‘Every WOMADelaide is a mysterious process’: festival brings light and shade to Botanic Park
From the elusive PJ Harvey to Afrofuturism pioneers Sun Ra Orchestra, WOMADelaide’s 2025 program promises a point of difference in a turbulent time for Australian music festivals.
WOMAdelaide is more than a music festival. Over 33 years it has become a mainstay of the arts calendar, transforming Botanic Park into a communal ritual for successive generations of local and interstate audiences.
For Associate Director Annette Tripodi, it’s this holistic experience of having your feet on the ground, with heart, mind, and ears open to the sounds and stories of the world, that guides each year’s program.
“When I do a schedule it is very much, ‘close my eyes and imagine — okay, it’s Sunday, you’re under a tree, where do you want to go next?’,” she tells InReview.
“I try to pick the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows, the shifts of energy in the program. You have to have light and shade. I want people to come to a stage with a generous, open mind and give it a go.”
Tripodi joined WOMADelaide in 1997 as a volunteer artist minder, then got a four-month contract with APA, and “one thing led to another”. She now works alongside director Ian Scobie, with whom she has developed a ‘yin and yang’ relationship, to curate a program that reaches across borders, cultures and their own personal tastes.
“Every WOMADelaide is a mysterious process. You have a plan and you are following your heart and your passion projects and – I say this every year — some of them fall over, and some happen so quickly you can’t believe it.
“I also think I have, over time, developed a very strong instinct for what’s going to work in the festival — whether I like it personally, or not.”
This year’s curation was influenced by local and global crosswinds, as post-pandemic economic woes have seen many long-running music festivals fold or downsize.
“So many festivals were not happening and announcing cancellations, we had many more proposals from performers than usual. Conservatively, I’d say we had more than 800 proposals coming our way. Which ended up with 75 or so acts in the program, so the number of great artists that we couldn’t include was also higher.”
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In a crowded field, one of Tripodi’s personal highlights is Friday night headliner, PJ Harvey — the English singer songwriter has long been an elusive catch for Tripodi and her team.
PJ Harvey. Photo: Steve Gullick
“We have tried several times to book her before and the time was not right,” says Tripodi, who was on holiday in Croatia when Harvey’s confirmation finally came through.
“She’s important in music history. Her base is very diverse, as is her catalogue. It is unusual to have someone of her stature opening the festival. If you can excite those who already know and love her, and introduce her to a whole new audience — that’s what you want.”
In a challenging time for music festivals, Tripodi says that WOMAD’s success lies in its point of difference — both from the rest of the festival landscape, and from one year’s program to the next.
“WOMADelaide tries to have a completely different program every year and when performers are returning there is usually quite a time lapse in between.
“We also have a huge proportion of artists who have never played in Adelaide, or Australia, who actually have a minimal imprint in the minds of Australian audiences, even though they have huge followings in their own countries and internationally.
Other highlights on opening night include prolific composer, performer, DJ and cultural commentator, Nitin Sawhney.
“It is wonderful to have him back — he has recovered his health since he withdrew last March. He is an amazing man. I don’t how he manages so many things — film compositions, work with orchestras, he is so creative and diligent.”
And, definitely putting the ‘D’ in WOMAD is Bangarra Dance with their work, The Light Inside a collaboration with Maori choreographer, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson and Bangarra’s Deborah Brown. Tripodi notes this is the third time Bangarra has performed at the festival since 1999.
“This is another point of difference; there isn’t another outdoor music festival that puts on two performances from what is arguably Australia’s best contemporary dance company. The company loves doing it because in two nights they can be seen by maybe 5,000 people, many of whom would not otherwise have had the chance.”
Also performing is Adelaide’s Ruby Award winning Restless Dance Theatre with their work, Seeing Through Darkness, based on Expressionist painter Georges Rouault, linking his preoccupation with the imperfections of the body with the experience of disability. Seeing Through Darkness features each day in The Studio located at Adelaide Botanic High School..
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Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo: Daniel Boud / Supplied
Through the years WOMADelaide has presented a rich and varied program of First Nations performers and this year is no exception. Tripodi is quick to mention rising talent Eleanor Jawurlngali performing on Saturday with cellist Stephanie Arnold and Mick Turner, guitarist with Dirty Three. Also featuring will be the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.
