WOMADelaide 2018 Review @ Botanic Park

WOMADelaide 2018 (9-12 March) will inevitably be remembered as the year of the feathers.

On each of the festival’s four nights, aerial circus company Gratte Ciel dumped a thousand kilograms of duck feathers on Botanic Park as revellers danced in wonder beneath.

Angels zip-lined over the crowds and children made snow angels in the fluffy drifts. Though WOMADelaide was a victim of their own, high standards when the hour-long performance attracted criticism from some attendees for its potential environmental impact and non vegan-friendly nature.


Feathers littered the ground for the entire weekend and flurries of white swirled in the air long afterwards, lending a serendipitous beauty to TAO Dance Theater’s stunning performance.

Click here for more photos of WOMADelaide 2018.

In the first of two pieces, four dancers arrayed at compass points moved in unison to an a capella soundtrack of simple chants bouncing off and twisting around each other in a manner that was both melodic and percussive.

The physical vocabulary was equally compact without ever feeling repetitive and the result was utterly captivating.

While the crowd was seated and spellbound for TAO, Baker Boy elicited a far more energetic response. In his workshop, the former Djuki Mala dancer shared some of his moves with the audience, who had a chance to use them later in the day.


He ran through his small back catalogue and debuted a few new songs, switching between English and Yolngu Matha throughout the set, which included a remix of 'Treaty'.

That track also found its way into Yirrmal’s set along with 'Sunset Dreaming', which was a perfect vehicle for his plaintive voice. Neither MC could pronounce the name of his band, but The Milliyawutj didn’t let that bother them in the slightest, rocking out while the Yolngu youngblood looked as thrilled as anyone over the weekend to be sharing his music.

The conductor of the Manganiyar Seduction ran a close second, flashing his smile at the crowds on each night of the festival.

The music was thrilling, encompassing drones, devotional singing and duelling khartals (castanets), and the presentation was visually engaging in a way that a 37-piece Indian orchestra rarely is.

A four-storey structure separated the performers into cubicles that lit up when they joined in; this simple idea helped to make the performance very approachable, turning it into one of the highlights of the weekend.


Other memorable performances included the extended soul-jazz suites and blistering sax solos of Kamasi Washington (click here to read our review of Kamasi's recent Brisbane show), Anoushka Shankar’s hypnotic sitar ragas, the joyful highlife of Pat Thomas and the Kwashibu Area Band and Bixiga 70’s heavy funk horns and Afro-Brazilian beats that culminated in an epic conga line
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I also discovered Cie Bivouac’s Erica’s Dream. A blend of physical theatre, ballet, opera and acrobatic stunts, it conjures up a bewitching fairy-tale world that had me rooted to the spot.

It was a reminder that the festival takes over the entirety of Botanic Park and sometimes the highlights are as simple as relaxing in the shade with a cup of orange-blossom soft serve.

This year the heat made these moments of rest as important as ever, and by the final day it looked liked gangs of highwaymen were patrolling the grounds, bandannas and scarves pulled over faces to keep out the dust and feather detritus.

But none of these figures could match the visual aesthetic of Tinariwen (click here to read our March 2018 interview with the band), five enigmatic figures shrouded in robes of gold, indigo and white.

The desert blues pioneers’ music is as evocative as ever, a rich blend of sinuous guitar lines and understated percussion that doesn’t waste a beat.

Noura Mint Seymali’s commanding vocals and blazing psych-blues guitar mined a similar vein, but for the most part this year’s line-up was distinguished by the diversity of the line-up, one of the strongest ever.

The Instagram-friendly spectacle of Place Des Anges may have stolen the headlines, but it was just a tiny part of another incredible weekend and the memories will linger long after all of the feathers are washed away.

-Alexis Buxton-Collins

On an overcast Monday afternoon, Israel’s Victoria Hanna, while introducing her Aramaic hip hop track ‘22 Letters’, explained that according to Kabbalah’s Book of Creation, sound created the universe.

While that is a matter of faith, WOMADelaide in 2018 again demonstrated that no matter where we live, there is an essential and irrepressible need for sonic vibrations; to create them with our own bodies or to absorb them when emanated by others.

A Pounce of Funky Cats

With WOMAD’s strict timetable, encores are not commonplace. When LA’s Thundercat (click here to read our review of Thundercat's recent Brisbane show) sang “nobody move” while performing his set closing hit ‘Them Changes’, the audience took him literally; they demanded that he return for a rare two-song encore.

