Cuba Street Carnival

I remember discussing the Cuba Street Carnival with Chris Morley-Hall, back when it was but a twinkle in his eye.

Having been involved with The Gathering for a few years by that point I knew how much effort, blood, sweat and tears it took to create a "happening" out of nothing - how much it took out of you and how long it could take to turn that twinkle of an idea into something real and tangible and successful.

I just want to say how much I admire Chris for having taken up the challenge and making the Cuba Street Carnival into the 150,000-people success it had become by 2009.

I'm not going to speculate on exactly why the Carnival has hit this bump in the road - the stories and reports don't make sense at the moment - there are obviously some big pieces of info missing, and I hope we get the opportunity to find out more soon.

Wellington Batucada, for example, probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for Chris and the Cuba Street Carnival. We originally formed in November 2001 to perform in the Carnival, and we've been a part of it ever since - and in the process have become a part of Wellington's culture in the same way as the Carnival has.

Events like the Rugby Sevens, the Cuba Street Carnival, the Wellington Festival of the Arts and the Fringe Festival are some of what makes Wellington such a special place to live. All those wonderful events bring colour and a little bit of magic to our city, and make it a place to be proud of.

Each of these events also creates its own little set of ripples in the Wellington pond which further enrich our city. Just as The Gathering inspired a whole generation of DJs and makers of electronica to come out of their bedrooms and into the light of live performance, so events like the Cuba Street Carnival provide a huge number of creative people with a wonderful, joyous, fantabulous excuse to push their creativity and their showmanship to new levels every two years.

The Batucada crew, for example, worked every day for two months on our float and our costumes for the 2009 event, and we start rehearsing our performance pieces months before the big day. It's always been a huge part of who we are and what we do.

Being a part of the Carnival (and winning the Supreme Award) has positive spin-offs for us too - our beginners' course that followed soon after the Carnival last year had more than three times as many participants as normal, and we've continued to get big numbers to our courses since then as well. We continue to grow and improve, and love what we do - and a lot of that is due to our ongoing participation in the Cuba Street Carnival.

Chris can be proud that he has made such a huge contribution to our performing arts culture over the past 10 years, just as we can be proud that our membership of Batucada brings colour to many events in and around the city throughout the year.

I'm completely gutted that there won't be another Carnival next year. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that this will be a temporary hiatus and that we'll all be back again with bells on in 2013 (if not sooner!)

Technorati tags: Cuba Street Carnival, Chris Morley-Hall, Wellington Batucada, Batucada, samba, carnival, Wellington, carnival cancelled, funding, street party, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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The Gathering archives website - and the ONYAs

WOOHOO!

The Gathering archives website is a finalist in the Best content (personal) category of the ONYAs!

Crikey!

I'm completely thrilled. It took me a year of working on the site to get it to a state where I was ready to put it online, and it's grown quite a lot since then.

The ONYA judge's comment about the site cracked me up. It's so funny, and also so true...

A multi-media mashup of memoir, fractured histories and anecdotes from a series of events that erased the memories of many that were there. Alison's site is a public service...

New Year 2006/07 marked the 10th anniversary of the first Gathering dance party on top of Takaka Hill near Nelson. The last Gathering was held over New Year 2001/02, and as I had been involved in the organisation of four out of the six Gatherings, and had created the original Gathering website, I felt sad that there was virtually nothing remaining online about these iconic events.

In October 2006 I set about creating, designing, building and writing the Gathering archives website, with the aim of becoming the authoritative source of information on the history and background of The Gathering. The site is divided into different sections for each of the six Gatherings, and includes facts & figures, media coverage, Gathering artwork, photos, video and film footage, Gatherer stories and maps of the venue for each party.

It will always be a work in progress, because each party was so vast and complex that it would be impossible for one person to have a complete overview of what went on at even a single event, let alone six. Although I had a whole lot of "official" archival material (including media coverage, Gathering artwork etc), I wanted the site to be much more than that. I wanted it to reflect the memories and stories of the many thousands of Gatherers who took part each year, as well as the hundreds of crew members and organisations who supported us in putting on New Zealand's best-loved dance parties.

I haven't had much time this year to add new stuff to the site, but I've already spent time improving the usability of the homepage as a result of my ONYAs nomination (see what a bit of good news does to kick-start me into action once more!), and I plan to do quite a bit more on the site before February when the winners in each category are announced.

The other two finalists in this category are Jared Gulian for Moon over Martinborough and my dear friend Zef Fugaz for zef[a]media. Those of you who know your Gathering history might remember Zef - he was our very awesome assistant producer/BetaSP-Cam/graphics guru for The Gathering documentary 97/98.

The ONYAs celebrate those who design, develop and create New Zealand's best websites and applications. They’re awards by the industry, for the industry.

It's a real honour to be nominated for the award, and to be a finalist in such esteemed company. Good luck guys, and may the best website win!

Technorati tags: ONYAs, ONYA, web awards, finalist, best content, The Gathering archives, The Gathering, dance party, rave, New Zealand, Canaan Downs, web design, web development, website, Zef Fugaz, Jared Gulian, The Gathering documentary, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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Entering the ONYAs

I've spent the weekend completing multiple entries for the inaugural ONYAs web awards, which are being organised by the very wonderful Mike and Tash who also bring you the equally wonderful Webstock.

The closing date was today - originally 6pm this evening, but they've extended it until midnight. You have less than an hour, folks!

Actually, having said that, you might have some trouble making a submission between now and midnight - the site's down. Wonder if we knocked it out with the sheer volume of last-minute entries?

WebWeaver Productions have entered two of our most recent sites - the Environmental Protection Authority website that went live on October 1, and the Optimation website that went live just a few hours ago.

We're very proud of both sites - we think they represent some of WebWeaver's best work this year - and we think we've got as good a chance as anyone of winning an (already coveted) award.

We've entered the EPA site for Best use of HTML & CSS and Best accessibility (both in my name), and the Optimation site for Best use of HTML & CSS (me) and Best visual design (Sue). I think Amanda might also be entering the Opti site for Best content (corporate) because the writing she's done for the new site is really good.

We were only sad that there wasn't a category for Best integration into a CMS, because poor old Tom's the only WebWeaver(er) who doesn't have a category to enter. No fair! I think we would definitely have entered the Opti site for that category too if there had been one.

Oh - and I also entered The Gathering archives in the Best content (personal) category - just because I can. And also 'cos I think it's a pretty cool site.

Now all we have to do is keep all our fingers and toes crossed until February 19. Crikey!

Technorati tags: WebWeaver Productions, websites, ONYA, ONYAs, web awards, categories, entries, Optimation, EPA, Environmental Protection Authority, Tom St George, Susan Quigley, Amanda McVitty, web design, web development, accessibility, HTML, CSS, WebWeaver's World, webweaver

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The Scottish Song

I'm not going to say much about this video - except that, if you were ever a Gatherer, and if you ever experienced the awesomeness of one of Murray's iconic "Last Trance" sets, this track will either send you screaming from the room - or it will fill you full of joy and huge smiles.



Thanks, Muz!

Technorati tags: The Gathering, Gatherer, dance party, Canaan Downs, Cobb Valley, G2000, rave, Murray Kingi, Muz, Flux, last trance, Scottish song, trance zone, New Zealand, dance music, Perplexer, Acid Folk, YouTube, music video, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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The Gathering on the radio again!

Radio New Zealand are re-broadcasting their documentary The Gatherers, which first hit the airwaves back in December. I know from the web stats that heaps of people listened in and got inspired to visit The Gathering Archives website and blog, but just in case you missed it the first time around, or want to hear it again, here’s the info…

The Gatherers
Friday 25 January at 7.30pm
National Radio 101FM
or listen live online at www.radionz.co.nz

You can also grab the podcast from the Radio New Zealand website at radionz.co.nz/popular/music/talk - search on “G”.