“The power of so many voices is wonderful” enthuses Tripodi, “They are singing church hymns but being in language and sung by these beautiful older women is very affecting. I think every festival needs a large choir. They open the day on Saturday and Monday and I think that will set the tone for what then follows.”
In addition to the dance companies are the strolling performers moving about the park. Last year the Handspring Puppet Company paraded a large elephant through the crowd. This time, Cie Paris Benares — Chamoh will present a giant three-metre-long camel to amaze and delight both the young and the not so young. Yoann Bourgeois Art Company, recent collaborators with Harry Styles will attend with their eye-popping Unreachable Suspension Point . Spectacular UK company, The Dream Engine will fill the night sky with Helioscope – acrobats suspended, soaring, and spiralling from a giant helium balloon.
And ilotopie — Les Gens de Couler return, painted in second skins of bright pinks, greens and blues, like living garden sculptures or psychedelic sprites. When they last visited Adelaide in 1992 they were the centre of controversy and prudish complaint. Only a timely change in local regulations — a prompt intervention by then-Arts Minister Diana Laidlaw — kept them from further police attention.
Not to be missed are singer, producer and synthesiser designer, Ela Minus from Colombia, Portuguese fado singer, Mariza , Cuban cellist Ana Carla Maza, Inuk artist Elisapie, from Canada, who performs Debby Harry and Cindy Lauper songs in the ancient Inuktitut dialect, dance vocalist Sofia Kourtesis from Peru, and Grammy winning, new generation Queen of the Afrobeats, Yemi Alade from Nigeria – whose collaborations with Angelique Kidjo, Femi One and, Beyonce for The Lion King, are legend.
Performing on Saturday on the Foundation Stage, on Monday on Stage 2, and doing a workshop in between, is the Palestinian/Jordanian hip-hop electronica Shamstep band, 47Soul, whose 2024 tour was postponed, causing controversy and protests at the time.
Tripodi is keen to see the band return to Botanic Park nine years after they last performed at WOMADelaide – adding that their performances will be seen by many as an opportunity to show solidarity for the Palestinian cause and to celebrate their music. “It will be,” she says, “an absolute pleasure to welcome them back.”
ilotopie — Les Gens de Couler. Photo: Supplied
The Sunday program features a number of once-only performances including avant-garde jazz outfit, the Sun Ra Arkestra, founded in the US in the mid 1950s and led by composer-keyboardist, Sun Ra until his death in 1993. Since then, saxophonist Marshall Allen has been front man. He recently recorded a new album, New Dawn, at the age of 100. Marshall will not be touring with them, but this band, regarded as the pioneers of Afrofuturism, will be a visually astonishing, musically challenging, 5.30pm sensation on the Foundation stage.
Some of the memorable WOMAD experiences have been the late night seated events featuring more intimate, contemplative sounds. It began with the Sufi chanting from Nusrat and the violin ragas of L. Subramaniam, and have continued on from there. This year, Indian musicians Satish Vyas and U Rajesh, playing santoor (hammered dulcimer ) and mandolin respectively, will be accompanied by percussionists at Stage 7.
Another highlight will be renowned German keyboardist, Nils Frahm, closing Sunday night on the Foundation stage. His richly textured ambient blend of piano and electronica has links with the pensive piano of Joep Beving, who performed here at last year’s Illuminate festival, as well currently performing Adelaide Festival musician, Hania Rani.
“When people talk about a pianist they have in mind a classical recital. Now they are taking the instrument to a new and younger audience. They are still as impressive technically, but it is from a different angle.”
Photo: Saige Prime / Supplied
Once the festival is under way, Tripodi likes to move among the crowd.
“I do about 60 kilometres,” she admits, “I do laps of the site. I want to see people’s reactions, artists I’ve never seen live before. I want the reward of seeing that it’s going as it should be.
“There’s a lot of love that goes into this event,“ Annette Tripodi says quietly. “I hope that’s obvious to people when they come.”
WOMADelaide runs from March 7 – 10 at Botanic Park as part of Adelaide Festival
Read more 2025 Adelaide Festival coverage here on InReview