August, bringing music, gourmet food and art installations to the rugged winter landscape of Apollo Bay.
With a hefty music program featuring Amyl and The Sniffers, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks and Kee’ahn, attendees can also expect local and internationally renowned artists in open-air performance art shows, cemetery tours conducted by the local historical society, Qigong, sunrise cold water immersions, and an ocean amphitheatre hosting a late-night water polo match with giant stingrays passing underneath.
Festival-goers will also be given the Wild Feast experience on the foreshore, with the Apollo Bay Fishermen’s Co-Op using cauldrons and open flames to cook fresh crayfish, abalone and scallops.
That’s not all in the world of food, though. WinterWild’s Contentious Buffet will combine Aphids new-era art style with Long Prawn’s creative food practice to create an exhilarating experience of theatrics and bug snacks.
The menu will feature items not for the faint-hearted, including a brown butter toast with Southern Rock lobster and fermented herbs, tempura cricket and preserved blood limes, and adventurous cricket profiteroles filled with Dooley’s icecream.
The festival program is designed to embrace the elements, from the ominous forest to the wild ocean and thick fog of the ‘Otway Blanket’ all celebrated as part of the festival.
"We’re stoked to be emerging from two years’ of hibernation with the biggest WinterWild yet," says Festival Director Bill Hurley Fraser.
"The unique nature of the Otway Coast has always been our guiding force, and every corner of this year’s vast festival program highlights that, showcasing some of Australia’s best musical talent, genre-bending performance art and incredible local produce cooked on beachside bonfires – all underpinned by the elements of the local environment at its extreme."
Dark Arts Festival WinterWild is returning to Apollo Bay on August 12-14 and August 26-28. For the full program and tickets, head to the WinterWild website.