Yaay!

Oh - I'm in it, btw...

And here's a bit more info about it from The Gathering Archives blog, which I wrote when it was first broadcast.

Technorati tags: The Gathering, The Gathering Archives, New Zealand, dance party, radio, Radio New Zealand, The Gatherers, broadcast, National Radio, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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The Gathering documentary

My poor old blog - I've been neglecting you so badly recently! I do have a good reason, however - I've been working like a mad thing doing a final big push to get The Gathering archives website and blog ready to go online.

I've got the blog up and running - it went live a week ago - and it's been a lot of fun getting it working. It runs on Wordpress (the on-my-own-server version), and it's been quite educational teaching myself how to adapt existing templates and redesign them to look how I want them. I'm still working on adding more widgets - but I'm happy for that to be an ongoing process, in the same way as I work on WebWeaver's World.

The most popular post on the blog so far is, of course, the one about The Gathering documentary 97/98 - which I spent most of the long weekend putting up on Google video. It's had a couple of hundred views so far, which is great - hopefully there will be many more to come. Every time I go to check it out on Google I end up leaving it running in the background - as a kind of soundtrack to whatever I'm doing. I love it! I pretty much know it by heart now...

Here's what I wrote to accompany the video on Google:

The Gathering was New Zealand's biggest and best outdoor dance party, which was held every New Year for six years between 1996 and 2001. This is the first Gathering documentary and was made about the 97/98 event, which was held at the magical Canaan Downs site on top of Takaka Hill near Nelson.

The documentary includes behind-the-scenes views of the setup and running of the party; the wild and crazy days and nights of the party itself; interviews with the crew, and you - the party animals; and interviews with "grown-ups" like the Mayor of Tasman District and the local police.

We hope you enjoy it and that it brings back some awesome rave memories. Check out the new Gathering archives website at http://www.thegathering.co.nz for more Gathering-related goodness! And be nice humans :)

On the blog I've written a bit about the story of how we came to make The Gathering documentary - and I've also linked to the large-screen version of the video on Google video.

If you were at The Gathering and want to re-live some happy memories - go check it out!

Technorati tags: The Gathering, The Gathering documentary, documentary, 1997/98, 97/98, outdoor, dance party, rave, New Zealand, Takaka Hill, Golden Bay, Nelson Bays, Canaan Downs, dance, music, doco, YouTube, Google video, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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Canaan Downs revisited

It's all about the timing sometimes, isn't it?

I joined Facebook very recently, for the simple (and very silly) reason that I thought it would be cute to create a page for each of my cats, so that they could have some online friends. Heh. I am SO losing the plot...

Anyway, I have noticed that my little group of Facebook friends is made up almost entirely of two completely wonderful and very different sub-groups - the Shifties and the Dance Party People (or, more precisely, The Gathering Crew).

A couple of weeks ago I got a message on Facebook from the very wonderful Simon K, one of the original Gathering crew, and one of my very favourite people. I haven't seen Simon in such a long time, but I often get to read his musings on the Obscure weekly updates mailing list. You always know when it's Simon doing the writing... he has such a unique and lovely way with words.

Simon wanted to tell me about the Canaan Downs Festival, which is being held over New Year at - you've guessed it - the only place one should ever spend NYE - Canaan Downs.

God I miss Canaan Downs. I miss dancing in a field with a great stupid grin on my face. I miss rushing around organising stuff and setting things up and making things happen and being part of an incredible group of people making magic on top of a mountain. I miss doing the impossible. I miss creating moments of power (in a good way!). I miss woohooing through the beech forest.

I miss the moments of calm before the perfect storm (hah! Memories of G2000 come flooding back!). I miss opening my eyes on the dance floor and meeting the eyes of a fellow traveller dancing nearby. I miss sharing the big smile that inevitably follows. I miss being part of The Gathering crew. Did I mention I miss dancing in a field with a great stupid grin on my face? God help me, occasionally I even miss the stress, the angst and the trauma. OK, I don't miss those last three things very much - but you get the idea...

Tonight I had dinner with the lovely Matthew A, who's working with Simon K on a special little something at Canaan Downs called the 3rd resistance. "And what is this 3rd resistance of which you speak?" I hear you cry...

Let me explain in a roundabout way, because that seems to be how my words are crystallising tonight...

I'm pretty sure it was Simon who wrote the following on the Obscure mailing list a couple of weeks ago - hopefully he won't mind me borrowing it:

Generation Dance

Has anyone read the 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test' by Tom Wolfe.

When I first read this book I was heavily into raving. I identified myself as a Raver and I thought I was involved in the most cutting edge activity ever know to man! Little did I know.

That was years ago now, but the book opened my mind to a generation before us who had travelled the same path. Telling a story about people who looked down the rabbit hole to see what was there. Some of the things that I read about like the 'Merry Pranksters' and the ideas of 'subjective reality' are still inspiring me and influencing my ideas of dance music and culture.

Part of me is upset that WE did not discover raving and all those freaky little things that happen when you dance all night to a pulsating beat. A bigger part of me is actually relived that rave, dance, trance and all the processes of social reality that surrounds dance culture is not something new at all.

It's old, like really old. As old as time itself. And it is a relief to know this because it means that no matter what people do to the dance, like: sponsor it with multi national corporations, or shove it into little boxes and intensify it, or attempt to bleed it dry of anything good. You just can't change the fundamentals.

I think it's important to remember in this day and age when our dance culture has settled into a sustained period of commercial activity that dancing to rhythm does not belong to anyone. There is no correct way to do it or to implement it.

Headline acts, sponsors, posters, promotion, hype does not guarantee anything. It's the people that dance to the music that plays. And when the time is right the people know where to go and know what to do.

To me, having talked at length with Matthew tonight, this is what 3rd resistance - and to a greater extent the Canaan Downs Festival - is all about.

As the Merry Pranksters used to say, "You're either on the bus... or off the bus."

Matthew and Simon are literally revisiting some of the mind-bending technology-type stuff that the Pranksters used to do - both at the acid tests and on their bus, Further, when they were doing their road trip across the country...

...and the party itself - well I think it's about getting out there and remembering why we all started doing The Gathering in the first place. All that stuff about "be nice humans" that I believed in wholeheartedly then, and believe in wholeheartedly now.

As Simon says on the Facebook Canaan Downs Festival group:

I think its all the best bits from parties combined with all the hardest learned lessons.

It's actually an amazing collection of people involved. Representing most of the old school south island dance collectives once again.

To name a few crews there a people from :

Stardust
Visions
Gathering
Alpine Unity
Destinations
Unity
Massive
Eudeamony
Clear Light

plus lots of smaller crews, sound systems and party promoters.. There is Psy Trance group bringing a whole zone .. not sure of their name.

It's quite amazing getting involved and discovering all the connections again. Find the people who are still there/here !!

Suffice to say it is the majority of heart'core dance people helping with this event.

When I say heart'core I mean people who have a real affinity for dance culture beyond the uber-rave phenomenon. All the dance crews mentioned expose a similar thread, a logical ethos of being open and aware, conscious people who love to be creative and interactive.

There is an active sense of 'creating a vibe' when putting on parties, of pooling collective energy for a shared experience. Participation is universal.

Some people call it hippy, but I think it is more evolved than that now. Most crews have been dancing for over 10 years. So it is defiantly a lifestyle, a focused activity, a developed social ritual that has lots of history and tradition.