Armed with a fat bass guitar and soaring falsetto, the multi-instrumentalist was forgiven for keeping headliners Thievery Corporation (click here to read our review of Thievery's recent Melbourne show) waiting.

It was a funk-laden WOMAD this year, with Ghana’s Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band joyously unleashing five decades of African rhythm, while Ghanaian compatriot Jojo Abot demanded the energy of her afternoon audiences.

A Fit of Fiddles

Like the tale about the devil at the crossroads, there were many duelling fiddles across the four-day festival.

When walking towards Elephant Session’s (click here to read our recent interview with the band) Saturday afternoon set, the screams and stomping originating from the Moreton Bay stage crowd suggested there was a stampede of pachyderms on the loose.

While the jubilant Scots got toes tapping, they were outmatched by Quebec’s La Vent Du Nord, purveyors of their lumberjack romanticism; French folk drenched in maple syrup. Like Elephant Sessions, Adelaide’s Hana & Jessie-Lee combined fiddle and mandolin to great success.

You’re The Voice

Large ensembles are customary at WOMAD, but this year’s festival featured some of the biggest.

There was Mullumbimby’s 28-strong comic Russian choir Dustyesky and the orchestral heft of the 40 members of The Manganiyar Seduction.

Melbourne’s Mama Kin Spender, while notionally a two-piece, were joined for much of their set by Adelaide’s Gospo Collective, a gospel choir fresh from performing during the Fringe. The sound of interweaving voices is aurally mesmerising, but also serves a social function.

Mama Kin, during a choral workshop on the Sunday, related how singing in groups initiates a chemical response in the brain that assists in the formation of social bonds.

Both Mama Kin and Dustyevsky presided over massive audience sing-alongs, and the joy was palpable on both occasions.


Dustyesky were one of the surprises of this year’s event, as they merged the humour of Sacha Baron-Cohen’s Borat with solemn Russian folk songs.

At a festival that embraces cultural diversity, it was perhaps a bold move to programme an act that perpetuates cultural stereotypes with jokes about tractors and vodka drinking.

Dustyesky’s satirical blowtorch was, however, aimed in all directions; they incisively poked fun at the bespectacled, white-wine drinking bourgeoisie that were seated before them and who comprise a fair percentage of the festival’s demographic. It was all in good fun.

Click here for more photos of WOMADelaide 2018.

True Blue Australiana

Tex Perkins, while performing with Tex, Don and Charlie, joked that they were featured on the bill because of their one, samba-inspired track.

WOMAdelaide has always proudly provided a platform for emerging and established local artists, including indigenous artists such as Baker Boy and Dan Sultan.


Sultan, like Tex, delivered a heavily country-tinged set; both were dressed in the Johnny Cash style: tight, black t-shirts and dark sunglasses.

With his trademark husk, Tex proclaimed that he was another John’s heir apparent: John Williamson. He then delivered the devastating ‘A Man In Conflict With Nature’; a song about blowing greyhound winnings on prostitutes and a Japanese dinner.

While Tex’s lyrics seemed to indicate that he is staring down a mighty mid-life crisis, Warrnambool’s Didirri was almost as world weary at 22 years of age. An old soul that is prematurely astute, he imparted his wisdom on heartbreak, illness and existential despair.

Dressed in a Marge Simpson t-shirt, short denim jeans, rainbow socks and work boots, he triumphed with his stunning rendition of ‘Jude’, a track partially inspired by the sage advice of his autistic older brother. As a solitary figure on stage, he captivated the crowd of youngsters and fruit bats.

Stairway to Heaven or Icarus’ Descent?

This year’s event, rightly or wrongly, has been defined by Gratte Ciel’s ‘Place des Anges’, an aerial ballet featuring awe-inspiring bravery, joyous choreography and a flock of duck feathers.

To watch the performers dangle and hang from stratospheric heights was to induce a realisation of just how small we are in the ultimate scheme of things. Each night, after the plumage-filled grand finale, almost every inch of the expansive Botanical Gardens showed evidence of the feathery snow.

It was a work that undoubtedly inspired jubilation in the hearts of thousands while simultaneously attracting the ire of animal rights activists and allergy sufferers alike.

Since its inception, WOMAdelaide has bravely taken risks, both artistically and with their festival design. 2018, for example, saw the banning of smoking in most areas and the introduction of reusable water bottles and cups at bars.

To criticise any single component of the festival is to be blinded by all the joy and awareness that this annual extravaganza brings on the whole.

Once the feathers and dust have settled, most will agree that this was another successful event which broadened the horizons of 96,000 global citizens.

-James Murphy