Dreaming of escaping to the tropics this winter, but your circumstances just won’t allow it?
No problems. Amba Rose of Ground Roots Entertainment will have you sipping from a coconut as you dance with sand between your toes beneath the sway of exotic trees at Winter Island Festival, conveniently located in the Adelaide CBD at The Producers Bar, as part of the Umbrella: Winter City Sounds programme.
No jet lag. No malaria. No sunburn. But plenty of funky rhythms as Amba explains. “The idea is to transport the audience to a tropical oasis kind of vibe. We’re going to have sand on the dancefloor, plenty of palm trees, funky cocktails and a epic line-up of world, Afro funk, roots music.”
Melbourne’s Lamine Sonko & The African Intelligence – a ten-piece ensemble that has delighted audiences as they have traversed the Australian festival circuit including Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2016 and WOMADelaide earlier this year – will headline the event.
Amba raves about The African Intelligence's performance in the Botanic Gardens this summer, where they unleashed their fusion of West African roots, jazz, funk and reggae. “They did an amazing show, [at WOMADelaide]. Really set the dancefloor on fire.”
Along with Lamine Sanko and the African Intelligence, fellow Melburnites Kooyeh will be bringing the island reggae vibes. Queenslanders and festival favourites will be delivering a huge end to the night with their addictive blend of Afro Cuban, flamenco and electronic energetic performance.
The Adelaide roots and funk scene will be heavily represented too, with Abbey Howlett, Anth Wendt and Local Revolution all performing, the latter featuring Amba on backing vocals.
African Intelligence and Local Revolution cite Fela Kuti as one inspiration, but both are an amalgamation of a diverse array of global influences. Winter Island Festival will be an immense assembly of brass, woodwind and percussive instruments that is usually only seen during WOMAD.
Like WOMAD, the Winter Island Festival is more than just a live-band experience. “In the front room there’s going to be market stalls, a market bazaar kind of thing. There will be food stalls and maybe even a few food trucks out the front. “There’s also going to be DJs in the beer garden outside in between the main acts," Amba says.
The event takes place on the opening night of Umbrella: Winter City Sounds. Amba is excited about the live music transformation that will commence in Adelaide mid-July. “The winter’s going to be pretty lively this July.”
Winter Island Festival takes place at The Producers Bar (Adelaide) 14 July.