It will be a very NZ festival. Which is what will make it unique.

I know where I'm going to spend this New Year. It'll be 10 years since my first Gathering. I'm 10 years older, 10 years wrinklier, 10 years wiser (haha!) and I still think dancing in a field with like-minded people is one of the best experiences in the world.

Anyone else feel like joining me?

Technorati tags: Canaan Downs, Canaan Downs Festival, The Gathering, dance party, Takaka Hill, New Zealand, dance culture, dance, rave, Facebook, Simon Kong, Matthew Ayton, 3rd resistance, Stardust, Visions, Gathering, Alpine Unity, Destinations, Unity, Massive, Eudeamony, Clear Light, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.

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WOMAD March 2007, Taranaki, New Zealand. Part three - Sunday.

Here's my review of day one of WOMAD, and day two of WOMAD - in case you haven't read them already.

Sunday began with rain. Rainrainrain. Bugger! We sorted through our daypacks back at the house, trying to decide what to take. "Lose the sunhat. Lost the sunblock. Lose the sunnies. Lose the lovely blankie I bought at WOMAD on Friday night - it'll be too wet for blankies. Add the waterproof ski pants. Should I just put the ski pants on now over my jeans??? No - I'll be too hot. Should I maybe wear my summer pyjamas instead, with the ski pants over the top??? Naaaa..." (Glad I didn't do that!)

By the time we'd got our sh*t together, the rain had eased off a bit. Actually the rain has eased off a lot. And then the SUN CAME OUT! Jason said "oh look - the sun's come out" and I said (at the last minute just before we got in the car) "Hmmm. Maybe I will take my sunhat and sunnies after all". Which I am very glad I did - as you will see.

Considering ourselves to be WOMAD "old hands" by this stage, we immediately went off in different directions on arrival at the site. Everyone who had seen them on Saturday afternoon had told me that Celenod, from New Caledonia, were really really worth seeing, so I headed off to the Gables Stage and got myself a place to sit on the grass and wait for them to come on.

They were a bit late in starting (because of the rain yesterday the stage needed cleaning and drying, and so did all the sound gear I guess) and while we were waiting... it started to rain again. On went the raincoats, up went the umbrellas, I got out my waterproof pants and wondered whether I should put them on, but decided to sit on them and wait until the rain got really bad... and then the rain stopped and the sun came out. Off came the raincoats, down went the unbrellas, on went the sunhats and the sunnies (SO glad I took them with me!) - and on came Celenod.

They were GREAT! Such a happy group of people! Here's what it says on the WOMAD NZ website:

Traditionally, the music of the Kanak people of New Caledonia is based on the rhythms of their dance.

For the past 20 years, the modern form of this music has been known as kaneka - a mix of dance percussion (bamboo, leaves and wood percussion), acoustic guitar arpeggios, polyphonic vocals inherited from religious choirs and recent instruments such as drums, bass and keyboards.

...Celenod is a six piece band comprising two singers who play acoustic guitars, one lead acoustic guitar, a percussionist and a rhythm section (drums and bass). The sole electric instrument - the bass - is quite discreet and retains the acoustic mood of the music.

Like Hun Huur Tu yesterday, I found many of their melodies and rhythms very familiar, in a never-heard-it-before-but-I-know-it kind of way - and their music was so happy and infectious that I (like many other people in the audience) just had to get up and dance. It was just lovely, dancing in the sunshine, everyone doing all the hand movements that went with their songs, feeling really quite joyful.

One of the songs they did was about making the rain go away, which we all helped with, brushing it away with our hands against the sky. It worked, too! Not another drop of rain fell for the whole of the rest of the festival! Maybe they should give the Gyuto Monks a few pointers (I kid, I kid!).

Here they are with a song about a bird, which they did (again) for their encore:



After Celenod I decided to go meet up with Zef, Sarah, Toki and the kids at the Pagoda stage, and we sat around in the sunshine for a while, just enjoying being there. I was feeling very mellow about who I wanted to see, and I didn't have anywhere in particular I wanted to run off to, so I was happy just to hang out and soak in the atmosphere.

At 5.00pm all the kids who'd been hanging out in the Kid's Zone all weekend, making stuff, got together to do a massive parade right through the Bowl Stage area. I happened to be right next to it as Sarah, Eesha, Esther, Toki and Zef came parading by, with the kids proudly brandishing the beautifully colourful flowers they'd made, so I joined in and paraded around with them. Total fun! It was such a lovely atmosphere - everyone in the crowd was madly applauding the kids as they marched past, we were accompanied by the Samba band Batacuda from Welli (I love those guys!) so we were all dancing along with the rhythms, all of us with great big smiles on our faces. Lovely!

After the parade I decided I'd go check out Etran Finatawa again (not having given them my full attention yesterday), so I headed off to the Brooklands stage. Like Celenod, they were just awesome. The same happy, joyful atmosphere, the same everyone-up-and-dancing thing going on, the same I-know-this-music feeling. Wish I'd taken anoher video of them, but sadly I didn't. You'll just have to make do with a picture instead - "borrowed" from the WOMAD NZ 2007 gallery. Thanks, guys!

There's more...

After Etran Finatawa I decided to head on down to the Bowl Stage to catch the All Star Gala, with Bill Cobham as musical director. Here's a 180 degree view of the crowd watching the show - you can hear my old friends Wai singing in the background. Hi, Mina and Maaka!



One of the nicest things about WOMAD (in addition to everything else!!) is how safe you feel leaving your gear somewhere. I bumped into Sarah, Eesha and Esther on the way to the Bowl Stage, and Sarah had the pushchair with her. The Bowl Stage sits at the bottom of a pretty steep slope which provides the amphitheatre-like setting, and it's not particularly pushchair-friendly. No worries! We just parked it at the top of the slope on the path, grabbed what stuff we wanted, leaving the rest in the pushchair - and headed off down the slope, safe in the knowledge that the chair and all it contained would be right where we left it when we came back.

Here's a sweet little video of the bubble man playing Pied Piper with all the kids during the All Star Gala. I have no clue who's singing during this bit - anyone recognise it?



Eventually the music just got so compelling, and the crowd dancing behind the mixing desk so energetic, that I just had to go down and join in. I left my stuff with Sarah and the kids, and leaped into the fray. God it was fun. Mad dancing in the sunshine, surrounded by this crazy mixture of people - from squealing teenagers jumping around pretending they were doing the haka (and paying more attention to each other and their cellphones than to the music) to old ex-dance party dudes like me, who were all getting on down like nobody's business, sharing the same secret smiles with strangers that we've always shared on the dancefloor. Bloody brilliant.

Zef really wanted to go see Guo Yue (he'd been doing family stuff all day and hadn't had a chance to see anyone he really wanted to see), so they txtd me (reluctantly) away from the dancing zone and we headed off to the Gables Stage. No sooner had I sat down than I got another txt from Lou and Jason, wanting to meet up so I could give them the car keys back. I'd borrowed them earlier so I could pick up the kitē I bought yesterday, and take it back to the car for safe-keeping. We'd been trying to meet up again all day, but we'd kept on being in different places and wanting to stay there for the duration of whoever it was we were watching.

By the time I met up with them and handed over the keys it was a bit late to make my way back to Guo Yue, so we went for food instead, before heading over to the Bowl Stage for Mariza. We'd loved her so much on Friday night, we just had to see her again, and she didn't disappoint. Golly! That woman has an INCREDIBLE voice! We were sitting quite close to the front, but it still wasn't close enough. Next time maybe we'll attempt to get right to the water's edge...

