There was loads to be involved about within the lead as much as this 12 months’s WOMADelaide pageant. There was the looming prospect of a heatwave, reminiscences of final 12 months’s overcrowding points, and, within the days earlier than the gates opened, the controversy surrounding Palestinian band 47SOUL being uninvited from the pageant.
As soon as by means of the gates, nevertheless, these considerations started fading into the background as 4 days of music and humanities unfolded.
Angelique Kidjo performs at WOMADelaide 2024.Credit score: Jack Fenby
The pageant’s program had some last-minute shifts and adjustments on account of excessive warmth. With temperatures near 40 levels every day, one stage remained closed throughout daylight and a number of other performances have been relocated, postponed or cancelled.
Thankfully, after document attendances in 2023 stretched services (and viewers consolation) to their limits, the pageant structure was redesigned this 12 months to open up extra space and shade. Suspended hoses sprayed cool mists at varied places, for the profit not solely of human guests, however the hundreds of fruit bats that reside in Adelaide’s Botanic Park.
Just like the heat-stressed bats, most pageant patrons selected to keep away from an excessive amount of exercise throughout the day. It didn’t matter how sturdy the expertise on the stage, most of us tapped our toes madly from shady spots below distant timber, although Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon managed to coax a handful of dancers into the stinging afternoon solar.
The warmth, music and artwork swirled collectively throughout the weekend to create a surreal environment. Dancers undulated atop 10-metre poles (Gratte Ciel’s RoZéO). We reclined in deck chairs whereas a philosophical scientist and her three ‘clones’ – all dressed like Nineteen Sixties flight attendants – sang above and round us (Compagnie On Off’s Le Chant de L’eau). Feeling sweaty and soporific on Sunday, I out of the blue observed a household of elephants lumbering (from Handspring Puppet Firm) slowly by means of the park and I instantly forgot my fatigue.
Korean firm Elephants Snort immersed themselves in clear, vertical water tanks.Credit score: Samuel Graves
Slicing by means of the warmth and the environment, the madcap Dubioza Kolektiv (from Bosnia and Herzegovina) threw themselves into their efficiency with such vigour that the viewers had no selection however to reply, leaping in time with the raucous, punk-infused Balkan rhythms and indulging in a singalong.
Seun Kuti, Baaba Maal and Angelique Kidjo all fronted dazzling bands, and radiated vitality together with a fierce dedication to the seek for peace, tolerance and respect for all. Their music could have been irresistibly upbeat and optimistic, however their lyrics and between-song exhortations urged us to take care of our planet and each other, and reminded us that (in Kidjo’s phrases) “we nonetheless have plenty of work to do”.