When attending WOMADelaide, it can be difficult to navigate the line-up.
While there may be those festival goers content to stumble across something palatable to the ear or visually enticing as they traverse Botanic Park, there is always going to be a degree of FOMO. Here is a handful of recommendations for the upcoming WOMADelaide. A common line is that all these artists to some degree defy ultimate categorisation, making them perfect choices for inclusion in this or any year's WOMADelaide line-up.
The Lofty Mountain Band
Previously appearing at WOMADelaide with the False Idols, Max Savage and his band return this year with their current musical project The Lofty Mountain Band and a predominantly acoustic bluegrass sound.Max has honed his musical skills over many years fronting several iterations of the False Idols and has had high profile exposure to larger audiences at the Clipsal 500 and appearances at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
The use of one of his songs ('Oh Darlin') in an internationally award-winning television commercial used to promote the Adelaide Hills (The Land of the Long Lunch), unfortunately has had little impact upon Max's profile and he still has not yet gained the level of attention he duly deserves. This is acknowledged by the band's own bio describing them as 'beloved by fans and relatively unknown beyond their home town of Adelaide'.
The Lofty Mountain Band play Zoo Stage on 9 March.
Bonny Light Horseman
With each member having impressive musical credentials in their own right, Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman performed initially at the 2018 Eaux De Claires festival and the connection between the three guitarists was immediate.With no preconceived notions, their collaboration continued in a week-long residency in Berlin during which, they made the recordings that formed the basis of their self-titled debut. Their early, tentative, exploratory interpretations of traditional folk songs originating from the British Isles gave way to their own collaborative compositions on the 'Rolling Golden Holy' album and across last year's latest release, 'Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free' compiled from sessions primarily performed live in the Levis Corner House in Cork, Ireland.
This double album is a fair representation of the band from the relative intimacy of their traditional folk beginnings to an expansive full band sound with other band members JT Bates on drums and Cameron Ralston on bass.
Bonny Light Horseman play Stage 3 on 10 March.
John Grant
"There are no second acts in American lives," according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, but that does not apply to John Grant's career trajectory. John is now long sober after coming out of an admitted period of self-destructive behaviour involving drug and alcohol abuse contemporary with his fronting the underrated The Czars.He was coaxed out of the doldrums following a retirement from music and assisted by fellow musical travellers Midlake, releasing his solo debut 'Queen Of Denmark' in 2010.
Overcoming dysfunction and taking responsibility are recurring tenets in his work over the course of six albums, a somewhat autobiographical musical distillation of '70s album-oriented rock ballads and early '80s synth, new wave and industrial culminating in the markedly confessional lyrics and cinematic synthesizer soundscapes predominant on 'The Art Of The Lie'.
John Grant performs at Stage 3 on 8 March and Stage 2 on 9 March.
Nils Frahm
Inspired by the jazz and classical releases of the ECM Records label to which his father contributed photography, Nils Frahm started out wanting to play like master improviser Keith Jarrett.While Nils is primarily a keyboard-based artist, to think of him as a pianist would be reductive. He employs a performative approach to composition that involves a degree of trial and error and over time, over many hours of performance, his improvisational exploratory exercises bear fruit.
Key to his 'sound' is his technique of micing prepared or treated piano and his use of vintage analog synthesizers. His layered, textured musical pieces range from minimalist solo piano to pulsating electronica, and his live performances are often hypnotic and mesmerising.
Nils Frahm performs at Stage 2 on 9 March.
Shabaka
A proponent of the London jazz scene from which previous WOMADelaide performers Youssef Dayes and Ezra Collective emerged, Shabaka Hutchings spent a formative time with the London Free Improvised Orchestra prior to success concurrently leading Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, bands firmly routed in the field of jazz improvisation, but whose styles encompassed reggae, Afrobeat and drill.Shabaka strives to break free from the preconceived limitations of genre and sees jazz not as a style or category, but as an approach to creativity. In recent years he has graduated from playing saxophone, the instrument for which he has primarily been known heretofore, to Japanese bamboo flutes and embarked on an exploration of the quieter dynamics of music with his latest album 'Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace', an intimate, minimalist, collaborative endeavour.
