Venue:
New Plymouth Botanical Gardens, North Island, New Zealand
Date: 13/03/2020
New Zealand is the first country of size to herald in the new year.This year it may have been the last country to host a music festival before the “great shutdown”.
Womad ,as most will know, is a world music festival started by Peter Gabriel et al to promote musics from around the world. I have attended the festival in Adelaide – Womadelaide, reasonably regularly for many years. The last coule were very hot,crowded and with the foot traffic and heat, very dusty. For an asthmatic like me I had had enough. The Womad caravan continues on to NZ after Adelaide so this year a group of us decided to make the trip “across the ditch” take in the festival and tour the north island as well.
Things were getting tight, with the virus hitting the northern hemisphere but down here it was the relative calm before the storm. So off we go!
First impressions- what a beautiful lush park and as we turn into the first staging area there is the perfectly formed Mt Taranaki- overlooking proceedings.It is very hilly, unlike the flat grasslands of Adelaide, which made it taxing when your preferred stages are at top and bottom of a major slope.
Very well-attended despite the virus fears, nary a mask in sight and plenty of spliff about in this chilled environment.
The centre piece is a big natural ampitheatre to a stage set back in a water body. Looked great but the added distance did detract from the connection between artists and audience.The usual Womad type stalls and plenty of kiwi wine available.
The programme is thinner than Adelaide, 3 days instead of 4, more local acts, exacerbated by some cancellations including a headliner Ziggy Marley – a big loss for this reggae loving country. OK on to the highlights.
Salif Keita – his valedictory tour. I have been a fan since Les Ambassadeurs but lost interest in recent years but this was great. Still in fine voice, cracking band featuring a kora player who did possibly the best solo bits on kora I have heard. Still in Mali the Trio Da Kali- voice ,balafon and ngoni. Best balafon I have heard. They have a record out with the Kronos Quartet and this was reproduced with a local string quartet. A bit underconfident at the start but still pretty damn good.
Mali again! Sekou Keita on kora and Catrin Finch from Wales on harp. Simply wonderful. Kora focusing on bottom end playing from the base of the strings and the harp at the top of the strings at the upper end. They have a couple of records out( both recommended) so they now mesh really well with their different rhythms.
India- the master violinist L Subramaniam, ever reliable, ever wonderful. My only complaint being the scheduling. He was put on in the hot part of the day whereas Womadelaide often schedules classical Indian music at dusk or late evening,often the lat act where you just lie back on the lawn,stare at the stars and soak it in.
Scotland – RURA Celtic fiddle, guitar, pipes and accordion. Wonderful stuff.
Britains jazz outfilt Ezra Collective were good as was Laura Marling though the was a bit too “small” solo on a big stage which probably caused so much talking.
Orquestra Akokan provided classic Cuban mambos and Flor De Toloache provided so Latino pop albeit a bit too saccharine at times.
New Zealand has a strong tradition in light soul and Soth Pacific reggae -lighter stuff than from the Caribbean. Troy Kinggiand L.A.B. provided the representation. Enjoyable without being too spectacular. There was a bunch of other stuff but I preferred to see artists that I liked twice than seek to consume the full smorgasbord.
So a pretty good festival, blessed by the weather nad just in a nick of time.
I will attempt to post some photos in the comments,
The audience:
Very Womad, young old, plenty of people of Maori origin, as far as I could tell, and considerate people. Kids climbing past would invariably say sorry or excuse me- remarkable.
It made me think..
Yep I reckon I will do this again, maybe head down to the South Island aftewards.
Junior Wells says
I hope these photo uploads work
Tiggerlion says
That’s an astonishing line up under the circumstances. Sounds wonderful. I’m glad you had a good time. Now, get yourself home, you old goat with underlying conditions, and stay there!
Junior Wells says
Thanks Tigger. I am in isolation. I’ve been tested and am clear.
Btw erratum. That should have been Kronos Quartet. I have asked Mods to amend.
Tiggerlion says
Good to hear it.
The line up gets even better!
Blue Boy says
Lovely review of what sounds like a great weekend. Some wonderful acts there. Salif Keita’s last, and supposedly final, album, was terrific. I agree about Catrin and Seikou – really excellent. Finch is doing all sorts of interesting stuff these days, pretty remarkable given her recent serious brush with cancer.
We haven’t been to Womad for some time and had resolved to make the trip to Charlton Park this year. Guess we’ll have to wait to 2021.
Junior Wells says
It is such a chilled event and when people say “but I have hardly heard of any of them”, my response is “well that is the point”.
Blue Boy says
Precisely – the joy of Womad is always in the discovery of something new, and the audience is the most open minded in that regard that I’ve ever come across.
thecheshirecat says
Quite so. A WOMAD is the great omission from my festival experience. When I arrive at a festival and start my military planning with the programme, it’s great to have some favourites, but the freedom of a festival is to be able to take risks without feeling that you might have wasted your money/your evening.
retropath2 says
Rura are great: one of the highlights of Cambridge last year. An earlier line up included the great singer songwriter Adam Holmes and so it is credit to them that, in his leaving and by not replacing him with another singer, they have become better still.
Junior Wells says
I wondered about the paucity of vocals.
Got any recommendations of the previous version of the band ?
retropath2 says
Debut, 2012s Break It Up was a cracker. Here’s a track, in which Holmes channels more John Martyn than you can shake a stick at.
His own albums, with the Embers, are good too.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Lovely.
Junior Wells says
Thanks Retro.
Vulpes Vulpes says
That’s the dampest mosh pit area I’ve ever seen, and I have done a few wet Glastos too.
P.S. Stunning photos @Junior-Wells, espesh the last one. Proper Mt. Doom jobbie!
thecheshirecat says
Got to admit, I struggle with his voice. It’s so deep sometimes, it reminds me of a 45 played at 33. (We are all old enough to understand that, aren’t we?) That said, many women of my age and acquaintance go weak at the knees at his voice, so what do I know?
aardvarknever says
The writer of the blog linked to below has posted some pieces on her recent NZ road trip.
https://uphilldowndale.wordpress.com/
dai says
Nice stuff. Hope there are more festivals at some point