WOMAD 2024 Review

WOMAD 2024

Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th July 2024
Charlton Park , Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9DG, England MAP
Three-day adult ticket £210, 4-day adult ticket £260

Daily capacity: 40,000

Yes! The 42^nd WOMAD festival was, apart from some faint drizzle on Thursday afternoon, bathed in glorious sunshine. We did deserve this after last year's weather ordeal.

Entering the festival grounds, the first thing that catches your eye are probably the flags. Instead of lots of cobbled together individual flags, Devonian artist Angus Watts has been creating themed flags for WOMAD for 30 years, the programme told us, going up from about 50 in 1994 to well over 300 now. I started going in 2002, so can't imagine the festival without them, and unlike their smaller individualistic cousins (a topic of eternal controversy at certain other festivals - are they a source of humour or loathed for blocking the view of the stages?), these ones are strategically placed and universally loved. Many other events have adopted them, though nowhere else have I seen as many, they line the paths in the campsites too. They're beautiful.

Thursday evening's opener was of course the Malmesbury Schools Project - this year they had been practicing for a week with Bloco B (UK), a Bristol based Brazilian carnival troupe, so there was lots of drumming and dancing, kids having fun and parents in the audience getting a good night out in the bargain. Very important to keep the locals involved and happy if you want to go on holding a festival with 40,000 capacity and all the upheaval that brings in a normally tranquil corner of Wiltshire!

We smiled and clapped along with everyone before making a beeline to the d&b Soundscape stage tent where London Afrobeat Collective started right afterwards, afrobeat may be in their name but they are combining musicians from 6 countries and 4 continents (UK/Italy/France/Argentina/Congo/New Zealand). Yay. It makes a good stew, early on I heard echos of Sanatana coming through and was immediately won over. The super energetic front woman/singer (Juanita Euka) did the material justice and the overall sound in this tent (of which more later) usually helps to bring out the best in any performance, although I thought the singer could have been a bit more prominent in the mix here. "Power to the women" is one of their outstanding tracks - more power to you, Juanita!

It's a tight schedule, barely time to grab a pint at the cider bar and Alborosie (Italy/Jamaica) had already started at the main stage, his is a roots reggae set we didn't want to miss - island to island, Sicily has exported one of its roots music loving sons to Jamaica where he has become part of the Kingston reggae scene, cutting well-reviewed albums and growing some of the most impressive dreads I've ever seen (floor length!). Seems the genre has gone full circle. Great performance, very engaging, everyone is dancing, and it's only Thursday!

Afterwards I scouted out the bars and food stalls, all my usual favourites are there, including the one I always want to try but never get round to because the queues are just too long: Little Baobab. Great choices.

For early birds, there are yoga and cookery sessions and discussion panels to be had, but I am a natural night owl, so my Friday started later with a hefty dose of Latin jazz by the New Regency Orchestra (UK) at the main stage, and then got even better with Flamingods (Bahrain/UK) at the smaller Charlie Gillet stage, because, well I do like a bit of psychedelia & space rock and that they delivered with a full middle eastern tinge, although they are mostly UK based now. Their audience banter includes a story about a British passport finally coming through and one of them even holds up the latest little addition to his family, she stares cutely bewildered back at all the clapping people. Lovely atmosphere.

I sampled a bit of The Zawose Queens (Tanzania), daughter and granddaughter of Hukwe Zawose who are keeping the ilimba (thumb piano) flame and tradition alive, listened in to Tank and the Bangas (USA) for that modern New Orleans sound, then came the first of many tough choices: the utterly beautiful Noriko Tadano (Japan) playing the shamisen vs Qwwali Flamenco (Pakistan/Spain) doing - a blend of Qwwali and Flamenco, of course. In the end I split my time to see a bit of both, and only wish I could have seen the full set of either, overlaps like this are plentiful and my biggest WOMAD frustration every year, without fail. Nice problem to have.

