BWW Reviews: ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2015: WOMADELAIDE 2015: DAY 1 Was A Very Full Evening

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Friday 6th March 2015

WOMADelaide, the annual South Australian celebration of world music and dance, will run from Friday 6th to Monday 9th March 2015 in Botanic Park. The contemporary WOMAD goes well beyond world music and dance, though, as it also incorporates visual and performing arts, food, and ideas. It includes workshops, cooking demonstrations, interviews and discussions with artists, a children's programme, buskers, installations and inclusive events such as ARTONIK, The Colour Oof Time, as dancers and musicians lead the public in a parade that culminates in an explosion of colour as people throw brightly tinted gulal powder into the air and all over themselves to, "joyfully celebrate unity, acceptance and diversity". It is a re-working of the traditional Indian Holi Festival, and the audience are eager participants.

The WOMAdelaide Festival is a complex and busy affair which spreads itself over a substantial area of the Botanic Park. There are seven performance stages laid out in such a way as to minimise audio interference or overlap between one and the other. The Internode Centre Stage is an enormous construction in the form of a large sound shell and is flanked, some distance away, by two smaller but still substantial performance spaces, listed as stages 2 and 3. The 4th stage is known as the Zoo Stage and is, not surprisingly, positioned close to the Adelaide Zoo end of the park, and the 5th is the Moreton Bay stage, which sits next an impressive Moreton Bay Fig tree on the Botanic Garden side of the park. Stages 6 and 7 are quite small spaces and are positioned quite a distance from the others and are referred to as the Speakers Corner and Planet Talks stages.

The distance between the main five performance spaces and the two smaller ones gives the impression of two separate festivals and, to an extent, that is the case. The larger stages are there to cater for ensembles and better known acts that will attract a larger audience, while the smaller ones cater very well for solo performers or small ensembles, and for viewable discussions and interviews.

Because of its physical size a day at WOMADelaide can involve quite a lot of walking and Day 1 was no exception. The day began at 4.30pm with performance art from Mr Culbuto, guided meditation in Hammocktime, the installation, Exxopolis, and a live radio broadcast from ABC 891 drive. Spandexx Ballet led prospective participants through a warm up and dance session in preparation for the daily Colour of Time event.

The traditional Kaurna Welcome to Land followed and the music began on the Centre Stage with The Painted Ladies, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island group. They presented a re-working of the first Black protest album, The Loner, recorded in Bathurst Gaol by inmate Vic Simms in 1973. The original album had been brought to the attention of Brisbane Indigenous singer/songwriter, Luke Peacock. Luke got in touch with Vic and was given permission to re-record the album, and he did so with some very interesting musicians including Paul Kelly, Ed Kuepper, Sue Ray, Roger Knox and Rusty Hopkinson. Today it was brought to the stage.

The first of the Colour of Time dances and procession started as Charlie Musselwhite prepared to perform on Stage 3. Charlie was supported by a very strong three piece blues band, and the drums, bass and electric guitar backed him up as his harmonica wailed across Botanic Park. The show was very well attended and could easily have been placed on the main stage, particularly since this was his only performance to be offered during the festival, but Charlie didn't seem to care. His harp cut the air in rippling legato lines, or screamed in protest between the verses as he gave a blues lesson the crowd will never forget. The 71 year old maestro was on top form and moved from singing to harmonica playing in a single beat. With a voice like a blunt chainsaw gnawing relentlessly through a red gum log he quipped, "I could do this all day but I have to go. I hope to see y'all down the line." We could have listened all day too.

The Buena Vista Sessions on the Centre Stage was a teaser to give us a taste of what the full orchestra would bring tomorrow but people were dancing in the hundreds from the first bar. The 84 year old Cuban singer and dancer guest, Omara Portuondo, seemed to be in a similar frame of mind to Charlie, and looked like she could sing and sway all day.

Margaret Leng Tan on the Zoo Stage played toy pianos and squeaky toys to an entirely baffled but amused audience.

Sharon Van Etten's American Indie Pop started its one and only performance on Stage 3 while Tara Tiba began her show on the Moreton Bay Stage. The superb Persian singer was supported by some excellent players. Her Darbuka player doubled on guitar and her saxophone player was absolutely brilliant. Her approach to Persian music is very unusual in that it has a very jazzy flavour, which was emphasised by the tenor sax solos that wandered beautifully in and out of the traditional melodies.

Rufus Wainwright hammered a grand piano on Centre Stage before attempting to beat a guitar to death, all the while singing in his emotionless voice, and I really wanted Charlie Musselwhite back. I hope that Loudon and Martha left him something nice in their wills, because he didn't inherit any performance talent. His songs can be good if someone else performs them.

Soil and "Pimp" Sessions ended the night on stage 2. The Japanese ensemble bringing the combination of bad jazz and ridiculous costumes to a new low, but at least it meant an early night.

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