Here she is during the encore, giving her own rendition, fado-style, of the classic song Summertime:



And so to our final show of WOMAD - Mr Scruff. Those of you who've been paying attention (and I know you have!) will remember that my Mr Scruff experience of the previous night was sadly cut short by the fact that it was very late and Lou and Jason were very tired, and we all just needed to go home.

So we promised ourselves that we'd go and see the first half of Mr Scruff's set on the Gables Stage before catching the Mahotella Queens and then the Closing Ceremony on the main stage. It didn't quite work out as we planned, though...

...because Mr Scruff was so bloody BRILLIANT that we just couldn't leave halfway through - we had to stay until the very very end...

Blues, jazz, funk, and 60's R ‘n’ B, disco, boogie, house, reggae, ska and rock-steady, dancehall, electronica, hip hop, African, Latin, and drum & bass - he played it all and we danced like maniacs. Off came the raincoat with warm inner jacket. Off came the new blankie I'd bought that evening after feeling a bit nippy during Mariza. Off came the ever-present cardi (I love me cardies!). Off came the warm woolly hat. In Jason's case, off came the shirt to reveal the sleeveless vest and bare arms beneath. Oh yeah! We were on FIRE!

It was The Gathering all over again - dancing madly in a field, grinning exultantly at total strangers, all inhibitions gone (actually I think they went long ago!), whooping and hollering and having a fab old time. There was a guy near us who was in a wheelchair, and he was having such a great time too. It was lovely. Lou and Jason did some pretty excellent tango-ish dancing to some of the Latin stuff, and I - well I just danced around by myself, just like I always used to. Brilliant!

At one point Mr Scruff played the TV ONE theme, which was very funny - I don't know if he realised it was the TV ONE theme, but it went down pretty well with this Kiwi crowd. And as an encore he played Bob Marley, which was the perfect end to a perfect day. He told us it had taken him 33 hours to fly from the UK to NZ, and that WOMAD Taranaki was the most beautiful WOMAD venue he'd ever played in - and that he'd come back in a heartbeat if he was invited again. Awwwww!

Here he is. Yes I know you can't actually see anything much in this clip - sadly my camera couldn't handle this level of darkness, especially when I'd focused on the stage lights to begin with, but hey - listen to the grooves instead, OK?



After it was all over we whizzed down to the Bowl Stage for the Closing Ceremony - and missed it by a whisker. Ah well. Never mind.

Lou, Jason and I loved WOMAD Taranaki so much, that we've already booked our accommodation for next year. If you want to go, you should probably do the same. Now. Places fill up VERY quickly for WOMAD weekend, and now that it's becoming less and less of a secret, and more of a must-see event, accommodation's going to be even harder to find.

Things we decided you might want to take to WOMAD

• A warm and waterproof jacket.


• Something to sit on. If you're an old bugger, you might want to take a folding chair, but please don't bring one with legs on! It means the rest of us behind you can't see! There are some really good low camping chairs out there, with the seat only a few inches above the ground, which is all you need, really. Or you could get a foldout chair with no legs at all, and a back which is held up by straps attached to either side of the base. Perfect! And if you can't be bothered carrying a chair around, get a squashy waterproof cushion like we did - they're perfect! A warm and dry backside is a beautiful thing...


• Maybe waterproof pants, but honestly, when you're walking around and dancing so much, I think they're too hot really. Best stick to the waterproof jacket and accept that, if it rains, your legs will get a bit wet, and then they'll dry out again because of all the walking and dancing you'll be doing.


• A warm woolly hat for when night falls and it gets cold (or when it rains!)


• A camera and lots of memory sticks/film. You'll need it!


• A water bottle - they have water taps all over the site so you can easily fill up again. It's thirsty work, all that walking around and dancing about!


• A blankie. It's nice to have something to snuggle up in when you're sitting down watching a band at night.


• Some cash. Some of the market stalls take EFTPOS, some don't. Ditto the market food stalls. There is an EFTPOS point on-site I think, but we didn't find/need it. Better to stick a little cash in your pocket so you won't get caught short.


• Layers of clothes so you can take things off as you get hot and put them back on as you cool down. Kiwis know this. We're always having to layer up and then layer down again.


• A sunhat. You know how vicious the Kiwi sun is, even in March!


• Sunblock. Ditto.


• Sunnies. You'll regret it if you don't bring them! 12 hours is a long time to be outdoors each day without 'em!


• Make sure your first layer of clothing is a cool T-shirt or shirt. Even if it's not warm and sunny first thing in the morning, you know it'll probably get that way at some point during the day, and you'll want to strip down to something cool if it does get hot.


• If you're with a bunch of people, a picnic blankie (or two) is a really nice way to gather everyone together. One with a waterproof backing is perfect, especially if it comes in its own little bag so you can fold it up and put it away when you're not using it.


• If you are REALLY organised, you could get hold of a tarp, poles, string and pegs and set up your own little rainproof domain in the Bowl Stage area, and leave it there all weekend - you can see them in some of today's videos.


• Please don't bring an umbrella. I know you want to keep dry, and I guess they are a pretty good way of doing that, but they block the vision of everyone sitting behind you, and that ain't nice!


• A bloody great waterproof daypack to put it all in. Or a pushchair, with or without kids ;)

See you at WOMAD 2008!

Technorati tags: WOMAD, Taranaki, New Zealand, New Plymouth, 2007, review, world music, festival, Celanod, Etran Finatawa, All Star Gala, Bill Cobham, Wai, Guo Yue, Mariza, Mr Scruff, The Gathering, what to take, accommodation, YouTube.

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WOMAD March 2007, Taranaki, New Zealand. Part two - Saturday.

Here's my review of day one of WOMAD, in case you haven't read it already.

On Friday night, after Lou, Jason and I left WOMAD, we settled down in our little 1970s rented-for-the-weekend house and worked our way through the programme for the rest of the weekend, with each of use deciding what we most wanted to see on Saturday. We also made a list of things we reallyreally needed in order to make the next two days in the Great Outdoors as comfortable as possible.

*sigh* you know you're getting older when you absolutely have to have something to sit on at a festival that isn't a piece of cardboard or a discarded plastic bag. Heh.

Saturday morning dawned ok-ish - but the rain was definitely threatening by the time we drove into town to get our supplies. I have written on the back of my programme the following:

Stuff to get:
- space blanket
- cushion
- memory cards - camera

Take:
- coat & inner
- blanket
- sunhat
- sunnies
- sunblock

I love the Warehouse! It always has such great (cheap) stuff. It's brilliant for nutty things you only need for festivals, for example. The New Plymouth Warehouse has obviously got this WOMAD thing completely sussed. Right at the front door was a great big display table with Welcome to WOMAD on it, just full of the weird and wonderful things you suddenly realise you desperately need but haven't brought with you.

Waterproof trousers in a little bag, glow-sticks, tarps - and the thing I was most keen on finding - little cushions that were small enough to fold up and put in your bag, big enough for your bum, nice and squashy without being too bulky, and kinda sorta waterproof, being covered with that classic stripey fabric you normally only get on 1950s camping gear.

They had space blankets too, but I decided that I wouldn't need one now I had my magic cushion. Two down, one to go.

I ended up getting a huge 1GB memory card for my camera. I figured that should keep me going for the whole festival, in addition to the bunch of smaller ones I already have. Funny thing - when I put the card into my camera it said I had 999 seconds of video recording time available, but the number didn't go down the entire time I was there. I wonder if my camera display can only show 3 figures, and I actually had way more time than this, but the number wouldn't have changed until I got below the last 999 secs?

