It's the final Dark Mofo for founding creative director Leigh Carmichael after a decade at the helm.
In the days before the opening on Thursday he's been "putting out spot fires" and seems a little frazzled - with a festival like Dark Mofo, one can only wonder what those fires might be.
The often controversial event, held in the depths of Hobart winter, is an entirely different beast to when it started in 2013.
At first, Carmichael and MONA's David Walsh merely wanted to see if a winter arts event could entice Hobartians out of their homes.
Now with a 2023 budget of $15 million, 550 staff and 220 artists, Dark Mofo attracts artlovers from all over the world - and with that comes expectations.
"It's just turned into this monster that needs to be fed," Carmichael told AAP.
With the appointment of Chris Twite as new artistic director, feeding the Dark Mofo monster won't be Carmichael's problem any more - but its future may look quite different.
While many of this year's events have sold out and box office is back to pre-pandemic levels, the 2023 budget has overrun due to inflation and the costs of flying in international artists.
"We're facing a situation where we're going to need more money or we're going to have to reduce the scale and scope of the festival," Carmichael said.
Then there are challenges that aren't about cash - Dark Mofo is well known for inviting controversy with artworks that are confronting or even offensive.
In 2017, animal activists protested against a performance art piece in which participants writhed in the entrails of a slaughtered bull.
The following year, religious figures called for the removal of inverted Christian crosses that had been installed around Hobart.
And two years ago, public outrage prompted Carmichael to cancel the artwork Union Flag by Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, which would have seen a British flag soaked in blood donated by Indigenous people from British colonies.
Presenting difficult work is in the festival's DNA, Carmichael said, but it's a job that's become much harder - cancel culture wasn't around ten years ago.
"From a personal point of view I feel like I would do it all again, but the lessons we've learned have been really valuable," he said.
The Union Flag controversy was nasty and personal, and had him wondering if the artworks the festival has built its reputation on are too divisive.
It's not something he has the answer for, although Dark Mofo has gained some breathing space in other ways.
In 2021 it stopped all private sponsorship other than its core backer David Walsh, to ensure the demands of corporate sponsors wouldn't blunt its edge.
Although it hasn't helped the balance sheet, it's a move that now seems prescient given the recent pressures on the Perth Festival and Adelaide Writers' Week.
There are other kinds of bravery too.
Carmichael promises that even though he's no longer in charge, he will still immerse himself in the icy waters of the Derwent for the festival's traditional nude winter solstice swim.
Well, maybe not every year. But as he describes the exhilaration of the swim, enthusiasm momentarily overcomes his pre-festival fatigue.
"It's a bunch of adults having a joyous moment together, feeling like we're all young again - it's so refreshing."
Dark Mofo returns from June 8-22.
