Live Review: WOMADelaide Day Three

Renowned for it's unpredictable weather, Adelaide made sure to uphold its reputation over the WOMADelaide long weekend. Attending the festival on Sunday, it was somewhat frustrating to see the city submerged in rain. With that said, none of the festivities or performances at WOMAD seemed to suffer. Children continued to run around barefoot, their parents unconcerned with the copious amount of accumulating mud. This was particularly special to see, as the weather actually contributed to the already care-free vibrations that WOMAD consistently draws year after year.

New Orleans-based brass band The Hot 8 Brass Band were the first up on the agenda. The band blends hip hop, jazz and funk, using traditional New Orleans brass instruments and sounds in order to create their own funky style. These guys did not disappoint. The crowd, embracing mother nature, grooved on and ultimately made the act more memorable in spit of its dampness. The Hot 8 Brass Band engaged the audience, encouraging the crowd to sing along and dance to the funky New Orleans brass sounds. The highlight came at the end when the band performed their iconic cover of Marvin Gaye's infamous Sexual Healing.

The food available at WOMADelaide catered to basically any demographic, offering raw, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. It's an important aspect, as other music festivals often provide a pretty limiting choice of food at rather hefty prices. A lot of the food stalls on offer were pop-ups of independent Adelaide-based cafes and eateries, WOMADelaide this year had clearly made an effort to promote and utilise local!

Next up was Oki Dub Ainu Band. Frontman Oki Kano formed the band with the intention to revive Japanese Ainu music using traditional instruments manned by an incredible team of musicians. The audience was dancing and grooving along to the performance, which included tonkori, traditional Japanese chanting. This was done pretty repetitively throughout the performance using trance-like vocals and heavy dub rhythms. The band also incorporated a child as one of the band members for the evening - perhaps a relative or the son of one of the musicians. This was exceptionally special to watch. 

After that was the much anticipated Philip Glass Ensemble, a true highlight of the night. Founder Philip Glass turned 80 this year and is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. This was an extremely interesting performance, as the music composition was written to accompany Godfrey Reggio's 1982 'environmental masterpiece', Koyaanisqatsi. The film, an apocalyptic vision of the collision of urban life, technology and the environment, was screened simultaneously with the performance. This combination of film and live instrumentation was unique, and proved to be an extraordinary musical and cinematic experience. It was eerily haunting and at times a little bit uncomfortable. Without a story, dialogue or characters the film consists entirely of shots of our environment, juxtaposing videography of barren, untouched land and towering metropolises. The performance possessed a clear, pro-environmental political agenda and, from the perspective of an audience member, was an effective and emotional statement.

Cie Carabosse was last on the bill, as this politically charged art piece runs nightly after 8.30pm. The installation dissects the refugee crisis, past and present, using refugee's own words to communicate their plight. Built from flaming terracotta pots and and featureless wooden sculptures, it makes for a truly raw vision.