Shabaka performs at Stage 3 on 10 March.
Sun Ra Arkestra
In simple terms, Sun Ra Arkestra are an African-American avant-garde big band. Former band leader, the deliberately enigmatic Sun Ra, maintained his loyal band of revolving musicians for over 40 years before he departed our planet in 1993, and his music and legacy have endured in every incarnation of the band since.Not quite outsider music but having an early DIY aesthetic, the big band tradition is the launchpad from which to take experimental, otherworldly musical excursions. A balance is maintained between the traditional and experimental in order to honour the musicians that came before them.
Infused with spirituality, their set is a joyous celebration, a virtual history lesson in big band music from the beginnings of jazz through bebop and 'the new thing' (free jazz) to the modern era.
Although it's fair to say these artists and band defy categorisation and transcend genre or 'branding', defining them is ultimately a problematic endeavour. The solution is to add them to your WOMADelaide itinerary and experience their performances live for yourself.
Sun Ra Arkestra play Foundation Stage on 9 March.
WOMADelaide is on at Botanic Park (Adelaide) from 7-10 March, 2025.
WOMADelaide Second 2025 Line-Up
Amaru Tribe (Aus)Ane Ta Abia by Aaron Choulai, Australian Art Orchestra and Tatana Village Choir (Aus/PNG)
Bess Atwell (UK)
Bousta (Aus)
Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (Aus)
The Cloud Maker (Aus/NZ)
Dear Stranger by Tilda Cobham-Hervey (Aus)
DEVAURA (NZ/Aus)
Digable Planets (USA)
Dojo Rise (Aus)
Dustyn (Aus)
Elisapie (Canada)
ilotopie – Les Gens de Couleur (France)
Kara Manansala (Aus)
Meena De Silva (Sri Lanka/Aus)
Ms Chipeta (Aus)
Nana Benz du Togo (Togo)
O. (UK)
Owelu Dreamhouse (Aus)
Protoje & The Indiggnation (Jamaica)
Saigon Soul Revival (Vietnam)
Sauljaljui (Taiwan)
Sofia Kourtesis (Peru)
TEK TEK Ensemble (Aus)
Yemi Alade (Nigeria)
WOMADelaide 2025 First Line-Up
3% (Aus)47SOUL (Palestine/Jordan)
Ana Carla Maza (Cuba)
Andrew Gurruwiwi Band (Aus)
Bala Desejo (Brazil)
Bangarra Dance Theatre – The Light Inside (Aus)
Bonny Light Horseman (USA)
Chris Kamu’ana Rohoimae - Pacific Break winner (Solomon Islands)
Cie Paris Benares - Chamôh (Camel) (France)
Delgres (France)
DJ Paulette (UK)
Dream Engine – Heliosphere (UK)
Duo Ruut (Estonia)
Durand Jones & The Indications (USA)
Ela Minus (Colombia)
Eleanor Jawurlngali – (Aus)
Elsy Wameyo (Kenya)
Emily Wurramara – (Aus)
Etran de l'Aïr (Niger)
Goran Bregović & His Wedding & Funeral Band (Serbia)
Hewa Rwanda (Rwanda/Senegal)
John Grant (USA)
The Joy (South Africa)
Khruangbin (USA)
Lindigo (Réunion)
The Lofty Mountain Band (Aus)
Majnun (Senegal)
The Mande Spirit (Aus)
Mariza (Portugal)
Miss Kanina (Aus)
Ngaiire (PNG/Aus)
Nils Frahm (Germany)
Nitin Sawhney (UK)
Norsicaa (UK/Aus)
O.TA.I.KO ZA MYOJIN (Japan)
PJ Harvey (UK)
Queen Omega (Trinidad & Tobago)
Restless Dance Theatre – Seeing Through Darkness (Aus)
Róisín Murphy (Ireland)
Satish Vyas & U Rajesh (India)
Shabaka (UK)
Silent Observers (Aus)
Sun Ra Arkestra (USA)
Talisk (Scotland)
Trio da Kali (Mali)
UPK Allstars (Aus)
Wrong Way Up (South Sudan/Aus)
Yoann Bourgeois Art Company - The unreachable suspension point (France)