Sangjaru (South Korea) provided one of the most off-beat/far out performances, "Korean folk gypsy swing" was their official description, but it sounded a lot more avant garde than that and the wite puffball hats they suddenly sported made them look positively alien. Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it.

Amadou & Mariam (Mali) who then took to the main stage definitely do have universal appeal and enough kudos to play more mainstream UK festivals, I remember seeing them before, not just here at WOMAD but at Boomtown in 2015 - their international breakthrough happened about 20 years ago, and being reliably good and famous enough, why aren't they headlining? Anyway, sunshine is a great backdrop for their afro blues with rock guitars, perhaps the afternoon slot is just right.

Gnawa Blues All Stars (Morocco / UK) are next at the Charlie Gillett stage and they play Gnawa, of course, the north African trance tradition. Mesmerising. There is apparently a whole annual festival dedicated to the Gnawa genre in Essaouira (Morocco). Well, a girl can dream...

Friday night's main stage headliners are Young Fathers (UK - for as long as Scotland is still part of it, anyway). They describe themselves as "hip hop without the rules" (hip hop has rules? - I thought it was about breaking them!?) and do indeed come across a lot rockier than I expected. It's a well honed and choregraphed performance if somewhat low in audience participation, perhaps that's not their thing. At about ten to 11.00pm they come to an impressively crashing finale; "there's 7 minutes left", says a woman behind me, "there must be an encore, surely?". "Unlikely", answers her mate. "As they've knocked over their whole drumkit." Indeed.

Late performances have to turn down the decibels a bit, Yungchen Lhamo (Tibet) is all soothing dignity and spirit, and I am somewhat annoyed with myself - and those who decide the schedules, how could you? - because she's on at the same time as John Metcalfe (New Zealand) who brings a beautiful piece of minimalist strings and ambient sounds to the Siam tent. Why can't I have both! And why does the Siam tent late session now finish at midnight, when it used to go on until 1am (or 2 am, even?)? Whether it's a licence problem or a necessary way to economise, it's a pity. Sure, there's still a DJ at the Soundscape tent, and late dancing at Molly's bar, but I loved the late nights at the Siam.

Saturday, the Siam tent opener is Seckou Keita (and the Homeland Band, Senegal/UK) . The programme calls him the Jimi Hendrix of the kora, but wasn't that supposed to be Seckou Kouyate, from Ba Cissoko (Guinea)? Never mind, the comparison has probably been applied to anyone who ever innovatively plucked an amplified stringed instrument. If only there was a way to let Mr Hendrix know that he's still being drawn on for such comparisons - had he lived, he'd be 82 now and perhaps quite bemused by it all. Anyway, it's another spirited performance, but somewhat plagued by sound problems. The closer I got the to the front, the more distortion, although it sounded fine at the back and fringes of the tent.

Being at the back does have the advantage of close proximity to the real ale bar, though, a big bonus, particularly in hot weather (they have cider too). So I was very well refreshed for Saigon Soul Revival (Vietnam), who according to a three-page feature in the programme, are the only band left still playing what was called "golden music" back in the 60s in Southern Vietnam and is essentially their version of psychedelic rock. With a lot of feeling. Fabulous. The guitars! The singer!! And is that a really a Hammond organ? All in all a wonderful surprise.

Sauljaljui (Taiwan, Charlie Gillet stage) has a spare and traditional sound by comparison, and a surprisingly strong voice for her small frame. It says her background was in the Taiwanese heavy metal scene before she turned to local folk traditions, I can believe it.

Following that, I was torn between Deerhoof (USA) at the Soundscape stage and Ghana Special (Ghana/UK) at the main, that's a kind of supergroup presenting us with Ghana sounds: Pat Thomas, Kwashibu Area Band, Charles Amoah and K.O.G.; I decided to start with the latter and perhaps move over later, but couldn't tear myself away - super, some of the best grooves all weekend. Again, why aren't they headlining? Of course I missed Deerhoof, who apparently were really good as well. If you take the trouble to read a couple of WOMAD reviews from different people and sources, you will realise that we all have very different highlights, but no one complains about the overall quality of what they have seen.

