By Paula Yeoman
Some have predicted the end of the golden age of the music festival and it’s not difficult to see why. There have been two major ones – Soulfest and the Echo Festival – canned in recent months. And any time one actually does go ahead, there’s always a bunch of angry chatter around about cost, underwhelming line-ups, sound quality, queues for the loo, lack of shade, lack of space and so on.
Yet there’s one stalwart amongst the bunch that never fails to disappoint, and that’s Womad.
It’s been held at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth for the last 12 years, and over the weekend it was confirmed that it’ll be there for at least the next three. It’s great news. In fact, it’s much more than that. It’s a sign of hope that there’s still plenty of mileage yet in well-run festivals.
The big hitters:
Topping my list of highlights at this year’s three-day event were New York hip-hop icons De La Soul closing on the main stage on Saturday night. Their set was as much of an education in music as it was a full-on party. “We’re not a rap group that likes to shoot up the club or pop champagne,” they told the crowd. And they demonstrated that with barely an expletive and without any mention of b****es or hoes. Their hits – Jenifa (Taught Me), Me Myself and I, Sunshine, Ring Ring Ring and A Roller Skating Jam named Saturday - were a reminder for those of us old enough to remember, and a lesson to those under 35, why De La Soul was such a groundbreaking force in the 1980s. The measure of any set on Womad’s main stage, which sits at a disconcerting distance from the audience, is how much energy a band can rouse from afar, and frontmen Pos and Dave are experts in the art of crowd participation. So much so, they fought off three stage invaders who braved the murky pond, no doubt prompting a speedy exit from the venue.
Round the world in three days:
Womad New Zealand has clearly made a concerted effort in recent years to reach beyond the ‘world music’ cliche with more mainstream acts like Kimbra in 2014, Sinead O’Connor in 2015 and De La Soul this year. But music from around the globe is still the beating heart of this festival and its magic is in the gems you stumble across. For me, this year’s gem was Orange Blossom, a French electronic group that draws heavily on Arabic influences. They kicked off with a small crowd, which had swelled to a heaving mass a third of the way in, as the band’s haunting vocals, dreamy violin and booming drums permeated throughout the top section of the park.
I sought out Dakhabrakha on Friday night and again on Sunday afternoon, after being mesmerized by the Ukranian quartet at a festival in Borneo in 2014. They were as good as they were back then. Wonderfully intense and dressed head-to-toe in traditional garb, they did justice to the ‘ethno-chaos’ label that publicity material attaches to them, as well as belting out a mighty fine cover of Kiwi band Concord Dawn’s Please Don’t Cry.
Probably one of the most highly anticipated acts this year was Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Their entrance on the main stage on Sunday evening was met with the weekend’s first significant shower of rain. It sent some scuttling for the exits, but those who stuck it out were rewarded with an hour and fifteen minutes of warm, velvety harmonies and a superb rendition of the song that made them world-famous, Paul Simon’s Homeless.
Also worthy of note were Songhoy Blues from Mali, whose lead singer gets the award for best dance moves of the festival, and Iranian sisters Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, who sang a lullaby so sweet and captivating at the Taste of the World tent, I almost found myself in a meditative trance.
Kiwis represent:
Womad New Zealand never fails to disappoint when it comes to its local line-up. The problem is you’re always going to opt to see an international act over a Kiwi one, because let’s face it, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get another chance to see acts that come from far-flung places. It meant I sacrificed seeing Tami Neilson for De La Soul on Saturday, and missed out on seeing her on the Sunday because I was too exhausted to last until her 10pm show time. I made up for that disappointment by enjoying the impeccable harmonies of Bic Runga and Tiny Ruins, who I never tire of seeing together as a duo, and the new and old tunes of Julia Deans with her talented new band, featuring Anna Coddington. Deans’ voice is as exquisite as it ever was and she delighted the crowd with some of her new material, which included the spine-tingling title track from her upcoming second solo album, We Light Fire.
Newshub.
