WOMAD Aotearoa

WOMAD Aotearoa is held in Pukekura Park, in New Plymouth, Taranaki. Tim Gruar writes it up in Ambient Light: the weekend of 17 to 19 March 2023 was the twentieth anniversary on that park. People come in with blankets and folding chairs to the Bowl of Brooklands. The official page stays as it is.

Friday opens with Narukami Taiko, ten drums. Narukami is the Japanese god of thunder. One woman leads nearly every piece and the sound bounces around the Bowl like small earthquakes. The night closes with Fly My Pretties, led by Barnaby Weir. Holly Smith sings Clarity. Ria Hall lets out Where Did My People Go? and Walk. Age Pryor is back with Singing in My Soul, the one he debuted at the first show of that group, at Bats Theatre in Pōneke, in 2004. Gareth Shute, in Under the Radar on 21 March, puts Bailey Wiley, Mel Parsons and Anna Coddington in that same line of voices. An hour after the gates open, Mdou Moctar, from Niger, lets loose Tuareg guitar and the crowd claps while the drummer lays triplets over the top. In the cooking corner, Cimafunk stews plantain and sings unaccompanied spirituals, striking the pots. Deva Mahal sings Sister as a duet with her sister Zoe Moon, and the bass is her brother Imon Starr. As it gets dark the costumes come out: a human jellyfish, a family in the manner of Dr. Seuss, mirror-ball helmets and an astronaut suit, under the line Out Of This World. The rain arrives once the last song on the Bowl has already finished. The next morning the sun is out, Mount Taranaki shows for a moment through the cloud, and the heat rises to 22 degrees on their scale.

On Saturday, Fantastic Negrito, Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, gives the highest-energy set. Gruar sees the funk of James Brown and a tight band. From the 2022 album White Jesus Black Problems he lets out Plastic Hamburgers, about a crumbling empire, an Honest Man and Highest Bidder, about slavery in the South. The guitar does not let up.

Tom Scott comes out with Avantdale Bowling Club like a horse. He runs through Trees, Rent too High and Pocket Lint. Julien Dyne hammers the kit. KY Lee is on tenor sax. Guy Harrison plays his last show with the group before leaving for Berlin. Scott points at the older crowd: on one side those who want to save the surroundings, on the other those who want tax cuts. Before Friday at the Liquor Store he talks about rent. Then comes F(r)iends, and Old Dogs, softer. He says a woman at the bus stop told him the group was going to be too loud. He answers that at this gathering, if something does not suit, there is something else beside it, and that he has been coming since he was small, with his mother.

Mazbou Q, on the Gables stage, leaves Weight On My Bars, Anybody, about immigration, and Go and be Free. At night, Youssou N'Dour and Le Super Etoile de Dakar. Xale Yi Rew Mi, Beykat, Li Mma Weessu and Immigrés come through. The voices answer each other. Hand drums and the kit bring it to a boil. A dancer in a purple cape spins and then breaks into her own steps. 7 Seconds and Happy are in the set as well.

On Sunday, at the Dell, KITA, led by Nikita Tu-Bryant, plays Too Much Of A Good Thing and Marianna's Trenchcoat, with Ed Zuccollo on a Fender Rhodes. The close is Sampa the Great. She says her band is the first from Zambia at Glastonbury and at the opera in Sydney, and that they are now in Taranaki. Energy, Freedom and Never Forget are heard. On Black Girl Magic, written for her younger sister, she sits on the floor cross-legged. Lo Rain, Mwana, Tilibobo, a version of Fu-Gee-la, OMG and Final Form follow.