The 2024 festival season is in full swing and times are changing. Some festivals are struggling while others (Glastonbury, Green Man, Beautiful Days) are still selling out. Towersey and Underneath The Stars have announced that this will be their last year. Larger sections of festival sites are now set apart for glamping. For some festival-goers the rising cost of everything means that they have to choose which festival to attend.
I have gone the volunteer route to enable me to keep attending. I actually enjoy helping out, and there are other perks such as early entry, showers and quieter camping. Last weekend I attended my sixth Womad, for the second time as an Oxfam volunteer. Womad is decidedly different from other UK festivals and it is my hope that it will continue for many years yet.
Womad has been going since 1982, with Peter Gabriel as one of its co-founders. Peter was seen around the site again this year. I personally see nothing wrong with the term world music, as my interpretation is that world music is cultural music (as opposed to pop) from anywhere in the world, which is precisely what is on show at Womad. It is always a delight to delve through the line-up, and I discover many more acts than I will be able to see, due to clashes and volunteer shifts.
These were my highlights:
1. GOGOL BORDELLO - Open Air Stage
Gogol Bordello delivered a glorious headline set on the Saturday night. They are the perfect festival band: Loud, fast and colourful gypsy punks. The band are from New York, with many members originally from Latin America, and led by frontman extraordinaire Eugene Hütz from Ukraine. I had seen them before, but not for some years. The stage backdrop was a raised fist in blue and yellow with the word ‘Solidaritine’, the title of their latest album. They ended their show with ‘Solidarity’, an Angelic Upstarts song, originally written in the 1980s in support of Poland, now with adapted lyrics about Ukraine. This was one serious note in an otherwise party setlist that included bangers ‘Dance Around The Fire’ and ‘Immigrant Punk’, my favourite ‘I Never Wanna Be Young Again’, and the ever-hilarious ‘Start Wearing Purple’, during which Eugene doused the front row with beer and wine. It was one of those shows that left everybody with huge smiles on their faces.
2. JUSTIN ADAMS & MOHAMED ERREBBAA - Ecotricity
Justin Adams is a master guitarist, producer and collaborator (Jah Wobble, Robert Plant, Juldeh Camara), who always plays Womad in some shape or form. This time he teamed up with Moroccan gnawa master/guembri player Mohamed Errebbaa. The band furthermore included drummer Omar El Barkaoui and singer/percussionist Chloë Rose Laing. For a relatively new project the quartet put on an absolutely perfect show, taking turns in singing lead and playing songs from their respective repertoires. The songs were long and given the opportunity to build and turn trance-like. At festivals people often wander from one stage to another, but here everybody stayed put and the band got a standing ovation at the end. They finished with a desert-bluesy cover of ‘Poor Wayfaring Stranger’. Hypnotising stuff. I do hope they are planning to record and album.
3. NDOX ELECTRIQUE - Charlie Gillett
I had read about this project in Songlines magazine and made a strong mental note to go and see them, without properly listening to the music. As such, their set hit me over the head like a hammer. Ndox Electrique are François and Gianna, a French/Italian duo, also working as Putan Club, who bring to mind acts like the Gun Club and the Cramps. They are travellers and researchers and a little dig online will unearth much interesting work they have put out over the years. In Ndox Electrique they collaborate with Senegalese musicians of the n’doëp community (a female singer, two percussionists and a dancer), who perform healing rituals which combine in a fascinating way with the duo’s industrial rock music. The result is percussive, loud, transfixing. Many described this as their highlight of the festival. Check out their album, ‘Tëd ak Mame Coumba Lamba ak Mame Coumba Mbang’, available on Bandcamp.
4. FAIZ ALI FAIZ -Siam tent
Festivals often bring curious changeovers (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds followed by Mumford & Sons one year at Glastonbury…!), but rarely have I had to make a switch as rigorous as going from Gogol Bordello to Faiz Ali Faiz, a qawwali singer with a seven men-group. I was still full of the Gogol experience and it took me a good fifteen minutes to get into the mood for the qawwali, but into it I got. This is devotional music and it is not necessary to understand the words. There is Faiz Ali Faiz’ singing and wild gesturing, the sound of the harmonium, the handclaps and the rhythm of the tablas. This was a late show, which drew a large and appreciative crowd to the Siam tent.