Finally I decided to try and find something not on my list from the night before - a bigger daypack to put all my stuff in. The one I use all the time is quite small, and definitely not waterproof, and certainly isn't big enough for blankets, cushions, warm and waterproof clothes, sunhat, sunblock etc - and the zip's going, which is really annoying when you're dancing and not aware that the zip's come down and all your stuff is falling out all over the place.

I found the best most primo daypack in the entire world at some random surf/skate shop. It's absolutely huge, has about 10 different compartments including a chilly-bag one, and a completely waterproof one separated from the others where you can put your wet gear without getting everything else wet. Plus the whole bag is waterproof, including the zips. This was rather important, as will soon become apparent. Awesome!

By the time we'd got all our shit together it was time to head back to WOMAD, for Day Two. Yaay!

I'm a bit vague at this point on whom I saw what with. Sometimes I was with Lou and/or Jason, other times I was with Zef and/or Sarah and/or Toki and/or Zef & Sarah's kids Eesha and Esther, and sometimes I was by myself. It was very cool actually. By the end of Friday we'd figured out the layout of the festival site, and we all had our programmes and cellphones handy, so it was easy to decide on an individual basis who we wanted to see on Saturday, and to all head off in different directions, meeting up again later.

The cellphone companies must do a roaring trade with txt messaging at festivals. It seemed like everyone had their cellphone out - even the little old ladies and gents there were txting like crazy. Our most common msg was "Where u?".

How did we ever manage before cellphones? I'll tell you how. You had to stick with your mates for the entire festival, otherwise you'd lose them and never find them again. Or at least if you did venture off on your own you had to make darned sure you had a meeting-up-again-afterwards plan - and that you didn't stray one iota from the plan in case you ended up alone-in-the-midst-of-200,000-people.

Mind you, Glastonbury was quite famous for creating its own kind of meeting-up magic. I remember at one Glastonbury in the late 80s I had to get there separately from Sandra and Sean (we usually always went together, but that year I was working and couldn't get away until the Friday). We had a vague plan of where they would be camping, and an even vaguer plan to meet up at the message board at some time on Friday afternoon. I had just arrived, and was walking along the path towards the message board, and there was Sean, walking towards me. He'd totally forgotten about the meeting-up plan, but there he was anyway. Miraculous!

But I digress. Back to WOMAD 2007.

I figured it would be nice to start the day with some Tibetan monkish meditative chanting from the Gyuto Monks, so I headed off to the Pagoda Stage, near where their meeting tent was set up. I found a place to sit, settled down... and the first few drops of rain began to fall. D'oh! Of course, being sensible Kiwi folk, prepared for every weather condition known to exist (because you know that in a typical Kiwi day you're probably going to experience them all at least once), we all had our raingear, cushions, chairs, umbrellas, sunhats, sunnies, sunblock, warm clothes, cool T-shirts, woolly hats, warm blankets, tarps, space blankets... you name it, we had it.

Waterproof coats went on, umbrellas went up, and everyone continued doing whatever it was they were already doing. No wimping out and rushing to the nearest bit of shelter for us! (Not that there was much shelter to be had, but still...)

The Gyuto Monks were lovely. Their chanting was hypnotic, and uplifting, and included a fair bit of throat singing in with the humming. They did a piece called Sounds of Transformation which is a meditative puja - a powerful traditional chanting ritual designed to remove obstacles and problems encountered in everyday life, as a means of bringing about health, happiness and prosperity.

It was also supposed to make the rain go away. Hmmm. Well I suppose you could say they half-succeeded in that endeavour - it rained on and off all day, but there was lots of sunshine in between the showers. Here are the monks:



After their performance the monks began the creation of the sand mandala - the Lotus Mandala of Compassion - with a single bright blue spot in the centre of the table - laid by the Master monk to initiate the process. Each sand mandala represents the architectural layout of the entire palace of a specific deity.

They use a long cone-shaped metal tool (with a tiny hole at the pointy end of the cone) to place the brightly-coloured sand, grain by grain, exactly where it needs to go. A small amount of brightly-coloured sand is poured into the top, and a metal rod is scraped up and down across concentric ridges on the lower part of the cone. This vibration causes a tiny amount of sand to fall through the hole at the bottom of the cone, which can then be directed very accurately onto the table in just the right spot.

The mandala takes all weekend to complete, and after it's finished, it is deliberately destroyed. The Buddha's last words were "All things are impermanent, work out your salvation with diligence" and the destruction of the mandala upholds this principle that life is transient. The monks traditionally sweep up the mandala and place the sand in a river, lake, or ocean as an offering to purify the surrounding environment. Here's a fascinating look at the creation of a sand mandala.

After the monks I decided to head on over to the Gables Stage to see Shivkumar Sharma again - and I caught up with Zef, Sarah, Toki, Eesha and Esther for the first time that weekend. Yaay! Zef is an old hand at WOMAD - I think he's been to every WOMAD in NZ so far - and has been trying to get us to come along for years. This year he gave up asking - and this was the year that Lou and Jason decided to go, and to ask me along too. Wow! How can I have ignored your suggestion for so long, Zef? Crazy crazy crazy. WOMAD is awesome!!!!

I had a lovely time sitting in the (mostly) sun, digging Shivkumar, Rahul and Yogesh and watching Esther, Eesha, Zef and Toki making freaky animals from multicoloured bits of plasticine. I'm so glad I went to see Shivkumar again. Last night they were having problems with the sound levels, and I think it made them all a little tense. This performance was somehow more joyful, more uplifting, and even better than Friday's show. Yaay!

I'm so impressed by the fact that Zef and Sarah make the effort to come to WOMAD and bring the kids with them. It's not an easy task - in fact I think it has to be planned something like a military campaign [peaceful non-violent version of course] - but they do it so well, and with such enthusiasm. They had this really cool pair of waterproof-backed blankets to sit on, and a suitcase full of food already prepared, and a pushchair for Esther and all their rain gear, earplugs for the kids, warm clothes, sunhats - everything you could need.

They certainly weren't alone in bringing the kids to WOMAD - there were heaps of families ranging in age from babes-in-arms to happily rowdy teenagers who were allowed to go off in giggly groups to explore and dance on their own. In fact, I would have to say that the WOMAD audience was the most diverse I've ever seen at a festival. There was every age represented, from tiny babies to really really old people (complete with cellphones!), every nationality and skin tone you could imagine, and every "tribe" - from the dance party kids and hippies with dreadlocks to Mr and Mrs Straight NZ complete with folding chairs, picnic baskets, umbrellas and head-to-toe waterproofs. It was brilliant.

It was also one of the most well-behaved, well-mannered, safe and good-humoured festivals I've ever been to. It felt like The Gathering for Grownups in terms of the sheer smiliness of it. I don't think I saw a single grumpy face the whole weekend - even when it was raining everyone was still smiling and happy. And the loos (as I mentioned in Part One) were awesome too. What more could you wish for? Oh - and the music wasn't bad, either! :)

After Shivkumar we wandered back to the main stage to meet up with Lou and Jason again, and caught some of the show by Etran Finatawa from Niger. The group is made up of musicians from both the Tuareg and Wodaabe nomadic tribes, who together have created a new musical form - Nomad Desert Blues. Here's a nice description from the WOMAD website:

Wodaabe and Tuaregs share the same regions for living, but their music is very different. Wodaabe sing in a traditional matter, wearing traditional costumes and make up. They do not use any instruments but sing in a multivocal way while they dance in slow motion. Their dance, their costumes and their rhythm is unique in the world.

