BWW Reviews: WOMADELAIDE 2016: DAY 3 Had A Surprise Audience Performance

Reviewed by Ray Smith Sunday 13th March 2016

The WOMADelaide 2016 programme for Sunday lists a surprise guest as the opening act on the main stage at 1.00pm. That guest was Cirque Alfonse. According to their website, "Cirque Alfonse is a young circus company from Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in the province of Quebec, established in 2005". The members entered the stage on roller blades for some capable but not extraordinary tumbling before the familiar, two strong men throw slim woman to be caught by two other strong men kind of acrobatics.

The point of difference was the music. Violin, guitar and drums drove French folk songs strongly throughout the performance which gave it the feel of a provincial village show. The audience was engaged and entertained by such a light start to the day.

The Novatech Stage is quite a walk across the river from the main stage and the area in which it sits hosts the Speakers Corner Stage and the Taste the World tent. It feels like a separate festival in many ways as it concentrates on intimate performances and the opportunity to hear artists and other guests speak about everything from food and music to politics and the state of the planet.
I was there at 1.00pm to hear Kev Carmody's only performance for the festival, all the while acutely aware that if I wanted to hear the opening song of Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the main stage at 2 o'clock I would need to leave before Kev had finished.

"There are just too many great things to see here!" complained a punter. What a wonderful problem to have.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo took to the Foundation Stage to applause and cries of welcome from the already swelling crowd. Many people had been gathering for this show for the past hour to secure a shady spot with a good view of the stage.

Before they began to sing we were told of the Ladysmith Black Mambazo Foundation for the preservation of Zulu culture and song and that, because of its work, this Zulu music will never die.

The performance itself is very high energy, with many choreographed high kicks and leaps mixed with the tight and beautiful harmonies. Two of founder Joseph Shabalala's sons led the ensemble in songs that were tributes to the late Nelson Mandela, and to celebrate South African democracy.
The style developed amongst mine workers who, poorly housed and paid, would amuse themselves on their one day per week rest by singing songs.

This is not the same group of singers that made the famous recordings with Paul Simon in 1986 but younger men who have been taught the traditions of this style. This is Ladysmith Black Mambazo The Next Generation.

Sarah Blasko's only festival performance started on stage 2 at 4.00pm but, by the time I had walked there from the main stage, her troubles had already begun. Her band consisted of a drummer and a lot of keyboards in three separate stacks. It would seem that at least one of the keyboards had been badly affected by heat after being directly in the sun on the edge of the stage during set up and sound check and refused to stay in tune. Being the trouper she is she carried on regardless and presented a blistering show, if you will pardon the expression.

Songs from her new synthesiser based album Eternal Return featured heavily and if there was a keyboard missing from the live mix it was impossible to tell. As she wrote on her Facebook page, "Thanks so much for having us WOMADelaide. We had a blast despite our keyboard melting in the sun, so thank you all."

I became tangled up in a Spooky Men's Chorale flashmob on my way to the Zoo Stage with only my promise to attend their workshop later in the day securing my release.

I reached the stage just as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Choir were ready to begin. Members of the original Ernabella choir from the 1940s and their descendants joined with children of the Ernabella Anangu School Choir to present a capella songs and stories in the Pitjantjatjara language. The members are representatives from the APY Communities and they represented their respective mobs well, bringing all of the Western Desert people together in a beautiful and unifying performance.

The show was broadcast live via Radio 5NPY across the APY lands of the South Australian Western Desert and was enjoyed by the WOMADelaide audience who supported it in good numbers.

I made my way to the Moreton Bay Stage to fulfil my promise to attend the workshop, "Sing Like a Bloke" being run by the madmen from the Blue Mountains, the Spooky Men's Chorale. I was quite surprised by the high number of attendees at the event but was considerably more surprised by the willingness of virtually every audience member to participate in the warm up exercises of talking, sobbing and shouting.

We were soon sorted into bass, baritone, alto, tenor, and soprano groups to learn a pyramid building song, and we learned our various parts with such remarkable speed that we were able to perform the entire song in five part harmony before the workshop concluded.

It was a very satisfying exercise in social interaction, releasing our inner voice, and cooperation. It was then that the conductor suggested that we meet by Sacrilege, the inflatable Stonehenge, and perform the song in procession for the assembled masses. So we did.

My rough guess would be that there are now 200 or so unlisted people who can boast that they have performed at WOMADelaide.

What a festival.

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