Stella Alburguerque, right, with band mates Te Rau Oriwa, left, and Moana Ete from the arts company Le Moana.
Stella Alburguerque, right, with band mates Te Rau Oriwa, left, and Moana Ete from the arts company Le Moana.
The flags are up and the stages ready as Womad returns to Brooklands Park in New Plymouth on Friday night after two years of Covid-forced cancellations.
This year, the festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Womad has become a Taranaki institution with many fans of the world of music and dance festival attending year after year, and it was much missed during the pandemic.
Event director Suzanne Porter said it was amazing to be back.
“It’s awesome after a two-year break and one year of trying to get it there last year, and then the hurdle at the last fence and not getting it over the line, so it’s just great to have our artists back on our turf.”
She was proud of reaching the 20th anniversary mark.
“It’s no mean feat. It is the smallest city in the world to do a Womad. The next smallest is a million people in Adelaide, so you know it is really quite a big thing for our city and our region.”
Womad International director Chris Smith was not surprised the Taranaki festival had lasted so long.
“As soon as you see the venue and as soon as you feel the passion for what this is in the town, you know it’s going to be fine. It works really well,” Smith said.
“A lot of our festivals around the world work in communities not dissimilar to this, possibly bigger,” he said.
“So, I think Womad works in these tighter communities because it is something that is super special and I think people value it.”
Alain Oyono, a saxophonist for Senegalese headliners Youssou N’dour, was relieved to be back touring.
Alain Oyono with members of Youssou Ndour's band.
“You know for the musicians like us, we spent two years or three very badly, especially in Africa, it was very hard,” Oyono said.
“And now to come like this is an honour for us and is also a big pleasure to meet the people. It’s so wonderful.”
Michel Winter, part of Romanian group Taraf De Caliu, was expecting to get people dancing.
“So you know you have violin, cimbalom, double bass, accordion. It’s typical music from the Balkans and it can be music to listen to, but it is also wedding music, for parties, people dancing. It’s not rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s not too far.”
UK guitarist Justin Adams.
“The only problem is [the New Plymouth festival is] very, very far. Why you so far? Come closer. No, but it’s a real nice country, we love it.”
Stella Alburguerque is a dancer with Wellington-based arts company Le Moana, which specialises in telling Pasifika stories.
“It’s Pasifika dance, it’s a lot of siva Samoa a lot of different cultures from the Pacific joined together, but mainly Samoan culture and it’s really beautiful, it’s a beautiful show.”
She was overwhelmed to be performing at Womad.
“It’s amazing, I’m blown away to have the opportunity to do this.”
UK guitarist Justin Adams has played with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Sinead O’Connor.
This weekend, he will appear with Italian Mario Durante.
“It’s a very exciting form of trance music, so just the two of us, I play electric guitar and he plays these big framed drums, he also [plays the] violin and sings and we make some music that no one else makes.”
Looking for some tips of who to see? Perhaps event director Porter can help?
“I think Cimafunk is going to be pretty interesting, Sampa the Great and Fantastic Negrito. I mean it’s just an eclectic line-up again and you go there for discovery. Find an artist you didn’t already know, that’s what always happened for me.”
Womad runs until Sunday night and tickets are still available
