The Bay of Fires Winter Arts Festival is held over three days in June, and filled with art of all forms.

Festival committee secretary Stephen Jones said the event started about nine years ago, but had grown in popularity as a tourism event.

"[The festival] attracts about 2500 people in the St Helens area," he said.

"It generates a great deal of interest in the local community."

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However, for the first time in the history of the festival, the event will be officially opened by an Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country.

"[People from the Destination Action Plan] engaged people from the local Indigenous community [to take part]," Mr Jones said.

"They will open the festival for us ... at sunset on Friday.

"It's great to acknowledge [the Aboriginal people] and involve them in everything we do."

There are four components to the festival from an arts perspective, which include an arts prize, a youth prize, a local arts prize, and the Arts Trail.

The Art Prize is prestigious and comes with $20,000 in prize money for the winner. The category is open to anyone.

The Youth Art Prize is open to school students in Tasmania, and received more than 300 entries according to Mr Jones.

This year, a Local Art Prize was also introduced for those in the area from community feedback. The winner will receive $2500 in prize money.

The final component is the Arts Trail, which includes a map of artist studios that festival attendees can visit and purchase work from.

Another new attraction this year is the addition of Terrapin Puppet Theatre. The company will perform street theatre during the festival.

Mr Jones said the festival was also a big boom for local businesses in the community.

"Really everyone in the community benefits from [the art festival] one way or the other," he said.

"[The festival] just gives people an added incentive to come to St Helens for the long weekend."

Mr Jones said before Dark Mofo was around, the Bay of Fires Winter Arts Festival had been one of the few events to take place in winter.

The festival will be held from today until June 13. The art exhibits will remain in place for a few weeks after the event. For more visit bayoffireswinterartsfestival.com.au.

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