Overview

Womad took place over the weekend of 23rd - 25th July and once again proved to be one of the most enjoyable weekends of quality music you could hope to find anywhere.

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The weekend for many began on Thursday with the all important extra day giving time to pitch up and chill before the festival gets started in earnest the following day. On Friday, the cloudy weather of the day before was replaced by sunshine and with the first acts not due to commence until 2.30 we took in the site properly and discovered the new River Stage area which proved to be a great new addition to the festival providing an intimate relaxing space to enjoy the music and good weather.

With my only must see act of the day not appearing until last on the mainstage the mode of organisation known as “going with the flow” was in operation which in my case is another way of saying “I haven’t got around to reading the programme yet” but kicking things off with something lively was in order and The Drummers of Burundi were certainly that and an obvious choice. Carrying all of their not inconsequential drums on their heads they marched onto Siam stage and commenced an hour of energetic drumming and gleeful dancing before exiting in the same manner as their arrival to the applause of an audience well woken up.

The first (of many) visit to the beer tent enabled us to take in the end of the Dhol Foundations set on the mainstage who were drumming out a different beat, but were no less lively and had clearly gone down a storm with the crowd. Back in the Siam tent, Sharon Shannon was far less lively, but delightful as ever, and then we returned to the mainstage where Radio Mundial from New York played a great Latino based set with bags of danceable rhythm - they were clearly happy to be here, as were the crowd. Finally, headliner on the mainstage, David Byrne, my one must see act of the weekend didn’t disappoint. Playing with his regular sextet from the states the Tosca Strings, Byrne played and sang a set rich with many Talking Heads classics that I’m reliably informed even had people dancing in the toilets! What a dude, what a great day.

The sun shone on Saturday as well and there was much to see - Drum Drum from the South Pacific doing the percussive wake-up honours this time, in good style. Ambling around the top of the site I caught the “wild card” act Caramelo Son from Cuba on the new River Stage who gave the salsa workshop attendees a chance to show off their new talents. Rising stars on the traditonal Irish music `scene Kila whipped up the crowd on the mainstage with a high-energy set. Veteran blusters Hot Tuna drew a large crowd at the Village stage and Nigel Kennedy demonstrated his virtuosity with the atmospheric Balkan band, Kroke.

For the first time in 3 womads I was lured to the Rivermead Centre to see The Bays – I’d caught one of their jumpin sets at Summer Sundae in Leicester a couple of years before and had been impressed and their womad performance was similarly jumpin’ – the hour flew by and dripping with sweat I emerged back out into the night air, grinning. I must have still been on a Bays-induced high when I watched the Moon Dogs on the Little Blue Stage because I can’t remember if they were any good or not! ... but I took some nice pics before moving on to the Siam tent for the last act of the day, Yair Dalal, whom I’ve since read some background info and am glad to have seen such a sound geezer perform. Another highly enjoyable day.

On the last day the the clouds returned but there was only a little rain. Arriving late at the Village stage I caught the last song by Victor Hugo who’d clearly done a great set judging by the size and`reaction of the crowd. While eating breakfast I heard a rumour of some Italian barrel beaters in the Siam tent, which sounded intriguing - they were called Enzo Avitabile & Bottari and boy were they good. The “Bottari” created a thunderous beat on various sized wooden barrels with singer Enzo Avitabile and other musicians together creating a unique and entrancing sound. Following them in the Siam tent was the “Gala with Yair Dalal” which consisted of various performers from the weekends line-up, each performing a number climaxing with one big, amazingly international play-along - “This is a rare world” said N’Faly Kouyate pointing at all the performers on stage and you could see his point.

Errol Lynton returned for the second year to play an acoustic blues set on the little BBC Radio 3 ‘World on your Street Stage’ and accompanied by some great guitar playing wowed the audience with his dazzling work on the harmonica moving between blues and reggae styles in the same songs and even some acoustic dub thrown in …who needs echo units. Jamaican reggae artist Luciano would have been impressed I’m sure but he was probably limbering up for his headline slot on the mainstage where we finished off the weekends musical offerings dancing to the old style reggae vibe.

Another great weekend, see you next year Womad.

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