The first 18 groups for WOMADelaide's 2018 event have been announced.
The announcement includes talent from the UK, India, Jamaica, Mexico, France, Australia and beyond.
The 'queen of the sitar', Anoushka Shankar, will appear, Havana Meets Kingston will make their Australian premiere (featuring reggae duo Sly & Robbie), fiery guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela and saxophonist Kamasi Washington will make appearances too.
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Australian electronic group The Avalanches have also been announced for WOMADelaide along with veteran Ghanaian singer Pat Thomas and UK dub producer Adrian Sherwood.
"We are thrilled to be announcing this line-up of such amazingly talented and original artists for next year's festival," WOMADelaide Director Ian Scobie, AM says. "These artists – and the many more yet to be announced – represent some of the world's most dynamic musical traditions, all excitingly reinvented and celebrated."
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After three years, English site artists Architects of Air will also make a triumphant return with their kaleidoscopic, inflatable luminarium: Arboria.
WOMAD is an annual four-day festival of music, arts and dance, and is part of the WOMAD festivals organisation. WOMADelaide aims to excite, to create, to inform and to highlight awareness of the worth and potential of a multicultural society.
The event won the Helpmann Award for 'Best Contemporary Music Festival' in 2008' and 2016' and the Australian Event Awards 'Best Cultural, Arts or Music Event' in 2015, plus the Fowlers Live/ SA Music Awards 'Best Live Music Event' for 5 years in a row, 2012 - 2016.
Check out the 18 artists announced today below, in alphabetical order.
First WOMADelaide 2018 Line-Up
Adrian Sherwood - UKAnoushka Shankar - India/UK
Architects of Air “Arboria” - UK
The Avalanches - Australia
Bixiga 70 - Brazil
Chico Trujillo - Chile
Dan Sultan - Australia
Daymé Arocena - Cuba
Havana Meets Kingston - Cuba/Jamaica
Kamasi Washington – USA
Le Vent du Nord - Canada
Noura Mint Seymali - Mauritania
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band - Ghana
Rahim Alhaj Trio - Iraq
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Mexico
Tinariwen - Mali
Violons Barbares - France/Mongolia/Bulgaria
Yirrmal & the Miliyawutj Band - Australia