Asmaa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou (Morocco) had been on the programme last year, but their visa applications did not come through in time, this year they made it. More Gnawa, made special by the fact that she is the first woman to play it live, there's a strong tradition of the baton being passed from father to son in these musical families.

Emel (Tunesia/USA) is another musician who has a background in a metal band. Her early- Bjork-pixie-look is deceiving, her work is so political that it got her banned on Tunisian radio and she's now based in New York. One of her songs, Kelmti Horra, was used as an anthem of the Arab Spring movement. Her performance hits hard, covering topics like war, violence and sexual assault. It also makes great use of the full surround sound only the Soundscape tent can provide, her band mixes Eastern and Western styles and her great voice with heavy drums that are hammering the point home, almost literally. Probably one that will linger longer than most in my memory.

Whilst Nana Benz Du Togo (Togo, obviously) introduced a willing crowd to the musical basics of voodoo, I finally managed to find a blip in the eternal queue at the Little Baobab food stall opposite the CG stage. Most unusual! It appeared they couldn't grill their chicken as quickly as people were willing to eat it, but as I was after the veggie version, I managed to get served without the long wait. Hah, I had been waiting for an opportunity like this for - years. Watching Nana Benz whilst eating squash in peanut butter sauce meant I could not dance, but on this occasion, the sacrifice was worth it.

Gogol Bordello (USA), are a familiar one from many other festivals, they headlined Saturday night and gave an energetic performance, clearly fired up at least in part by their opposition to the war in Ukraine (they are NYC based, but their front man 's background is Ukrainian/Romani). Afterwards Faiz Ali Faiz (Pakistan) presented more soaring qawwali, this time at the Siam tent and without the flamenco aspect, and the acoustics for this set had much improved from earlier one. Perhaps the Siam only has a problem with the louder acts? There was some good dancing until 2.00am to be had at the O.B.F. feat JMan (France/UK) dub//Grime gig over at the Soundscape, but sheer exhaustion meant I did not last until the end.

I decided to take it a little easier on Sunday; when I couldn't get into the good section of the Soundscape for The Breath (Ireland/England) I gave in graciously and left early ( though even sticking around for a bit just to hear Rioghnach Connolly's hearty laugh between songs is well worth it). Bixiga 70 (Brazil) played some great horn heavy Brazilian afro-beat (I may have made that genre up, but you get the idea, I hope) and eventually managed to get a tent full of (mostly) reserved Brits to join up and do a conga. Impressive.

Next, the 79rs Gang (USA) provided a good set of New Orleans grooves on the main stage, although they weren't quite a dressed up as I had expected from a Mardi Gras tradition band; then I trundled over to Charlie G again for what my partner teasingly called my "sitar fix": Anuradha Pal with Kedia Bandhu (India), although the focus here was Anuradha, who is the world's first female professional table player. The Kedia brothers provided sarod and sitar to go with her set. Blissful.

The Arboretum area was full of shade seekers all weekend - good for all the little stages and venues dotted around there, they got more footfall. I meant to join them for a bit to sample the Bhutan Balladeers (Bhutan, you guessed it) at the Ecotricity stage, but the path from Charlie Gilllett to the Ecotricity stage leads past the Soundscape tent and as I was passing, a band started playing something I recognized straight away. This was meant to be Sid Sriram (USA), but they neither looked nor sounded like him... not that I know him... but I do know Gong! I may have mentioned a few (ok, a lot of) times my fondness of psychedelic guitars, and to have them on full and glorious display in the Soundscape tent was simply too tempting, whatever the novelty of Bhutanese music. Although it meant that I also missed Witch (Zambia) this was shaping up to be my most psychedelic WOMAD ever! Strictly musically, of course.