Tuareg people have always used instruments, violins and drums to animate their songs and dances. Since the 1970s the guitar has found its way into Tuareg music. This style is called Ichumar and is a part of Etran Finatawa's repertoire. Etran Finatawa combines the two rich cultures: Their songs are in two languages, Tuareg language (tamasheck) and Wodaabe language (fulfulde). The band instrumentalises the polyphonic songs of the Wodaabe people by means of traditional percussion like calebashes and tende, a traditional tuareg drum, with guitar-rhythm. The polyphonic choir of Wodaabe singers gives a special note to their music. Handclapping and the rich percussion leads the songs and invites people to dance.

Here's the crew gathered on the slope looking down onto the main stage as Etran Finatawa do a bit of tuning up. You'll see Jason, Lou, Esther, Sarah, Zef, Eesha, Toki and a few thousand other people. And my voice. And the fabulous venue that is WOMAD Taranaki. Lovely!



I didn't pay quite as much attention to Etran Finatawa as they deserved (we were socialising at the same time which is never conducive to complete and rapt musician-attention), but I really enjoyed them - enough to want to go and see them again on Sunday. I found it really interesting how many of the dance party kids were down the front dancing away, and I realised (not for the last time during WOMAD) just how much of an influence World Music has been on the creation and development of electronica. There really is a crystal-clear relationship between the two, and not just in ambient electronica either (although that genre probably displays the most obvious influential pathways).

I hadn't really thought about the hippies and the dance kids being into WOMAD - although I should certainly have realised that the hippies would be there - but somehow I thought the dance party kids would have been too cool to go to WOMAD. How silly of me! In fact throughout the weekend I kept on spotting people I used to know at The Gathering - 10 years older than they were then, and still dancing, full of joy and happiness. Awesome.

Here's more of Etran Finatawa:



And here are Sarah, Toki, Esther and Zef dancing to the final song - with Eesha not quite so sure about the whole dancing thing:



The next act (whom I was really excited to be seeing) was master jazz drummer Bill Cobham. He's played with all the greats during his 50-year career, including Thelonius Monk, Stan Getz, and Miles Davis. And as I'm all about the drumming... well, I just had to see him.

He did a master class in the afternoon on the Pagoda stage, and while we were waiting for him to get set up we got to hear the end of the dDub show on the Gables stage next door. Wow. They sounded awesome - and were received incredibly enthusiastically by their leaping, dancing audience. If I hadn't been waiting patiently for Bill I would have raced over there and got stuck in. Next time, next time...

To my surprise, Bill was joined onstage by an old friend of mine, Chris O'Connor. Hi Chris! I knew Chris when I was in the drumming/world music band Many Hands, and I seem to remember he even played with us once or twice. He was an awesome drummer then (I think we were all a bit in awe of him) and he's even better now (and quite famous, too, I think!) Anyway, Bill had co-opted him into his show a couple of hours earlier, which I guess was probably quite a thrill for Chris.

The point of the master class was for Bill (with the help of Chris) to show us some of the drumming techniques he uses, to try and break them down into their most basic patterns so that we could understand them, and to talk a little about how to drum, how to be a drummer, and how to be the best. They were helped in this regard by a lovely MC, who introduced them, suggested what they should show us, and who asked lots of questions such as "can you make it really simple so we get it?" which Bill proceeded to ignore almost completely. I don't think he can play "simple".

It was pretty cool watching Bill do his thing. His technique is truly amazing - he's so dexterous, so skillful, so fast - and his innate sense of rhythm is obviously so well-honed that he can hear (and play) the off-beats and the off-off beats without even thinking about it.

The thing is, he's so good, he's completely impossible to dance to. In fact it's even a challenge to sway along rhythmically when he's playing, because he's constantly changing the tempo and throwing in so many off-beats it's hard sometimes to even hold onto the bass beat. Before Bill, I had never met a drum rhythm I couldn't dance to - in fact I'd never met a drum rhythm that didn't pick me up by the scruff of my neck and force me to dance to it, but I think Bill managed to do what no-one else ever has. He stopped me in my tracks. Nice one, Bill! Here he is, together with Chris O'Connor and the nice MC:



After Bill, I raced down to the Dell Stage, which is in a sweet tree-embraced spot near the main stage, to catch the Huun Huur Tu workshop. Huun Huur Tu are traditional throat-singers from the south Siberian republic of Tuva, and they can produce two and sometimes three harmonious notes simultaneously. Here's how Wikipedia explains it. Throat singing is one of the most ancient musical forms anywhere in the world and ethnomusicologists see it as an integral part in the ancient pastoral animism that is still practiced today in Tuva.

It's the most weirdly wonderful and other-worldly sound, and I've loved it ever since I saw (and) heard throat singers at a WOMAD concert in Wellington, in the days before the WOMAD festival became a permanent fixture here. And then there was that awesome documentary, Genghis Blues, that screened at the Film Festival a few years ago. Still one of my favourite documentaries of all time. So really, seeing Huun Huur Tu's workshop was a must for me.

They had enlisted the help of their manager, a Russian who spoke great English, to help in the workshop. He explained the different types of throat singing, and the fact that it's intimately entwined with their expression of love for the land in which the Tuvans live - the deserts, steppes, forests and mountains. The animistic world view of this region identifies the spirituality of natural objects through the sounds htey make, as well as where they are and what they look like. Many of the sounds made by voice and traditional instruments in Tuvan music mimic the sounds of the landscape, and the birds and animals which live there, and the songs include lyrics that describe the Tuvan landscape and the way of life of the people.

There are also a lot of songs about horses. This is because (as the manager explained), when you live with your family in a yurt in the middle of a vast plain, and the nearest other family is 25km away in their yurt in the middle of the vast plain, and you're looking for love... you're gonna need your horse in order to go get you some of that lovin'. So love songs and horse songs are inextricably linked in the Tuvan culture. I'm sure they love their horses, too.

Except for (or maybe especially when) they need them to make instruments with, of course. Guitars covered in horse-skin, horse tail hairs used for making violin strings, drumskins made of horse - and the clip-cloppy percussion instruments that make a noise like a pair of horse's hooves when two are banged together? Are made out of a pair of horse's hooves. Obvious really - there aren't many coconut trees growing in Tuva. Heh.

Here are Huun Huur Tu with a lovely song about horses (which is now completely stuck in my head and won't go away. Not that I mind!). It includes examples of the Sygyt or whistling technique (reminiscent of birds singing and the gentle breezes of summer), as well as the Khoomei and Kargyraa styles:



After a song or two we were shown some of the different kinds of throat singing. Here's the Khoomei style. Khoomei is the Tuvan name for throat singing as a whole, but it also denotes a technique where the drone is in the middle-range of the voice, with harmonics between one and two octaves above. Singing in this style gives the impression of wind swirling among rocks:



And here's Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, the co-founder of Huun Huur Tu, demonstrating the deep-noted "undertone" technique of Kargyraa. I think this is the dag or "mountain" kargyraa, which is the lower of the two forms of kargyraa. This style can be described as the howling winds of winter or the plaintive cries of a mother camel after losing her calf:



See, this is something I love about WOMAD. Where else could you attend a master class from a master jazz drummer followed by a workshop demonstrating the most ancient form of singing in the world, followed by... a tango class in the rain, taught by the foremost exponents of Argentinian tango in Australasia? Just bloody brilliant.

One thing I would HIGHLY recommend at WOMAD is not to fill your daily calendar too full, and to go with the flow from time to time, and just wander along with your mates to see whoever they want to see. I discovered some real gems that way, including, back at the Dell Stage, Fabio Robles and Ana Andre's tango class.

Zef and Sarah were there already when I arrived, together with Eesha and Esther, so we all settled down to watch the show. Well, we started off by settling down. We weren't sat down for long, though.