5. ARS NOVA NAPOLI - Siam tent
The first day of the festival had given me Afrobeat by a group from London and dub reggae by an Italian, so it was a a relief to start the Friday with Italian music made by Italians. Ars Nova Napoli are a six-piece from Naples, who play traditional music (pizzica, tarantella) alongside their own material. Their song ‘La Catalana’ was playing all weekend over the PA, as part of a seemingly short playlist of featured artists. Ars Nova Napoli’s members play accordion, guitar, double bass, bagpipes, frame drums. They are charming and had the whole tent dancing and clapping along. I was sorry to miss their appearance at ‘Taste The World’, a popular venue at Womad where musicians perform songs acoustically as well as cook a dish from their country.
6. LEYLA MCCALLA - Siam tent
The late night slot on closing night can be very special. Last year Souad Massi played that slot; this year it was Leyla McCalla, who I first encountered in Whelans in Dublin back when she played cello with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Leyla had an excellent trio with her, whom she said played on her recent albums. Sound at Womad was a mixed bag this year, often taking a couple of songs to get sorted, but Leyla sounded great from the start. The set was really varied in style and subject matter, without feeling disjointed. Leyla is an engaging storyteller as well. I would love to see a longer concert. At Womad most shows, apart from the headliners and subs, are one hour. They are programmed so that there is no sound bleed between stages. Why can’t other festivals get this right?!
7. GENTICORUM - Charlie Gillett
Whenever festivals have bands from Quebec on they are always excellent. I actually travelled to Quebec a number of years ago, hoping to find more of this music, but must not have looked in the right places. “Ah oui, this music is very popular in Europe”, I kept hearing… Genticorum are a trio and their show has all the customary ingredients: Footstomping, call and response songs, a mouth harp and some great flute playing. The crowd quickly swelled as soon as the band started playing.
8. ASMAA HAMZAOUI & BNAT TIMBOUKTOU - Siam tent
This is gnawa music from North Africa. What makes it different from other gnawa performances is that this group are all female. Asmaa and Aicha Hamzaoui are the daughters of gnawa master Rachid Hamzaoui. Asmaa has a distinctive husky voice. It often happens when you see a good live act that their album does not quite live up to the live experience. With Asmaa Hamzaoui I find it is the opposite. Her latest album ‘L’Bnat’ is highly recommended.
9. LONDON AFROBEAT COLLECTIVE - D&B Soundscape
They do what it says on the tin. I particularly liked the fact that their show was entirely live. Band members are from all over, though not Africa, except for singer Juanita Euka, who has Congolese roots and grew up in Buenos Aires. She was the best part of the show for me. They had the tent packed.
10. SAULJALJUI - Charlie Gillett Sauljaljui is an indigenous singer from Taiwan. There is a tribal element to her music. The singer plays lute and is accompanied by three musicians. This show does feel a bit disjointed, particularly the part where the audience has to get involved. Sauljaljui’s unique and powerful voice saves the day.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
YUNGCHEN LHAMO
I am a long-time Yungchen fan and went to see her the previous weekend in Bray, fearing I might not be able to make her set. Yungchen was accompanied by John Alevizakis, who produced her latest album, and Co.Clare percussionist Tommy Hayes. Yungchen had been away from the spotlight for some time. It is great to have her back. At Womad I saw her doing a signing session in the merch tent at 01:00 a.m., when I was on a break in my night shift, getting coffee there.
DUO RUUT - Taste the World
I could not make their gig, but saw Estonian Duo Ruut at ‘Taste The World’, where they played six songs. The girls set poetry to music and by their own admission “play the zither wrong”. It sounded wonderful.
THE BREATH - D&B Soundscape
I heard their show from my stewarding spot outside the D&B Soundscape tent, although unfortunately mixed with 80s radio blaring from a nearby Indian food stall. Many people said The Breath (Rioghnach Connolly and Stuart McCallum) were one of their highlights. I made do with buying their Thomas Hartlett-produced album (beautiful!).
GONG - D&B Soundscape
Again heard from my stewarding spot, but Gong were a lot louder than The Breath and successfully drowned out the never-ending stream of Culture Club, Haircut 100, Thompson Twins etc. that I had to endure during my shift. I could see large numbers of older music fans flocking to the D&B Soundscape tent for this gig. From what I could see they had impressive visuals as well.
NORIKO TADANO - World Rhythms
I attended a workshop by this Japanese shamisen player, which was like a mini gig. Impressive.
Helen
