WOMADelaide has announced a mammoth 54 additional groups and projects – including 28 internationals – for the March 2018 event to be held in Adelaide’s Botanic Park. The final lineup includes New York’s gypsy punks, Gogol Bordello; American bassist-singer Thundercat; breakout Israeli hip-hop artist Victoria Hanna and indigenous rising talent, Baker Boy.
Since forming in 1999 Gogol Bordello have injected Eastern European musical influences into underground rock to forge their unique sound. Their live shows, with giddying theatrics and a large dose of chaos, pack a power punch and dispel the notion that ‘everything has been done’.
Thundercat, having released three critically acclaimed albums and had a hand in two Grammy-winning albums (To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar and The Epic by Kamasi Washington), weave a heady mix of jazz, hip-hop, psychedelia, and funk.
Joining them on the 2018 line up is Victoria Hanna, who performs Aramaic hip-hop and hypnotic, rhythmic raps on ancient Hebrew texts. Hanna is a vocal experimentalist who is both unpredictable and bewitching.
Singer, dancer and actor, Baker Boy, known in Arnhem Land as the ‘fresh new prince’ has had a phenomenal year or so, twice winning NT Song of the Year and scoring top honours in triple j Unearthed’s National Indigenous Music Awards competition.
“It is so exciting to be able to reveal the entire program, which crosses so many new boundaries, and countries as varied as Ghana, Sweden, Cape Verde, Turkey, Cameroon and PNG, as well as highlighting major projects in dance, circus and the visual arts,” said WOMADelaide Director Ian Scobie AM. “The 2018 festival is a true celebration of the wealth of musical and creative invention from some of the world’s most original, brilliant and adventurous artists”.
The diverse international lineup also includes Bulgaria’s incredible polyphonic singers Eva Quartet; Zanzibar’s mini classical orchestra Rajab Suleiman & Kithara; rising New Orleans stars Tank and The Bangas; Scandinavian folk duo My Bubba; Blick Bassy’s inspiring blend of blues, Bossa Nova and folk from Cameroon and the exquisite rigour and grace of China’s TAO Dance Theater.
From Australia, a vast range of musical territories will be covered; songs from the Russian heartland by Dustyesky to the hip-hop collaboration of Remi x Sampa (Remi Kolawole and Sampa The Great); the return of Mama Kin after eight years in the form of her new project Mama Kin Spender (with Tommy Spender and a 16-piece choir); the nu-soul of Hiatus Kaiyote’s Nai Palm and the vintage sounds of Tex, Don & Charlie.
Off stage, the festival includes an ethereal gallery of large-scale grass photo-synthetic portraits taken by renowned British visual artists Ackroyd & Harvey, at WOMADelaide 2017. The duo creates artistically beautiful and scientifically enlightening ‘living installations’ that draw together the disciplines of sculpture, photography, ecology and biology into artworks that grow and decay over time.
KidZone, WOMADelaide’s dedicated world of kid-friendly fun, returns with best-selling children’s author, singer, actor and Play School favourite Justine Clarke, reading her new book The Gobbledygook and the Scribbledynoodle – as part of the festival’s Story Time Series.
Climbing Tree – the team behind the world’s largest nature-inspired playground at Morialta – will also expand their Nature Village; a mini nature adventure world featuring woven huts, nature play exploratory elements and more.
WOMADelaide 2018 takes place in Adelaide’s Botanic Park: 9 – 12 March. For more information and full line-up, visit: www.womadelaide.com.au for details.
Image: Baker Boy (supplied)