Fabio is this lovely, warm, handsome Argentinian with a hint of an Aussie accent, which is really rather endearing, and Ana is from Portugal. When she was introduced and walked out on stage a collective "ooh!" went up from the crowd because she was just.beautiful. Tall and incredibly slender, wearing a fantastically sexy dress that was slit right up the front as far as it would go (and then some!) - she was just a vision.

They began by dancing for us, and then they started the class. "Everyone up on their feet! Come on!" So we all dutifully stood up, and prepared to tango. It was raining quite heavily by this point, but it really didn't matter. We scooped up all our stuff into a pile on and around the pushchair, covered it with one of the waterproof blankets, waterproof side out, and each found a partner.

Initially Zef and Sarah were dancing together, and I was with Eesha, but she decided she'd rather tango with her dad, so we all swapped around and I ended up with Sarah (with Esther on her hip.) She danced the man to my woman, which was pretty funny, especially when Esther got thirsty and decided to head for the boobie. I never imagined I'd ever get the chance to tango with a womanfriend, in a glade, with 200 other people, in the rain, while she breastfeeds her baby at the same time as manoeuvering me around the dancefloor (glade). Classic!

Bit by bit we all learned the steps, practiced them separately and then put them all together, bit by bit. It was very funny, and heaps of fun, and we all got really wet, and no-one cared at all. Each time we learned a new step they'd pull another couple onto the stage with them until there were about 10 couples up there, all tangoing away with varying levels of success.

By the end of it we were all step-slide, step-slide, back, back, step-slide, step-slide, forwards, forwards, step in front-flick! front-flick! front-flick! front-flick! step behind-flick!, behind-flick!, behind-flick! behind-flick! and round-two-three-four-five-flick! change direction-two-three-four-five-flick! leg up and round behind the man's legs/bum, other leg up and over the first leg (jump!) and down again second leg, first leg... woohoo!

W00t! Once we'd (sorta, kinda) mastered it, Fabio made us all swap partners and dance with someone we didn't know. Hi new partner! Not having a babe-on-hip to contend with, my new partner was able to do the whole lifting thing at the end, so I actually did manage to do the leg-around-his-leg/bum and jump! thing, which made me very happy. And then Sarah gave Esther to Zef and we did it too - just to show we could. Brilliant!

I had quite a gap until the next show I really wanted to see, so I did a bit of shopping in the marketplace (I hardly ever shop! What came over me? It was lovely actually) and bought the most beautiful kitē (that's the Māori flax-woven bag/basket, not the flying-on-a-string thing) by Jasmine Clark from Kare Kare, aka seaweed. It's enormous, and so beautifully woven that it's a work of art more than simply a practical way of carrying your togs to the beach. I think I'll put it on my wall. Or have it on display somewhere. I left it at the stall, planning to pick it up later when it stopped raining, and then bought a lovely hand-painted shirt in shades of smoky mauve, blue and grey. It's that hippy costume thing again, you see.

Checked out the global food village, got something to eat (the food really was fab), wandered around some more and then headed off to the Pagoda Stage to see Bill Cobham's main performance. We had to wait quite a while - the Jonathan Crayford Project were still doing their thing on the Gables Stage next door, and we really couldn't begin until they had finished. They ended with this massive jam session and drumming thing that seemed to go on for about 15 minutes. It sounded pretty good, and again if I hadn't been waiting for Bill I'd have gone over and checked it out, but anyway...

Finally Bill did his thing - and he basically drummed without pause for 45 or 50 minutes. It was pretty amazing actually. Completely ambidexterous, sometimes with two sticks, sometimes with four (two in each hand, each playing a different drum). Here are two bits of it. You'll see why it's impossible to dance to, but very impressive, nonetheless:





After Bill, I met up with Lou and Jason, and we went over to the Brooklands stage to see Huun Huur Tu again. The dance party kids were out in force, dancing very happily at the front (in the rain once more) and I had the most lovely time, dancing by myself further back, occasionally worrying that the rain drifting blowily across the front of the stage was actually blowing onto the group and damaging their horse-y instruments. Lou and Jason sat on their portable stools nearby, and I hope they had a lovely time too.

Huun Huur Tu's melodies are quite amazing in that although they are so ancient, and come from such a long tradition, they are also somehow very recognisable. I found myself humming along with almost all their songs, even new ones they hadn't played at the workshop. Interesting. There were a few bands on Sunday where I felt like I knew the music before I knew it, too. I love it when that happens. It feels like there's an infinite connection between you and the musicians and their music. Maybe that's why the dance party kids (and I include myself in that group) are drawn to this kind of music.

One thing you have to be aware of when you go to any festival with a bunch of friends, is that everyone has their own body rhythm, and their own high- and low-energy points. Esther and Eesha had reached theirs sometime after the tango class, so Sarah took them home, while Zef stayed on. Lou reached hers sometime during Huun Huur Tu. I was more than a bit sad about that, but you have to practice the art of compromise when you do festivals together, so I reluctantly let them tear me away from my lovely throat singers, in preparation for going home.

I'd got a txt from Zef, who was grooving on down to Mr Scruff at the Dell Stage, so we headed back down there in the rainrainrain, to pick him and Toki up and give them a ride home. Oh my lordy was Mr Scruff playing some great grooves or WHAT? Jazzy, funky, reggae-ish - I just HAD to dance. Lou and Jason graciously practiced their art of compromise and agreed to stick around for a while - and because they didn't feel like dancing they looked after my bag while I headed into the heaving mass of soaking wet wildly-grinning people on the dancefloor. Thanks a million, guys!

We had so much fun, and all got completely soaking wet, which didn't matter because we were dancing so hard-out that our clothes were drying as fast as they were being rained on. I realise I haven't danced outdoors to a DJ in anything remotely resembling a field in FAR too long - and I truly miss it. I really have to do it more often. Welli has never really been much of an outdoor party place (apart from the ClearLight parties in the 90s) so I guess I'd have to venture down south to find them - maybe around ChCh or Dunners. Not that that's any hardship - I love the south island!

Eventually I got a txt from Jason saying "c u back at the car" and I figured this might possibly be a subtle hint that they really would like to go now please, so I gathered up the boys and we headed off, all completely determined to be back for Mr Scruff's entire set on Sunday night.

On the way home Toki demonstrated to us all that he can actually do throat-singing, which is pretty amazing (No bull! He can really do it!), especially as at the workshop we'd been told it's not really something you can learn, you just "know" (assuming you've been brought up in a yurt in Tuva, of course!)

What a brilliant day. More tomorrow.

Technorati tags: WOMAD, Taranaki, New Zealand, New Plymouth, 2007, review, world music, festival, Huun Huur Tu, Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Yogesh Samsi, Gyuto Monks, Etran Finatawa, Bill Cobham, Chris O'Connor, dDub, Fabio Robles, Ana Andre, Mr Scruff, The Gathering, Glastonbury, YouTube.

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WOMAD March 2007, Taranaki, New Zealand. Part one - Friday.

This time last week I was at WOMAD 2007, in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. It was the most wonderful festival I've been to in a long time. I reckon WOMAD, and the incredible venue of Brooklands Park and the Bowl, are two of this country's best-kept secrets. Well - to the 20,000 other people at the sold-out event I guess WOMAD is not so secret, and of course the citizens of New Plymouth have long been aware of the wonders of this particular venue, but for the rest of the country? Not so much.

Our introduction to the venue was spectacular, to say the least. We parked out on the road (to save being jammed up in exiting traffic later on), and then walked across the racecourse to the WOMAD site. It was late Friday afternoon, the sun was still shining, and we joined the end of a long queue of people making their way down the bush-clad path towards the entrance to the venue. Sunlight glinted through the thick trees and native bush - and it was just about the most beautiful location for a queue I think I've ever seen. Quite magical, in fact.

