It was a scorching 36 degrees when I arrived at Womadelaide, the world music festival that brings huge headliners and lesser-known international artists to Adelaide’s Botanic Park Tainmuntilla during Mad March. It’s the time of year when – for reasons still unknown to me despite asking several locals about it – the city packs five major cultural events into a month, including Fringe, Writers' Week, Adelaide Festival and (vroom vroom) the Motorsport Festival.
But Womad, it seems, continues to better itself each year, while still managing to retain its barefoot-hippie credentials. Sure, I’ve never seen this many be-jazzled toes at a major festival before, but I’ve also never seen this much community at one either: multiple generations of the same family hanging out under the shade of towering River Red Gums. Punters voluntarily picking up stray litter. Strangers saying “g’day” to each other. Cynics be damned – peace and love on this scale is a beautiful thing in the world right now.
But the real beauty of Womad is this: in the age of streaming, when our tastes and festival lineups have become increasingly (and scarily) homogenised, the festival still has the power to surprise, and does a phenomenal job of giving indigenous artists from the Asia-Pacific region the kind of exposure they don’t typically get in Australia, yet so truly deserve. So, here are all the artists that surprised me over the long weekend.
Friday
On stage five near the Hackney Gate, the Pacific sounds of Chris Kamu’ana Rohoimae were a perfect entry point to the festival. “Do you like it?” asked after each song, sung in the Solomon Islands’ traditional Are-Are language. Yes, Chris, we sure do. Durand Jones & The Indications lit up the second stage with modern soul in the tradition of late greats Chris Bradley and Sharon Jones, while “black and proud” hip-hop crew 3% wasted no time working the crowd into a sweaty mass of waving hands.
A ghostly twilight performance made crystal clear why Bangarra is one of our most important contemporary dance companies. The cross-cultural collaboration between Bangarra alum Deborah Brown and Māori choreographer Moss Te Ururangi Patterson – titled The Light Inside – captivated on stage two. On the Foundation stage, British singer-songwriter PJ Harvey cemented her icon status on the mainstage with tracks from her recent-ish album I Inside the Old Year Dying. Then came the early-career hits: 50 Ft Queenie, Down by The Water and To Bring You My Love. Don’t be a stranger, Polly Jean.
Saturday
“What does it mean to be free in a world in which we have it all,” asked Majnun to a small but locked in crowd on Stage Five. The Senegalese artist invoked a “psycho-magical ritual” – one in which a guitar string broke, but didn’t deter from the magic of his percussive guitar-driven set. Though Fado phenomenon Mariza joked she was “dying of cold” in the afternoon sun, she brought plenty of Latin heat to the main stage, with a preview of her new album Amoré (“Amor-r-r-r-r-é”).
A tangle of PVC pipes on Stage Two turned out to be the secret weapon in Nana Benz du Togo’s rhythmic set, in which the West African quintet’s percussionist created both pitch and propulsion with his homemade setup. Papau New Guinean-Australian artist Ngaiire’s star continued to rise on the foundation stage, while Irish hitmaker Róisín Murphy took the crowd to dizzying heights with tracks from her aptly-named latest album, Hit Parade.
Sunday
The legendary Sun Ra Arkestra brought galactic jazz and septuagenarian acrobatics to the Foundation Stage, while Scottish trio Talisk performed an ecstatic set on stage three that sounded like a cross between a folky pub jam, Coldplay and a rave. Delgres slowed things down to bluesy stomp; the French power trio raged against global injustice with Creole lyrics backed by guitar and tuba.
Is there anything Yemi Alade – the undisputed superstar of Sunday night – can’t do? The Grammy-nominated Nigerian singer bounced effortless between old-school Afrobeat rhythms, modern pop sensibilities and a bang-on cover of Bob Marley’s One Love on the Foundation Stage. The sight of thousands of flashlights waving in the air while their owners sang “peace and love” at full volume was one to behold. The chaser was a synth odyssey by German composer Nils Frahm, who took to the second stage with more keyboard tech than the whole Saturday-Sunday line-up combined.
Monday
“Stay the fuck away from me,” sang singer-songwriter and Warnindhilyagwa woman Emily Wurramara, to a feverish crowd who roared it right back in the blazing afternoon sun. Southern Taiwanese singer Sauljaljui used traditional Paiwan melodies and a moon lute to hypnotise, while Digable Planets took the Foundation Stage to the stars on a jazzy cloud of hip-hop.
Hometown hero Elsy Wameyo flew the flag for Nairobi and Adelaide both, as she fused rap and melody with her absolutely shredding band The 254. Saharan rockers Etran de L’Aïr had the crowd jamming to Tuareg rhythms as Tainmuntilla’s bat colony took to the skies. And finally Khruangbin guitarist Mark Speer turned his amp up to 11, for the moment seemingly everyone had been waiting all weekend for. The effortlessly cool trio’s laid-back tunes carried a muscular show that proved you only need one guitar, an airtight rhythm section and a pair of wigs to conquer the world.