My only niggle is that this change in programme was not better advertised, I stumbled over it by pure chance with the WOMAD app only working intermittently, depending on your phone provider's signal. But Gong only got called upon to play with two days' notice, said Kavus Torabi (the singer/guitarist); seems Sid Sriram had to cancel due to illness (makes a change from the visa problems that often plague booked performers). What country would Gong be listed as coming from, I wondered? The original founder Daevid Allen being an Australian, who met his British co-founder, Gilli Smyth, in Paris, and so Gong was actually founded in France and had quite a few French members over the years (Pierre Moerlen, Didier Malherbe) and their current frontman is British-Iranian. Pretty good candidates for the "world music" moniker, actually.

I took a break to admire the children's procession afterwards, one of the accompanying brass bands had been practising near our tent all weekend, so I might as well. It was an absolute joy, led by a big sun sculpture and well organised too this year, no major hold ups.

Over to the Siam tent for another highlight: Orange Blossom (France) , apparently a favourite of Robert Plant, no less, and I can see why a combo of African drums, Arabic vocals, violins and electronics would appeal to him. Another mix that's great to dance to, and later with Islandman (Turkey) and their psychedelic dance grooves from Istanbul, finally, there even was an all dancing (instead of all sitting) crowd at the Ecotricity stage! Live dance music beats DJs any time in my books, though I am sure lots of people will disagree with me on that one. Getting a bit carried away with Islandman meant I only caught the end of Baaba Maal's (Senegal) set. He is of course a legend and exactly the kind of act who should headline the main stage on the final night.

Tamsin Elliott & Tarek Elazhary (UK/Egypt) and their guests provided a lovely late-night set marrying old English tunes with North African ones at the Ecotricity stage. Even I was ready to sit down by then.

Few festivals can beat WOMAD's staying power of over 40 years, it's been around since 1980. I reckon the pandemic years nearly broke it, financially, and it had to cut back a little here and there to accommodate this, but 2024 is a full-blooded festival event and the best place I can think of to sample musical variety (and I have tried a few!).

Also, for years I considered it to be one on the pricier events on the festival circuit, but now others have caught up, even at the food stalls, and it seems to be good value for money, plus, here's a tip: Ecotricity, the green energy suppliers, do not only run a stage there, they are offering those who switch to them a pair of free tickets!

They are also on a mission to make festivals in general cleaner and greener - just a thought.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng4kk9kjro

Btw, the Sunday talk about Climate Change (World of Words), Ecotricity's CEO Dale Vince was very outspoken about why he thinks veganism is essential and the way to go. But don't fret, he hasn't made it a condition for switching suppliers.

It always baffles me that this event doesn't sell out months ahead; it is suitable for groups of friends as well as three (or four!) generations of a family, lots of free activities for kids, plenty of things to do for those who need a break from music every now and then - with World of Physics (still building your own solar charger, anyone?) , World of Words for debates & verbal fun (bad press awards!), Taste the World for foodies, a funfair, a spa (untested by me, but each to their own) and a plethora of all these therapeutic treatments that may at least be good for your psyche, even if the medical science behind them isn't that convining. There's artisan shopping for those with a bit of cash to spare, and as we are listening to radio WOMAD on our way home almost everyone mentions the great food choices as one of the highlights . Accessibility is pretty good (one of us used a mobility scooter to get around), there are enthusiastic BSL interpreters accompanying quite a few performances. There's a super friendly crowd that even leaves a clean campsite behind on Monday, many of us coming back year after year. The line-up is guaranteed to be high quality, even if you haven't heard yet of many of the acts they book.

And if you are not sure about festivals and all that camping, WOMAD are selling day tics for Saturdays and/or Sundays, and you could stay in a B&B in nearby Malmesbury. Which is worth a visit of its own.

See you there next year, and may the sun shine on us again.

review by: Katharina

photos by: Phil Bull