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It's no secret that Tasmania is home to picturesque views, delectable food and known to artists as a hive of creativity.
But scratch beneath the surface of the island state, and a treasure trove of the weird and wonderful will emerge.
Tasmanians are tumbling down the rabbit hole of the Ten Days On The Island Festival which has blasted off, literally.
To kick off the event, 30,000 tonnes of rock was blasted at a local quarry for the benefit of Netherlands performance artist Nick Steur.
Steur takes life's balancing act extremely seriously and is creating "impossible sculptures" by stacking rocks on top of each other.
"The audience is invited to watch me improvise with the stones that they give me," he said.
Steur said his bizarre talent started when he was six, when he would collect and balance rocks on the riverside with his mother.
But Steur isn't the only Norwegian act gracing Tasmanian shores.
MONA's (Museum of Old and New Art) winter festival Dark Mofo will see a band of Vikings entertain crowds in June as they showcase the "experimental, progressive and unpredictable styling's of black metal" by combining rock, electronic, chamber music among other genres.
Ulver is the first act to be announced for the festival — which celebrates the dark through large-scale public art, food, film, music, light and noise.
Toward the end of the festival, hundreds of nude swimmers take a chilly dip in the River Derwent to celebrate the winter solstice.
Last year, about nearly 700 people turned out to plunge into the water at Long Beach.
As temperatures dropped to 12 degrees Celsius, the brave and bare-bodied gallop into the water wearing only festival-issue red swimming caps.
The state's reputation for excellent food and produce is on show throughout the year.
First-date-goers are warned to avoid Tasmania's Garlic Festival, in the south east, which celebrates the "joy of garlic" over a whole weekend.
A similar event running this weekend in the north includes tomatoes, with a competition challenging participants to see who can stuff the highest number in their mouths and still say "tomato".
A wild food festival is also running this weekend featuring barbecued witchetty grubs and chocolate crickets.
A little weird, but fun.
The island state is also home to events for animal lovers, who can enjoy the annual goat festival in the state's north or participate in racing ferrets at the annual Henley-on-Mersey Australia Day festivities in Latrobe.
If racing ferrets doesn't capture your attention, the streets of Evandale wind back the clock to pay homage to the days of penny farthings.
Tasmanians revel in their history and thousands turnout each year to watch athletic types make racing on the ungainly bikes look easy.
Stepping further back in time, locals and travellers alike enjoy the medieval musings of an annual Medieval Festival where jousting, armoured medieval sword combat and archery have people wishing for the days of old.
Armour anyone?
Topics: carnivals-and-festivals, events, arts-and-entertainment, games, animals, community-and-multicultural-festivals, tas
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