After about half an hour we finally reached the gates to WOMAD, had our bags checked and wristbands put on - and I was standing there in awe, not quite believing what an amazing place we'd found ourselves in. We were at the foot of a huge natural amphitheatre, edged on two sides by beautiful native trees. To our right as we came through the gates was the main stage - the Bowl Stage - a sweeping curved permanent construction set within a little lake.

The grass-covered slope of the amphitheatre flowed right up from the water's edge to the top of the hill, and the entire area was just full of people. Thousands were already sitting on the grass watching the performance on the main stage, others were walking up the path which took you to the top of the hill and towards the global food village, global village (market) area and 3 other stages, while others were milling around, greeting friends and generally being thrilled to be there. It was quite awesome. What a gorgeous place!

We arrived just as Huun Huur Tu - the Tuvan throat-singers - were doing their thing on the main stage, and we decided that we'd have a bit of an explore of the site first, and catch them the following day.

I've been to WOMAD once before - the first year it came to NZ and was held in Aotea Square in Auckland (not the ideal venue for WOMAD, but never mind) - and the performer who'd completely and unexpectedly blown me away was Shivkumar Sharma, the Indian santoor player. I was so pleased to see he was at WOMAD again this year, and Lou, Jason and I decided to go see him on the Brooklands Stage.

Shivkumar Sharma has been playing the Indian folk instrument, the santoor, for over 50 years, and his son Rahul Sharma is now a master santoor player too. Their performance is accompanied by the most amazing tabla player Yogesh Samsi, and it's incredibly hypnotic - and absolutely compelling.

The santoor's a shallow open wooden box, and has 100 metal strings stretched across it, somewhat like a zither or dulcimer. It's played using a pair of wooden rods, upturned at the ends. Shivkumar and Rahul play in the jugalbandhi style - where their two instruments compete and contrast with each other in an on-stage improvisation based on a classical raga. I love this description by Wellingtonista so much, I think I'll just borrow it:

Using a 100-string santoor in chromatic arrangement Sharma creates complex webs of beautiful, ethereal, shimmering sound, mounting improvisation within improvisation within the raga form, climaxing in furious blowouts with fiery tabla virtuosos and frenzied, ecstatic glissando.

Shivkumar describes the effect of Santoor music as "something like a whisper and a cascade of a waterfall." Which interestingly enough is almost exactly how Sarah described it, after seeing him perform the following day.

Here they are. The deepdeep throbbing notes you can hear are the sound of the bass tabla underlying the melodies:





We decided we'd take a look at the Bowl Stage next, and catch a little of the Gotan Project. I seem to remember we were a wee bit hungry by that point, so we stopped at the global food village on the way. YUMMY food from all over the world, great coffee and a lovely atmosphere. And recycling bins everywhere, clearly labelled with what should go inside them (plastic, paper, cans etc). "Hmmm", we thought "wouldn't it have been lovely if we could have done that kind of thing at The Gathering..." We spent quite a lot of WOMAD comparing its organisation with that of The Gathering. A very interesting exercise.

The Gotan Project were pretty good (lots of people have asked me this week if I saw them), but I have to admit (to my shame) that they didn't grab me like some of the other performers did over the weekend. I think perhaps it's because we didn't see the whole show, as we were busy filling our faces first, and we were sitting pretty far up the slope of the amphitheatre, which means you're miles away from the stage - plus there were plenty of other distractions (see next video). Anyway, everyone else seemed to be massively enjoying them, so there you go. My loss!

Here are the freaky stiltwalking Quidams making their way across the site. You can hear the Gotan Project in the background:



The next performer we saw was to be one of my stand-out shows of the whole festival - and I am SO grateful to Lou for suggesting we go and see her.

Mariza is a fado singer from Portugal. I suppose I should say the fado singer, because although she's still pretty young she's already being compared to Portugal's greatest fado icon Amalia Rodrigues.

I guess you could describe fado as a bit like the French torch song. Passionate pieces about love, and life, about joy and tragedy - not simply sung but felt with every ounce of the singer's soul. Mariza was completely amazing in this regard. She's charismatic, gorgeous, sexy and absolutely charming - she had us in the palm of her hand throughout the set - and she has a KILLER voice. Really - it's truly fantastic.

But I think it was the emotion and passion that she poured into every song - both with the tone of her voice and movements of her body - that really blew me away. Mariza secured a new fan that night - and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Here she is singing Primavera - in two parts because my little camera can only do 3 minutes at a time.

Apologies in advance for the way the camera strays from the subject matter from time to time in the first clip. I was trying not to annoy those around me with my bright camera screen by closing it up while filming and only checking it once in a while. About halfway through I thought "fuck this" and started filming properly. Thank goodness. Here's Mariza...





During Mariza's performance we (and everyone else around us) were assailed by the only annoying people we encountered during the entire festival. This pair of drunken middle-aged men were intent on having the loudest conversation possible, extolling the virtues of Mariza's voice, her body, her passion - and just about everything else you can think of. "We're in the presence of greatness here, Richard!!" (yes I know we are, but do you have to share your every thought with Richard quite so loudly?) Honestly, I thought the guy was going to come in his pants right then and there... Eventually Lou turned around and shushed him very firmly, and he pretty much shut up after that. He gave us daggers when the lights came up afterwards, but who cares?

Oh! I must mention the (normally) dreaded subject of festival toilets at this point. When you gotta go, you gotta go, and I decided sometime during Mariza's set that I hadda go.

Anyone who's ever been to a festival will tell you that the toilets are generally a complete nightmare. It's either converted cattle stalls over a shitty pit (Glastonbury for many years) or stinky, overflowing port-a-loos (The Gathering, I'm afraid - however hard we tried to get them emptied regularly). You hold on as long as you can, and then you have to take your own loo paper and put a peg on your nose, and get in and out as fast as possible before you're overcome by the grossness... you know what it's like. Not so at WOMAD.

The loos at WOMAD were a complete revelation. Every single loo I used throughout the festival was a flush loo, properly plumbed, clean as a new pin, sweet-smelling, with its own loo paper, basins with running water, soap and their own supply of paper hand towels... it was quite amazing. Wow. You might think a festival's not a festival without disgusting loos, but let me tell you - nice loos are a truly wonderful thing - even (or especially) at a festival. Huge props to the organisers for having it so beautifully organised and under control.

At some point during the evening it got pretty cold - the threatening rain had held off, but that meant a clear and starry night - and the temperature dropped quite dramatically. I found a gorgeous Indian blanket at one of the stalls in the global village market, and after that I was one happy and snuggly bunny. We also rooted around in the pirate's treasure chest that was the bead stall (thousands of bangles for sale in all shapes, sizes and colors) and I found six lovely bead bangles in natural materials in shades of orange, brown and ochre. Well, if you can't stock up on your hippy costumes at WOMAD, where can you do it?

We wandered back to the Bowl stage after Mariza and caught a bit of Femi Kuti, but we were all pretty tired by that point (it's a 5+ hour drive from Wellington to New Plymouth), so we decided to head home to our rented 1970's throwback house and get some shut-eye in preparation for the 2-day, 12 hour day marathon that was ahead...

More later, gentle reader, more later...

Technorati tags: WOMAD, Taranaki, New Zealand, New Plymouth, 2007, review, world music, festival, Huun Huur Tu, Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Yogesh Samsi, Gotan Project, Quidams, Mariza, Femi Kuti, YouTube.

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