Womad festival takes root in Taranaki

Womad revellers basking under hot Taranaki sun yesterday rejoiced in the news that the biennial three-day music and art festival will remain centred at Brooklands in New Plymouth.

More than 10,000 people a day walked through the gates into the colourful festival enclave at Brooklands Park to enjoy a smorgasbord of global music, dance and art, and the weather came up trumps for organisers who had toiled on the preparations for more than a year.

Cloudless skies, hot sun and crisp clear nights made for superb viewing and listening, ensuring the eclectic mix of performances were enjoyed by large parts of the city as well as the wide-ranging audience. They included new-born babies and toddlers through to deck-chair-seated elderly patrons, Green MP Nandor Tanczos and New Plymouth mayor Peter Tennent.

Womad (World of Music, Arts and Dance) - officially launched by Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday night - featured more than 375 performers from 15 countries. The acts included Woodstock legend Richie Havens, the Grammy-award-winning Kronos Quartet, reggae star Alpha Blondy and his 16-piece band The Solar System, New Zealand's Katchafire, Los Angeles-based Ozomatli and Senegal-based Daara J with Zap Mama.

Communications manager Mark Jackson says indications that Taranaki would keep the festival for 2007 and beyond were exciting and satisfying for organisers. "We did have a lot of planning going on for this one to improve on the 2003 event," he said. "From the comments I've heard, our efforts have been very successful."

Thomas Brooman, who founded Womad in 1982 - has pledged that Taranaki will become a permanent festival venue because of its continuing success and local support.

He has praised the efforts of Womad New Zealand director Roger King, a descendant of Newton King, whose family gifted the land now known as Brooklands Park to the city in the 1920s.

Complete with an art and craft market, global food village, Te Paepae, workshops and the mesmerising efforts of the Osadia Hair-raising group from Spain, the festival was trouble-free for both police and ambulance staff - so much so that one patrolling bobby was seen shuffling to the left with the crowd while watching Daara J on Saturday night.

Planning for Womad 2006 will begin in earnest next year.