Sounds from the culture club
November 6, 2009
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Karma chameleon … world-famous guru Ravi Shankar performs with his
sitar-playing daughter, Anoushka. Photo: AFP

World-class performers have built the reputation of Australia’s best
outdoor festival. Bruce Elder spreads out his picnic rug.

EVERYONE who has been to WOMADelaide knows it is simply the best
outdoor festival in Australia. A near-perfect marriage of a civilised
city, eclectic and exuberant music rarely performed in this country, a
deep commitment to celebrating multicultural diversity and a languid
and peaceful summer balminess.

Can there be anything more magical than an arc of huge Moreton Bay fig
trees spreading across a flat, grassy park at the edge of the Botanic
Gardens?

A night when the late-summer desert air that blows in to Adelaide is
still dry and balmy with just a hint of an ocean breeze to cool things
down. A friendly crowd sitting on rugs and lying on the dry grass and
performers from all over the world offering music that is always
exotic and, amazingly, always accessible.

WOMAD, an acronym for the World of Music and Dance, came into
existence in Britain in 1982 under the enthusiastic leadership of rock
singer Peter Gabriel. It was more than just a festival. A record
label, Real World, was launched and a commitment to music beyond
Western pop and rock – predominantly traditional music from the third
world enriched by first-world production technology – was established.

A decade later, after festivals in Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, Italy,
Canada and Japan, the WOMAD concept arrived in Australia. Initially it
was an adjunct to the Adelaide Arts Festival but it quickly became a
regular event. Since then, at first every two years and now annually,
it has spread itself over three days at the end of summer and although
the performers are often unknown to local audiences, it has never
disappointed.

Such has been the quality of the musicians that world music fans now
flock to Adelaide from all over Australia and New Zealand.

Next year marks the festival’s 18th anniversary and, as always, the
program offers an excess of tantalising live performances. The
highlight will be a farewell performance by 90-year-old Ravi Shankar,
who will be joined on stage by his sitar-playing daughter,
Anoushka. Other exotic delights include Eliades Ochoa from Cuba (he
was a star of the Buena Vista Social Club); the authentically
legendary Jamaican ska group the Skatalites; Jeff Lang’s world music
project Djan Djan, which sees Lang accompanied by Mali kora player
Mamadou Diabate and Mumbai tabla player Bobby Singh; the Kathakali
Dance Troupe from India, which will perform excerpts from the epic
poem The Mahabharata; Azerbaijan singer Gochag Askerov; and gypsy
fusion band Besh o droM from Hungary, who symbolically sum up the
richness of the weekend’s line-up by claiming their music is
influenced by Transylvanian, Jewish, Afghan, Egyptian, Lebanese,
Armenian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek tunes. And that is only a
taste of the dozens of acts scheduled to play during next year’s
four-day festival.

The music is always great but it is the lazy summer ambience, the
sense of passion and joy and human harmony that make WOMADelaide so
special. You feel optimistic and hopeful about the human race after
you’ve spent a weekend at this remarkable musical celebration.

WOMADelaide
WHEN March 5-8.
WHAT A festival of exotic-yet-accessible music from around the globe
entertains audiences over a long weekend at Botanic Park, North
Terrace, Adelaide.

INFORMATION See womadelaide.com.au.

au/travel/travel-feature/sounds-from-the-culture-c lub-20091104-hxmw.html