Review: WOMADELAIDE 2022 - DAY 4 at Botanic Park

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Monday 14th March 2022.

The final, and it seems to me, the hottest, day of WOMADelaide 2022, felt like a day of reflection, or rather, avoiding reflection, and seeking shade, and there are some shady bits to be found. The inclusion of the Adelaide Botanic High School buildings as venues for WOMADelaide events is just one of several changes to the festival layout.

The Taste the World tent was always a rather cramped affair, the limited size of the marquee and the open sides allowing whatever weather we were having that year straight in, was less than ideal, but all that has changed. The facility provided on the 1st floor of the Adelaide Botanic High School Plaza is absolutely perfect. An indoor venue, with comfortable seating and an environment that is much more controllable in terms of sound reinforcement and video projection, allows a much more welcoming space for both punters and the musical chefs that star in the events.

The gymnasium of the school became a space for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra to offer a new experience, described this way. "Silence, performed by a 22-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, is a meditation and symphony concert in one. In these one-hour events, presented without interval in a peaceful, brand new indoor space at the festival, you're invited to a listening experience like no other. Music from centuries past and from our own time and place will become the gateway to a powerful inward journey to nourish your mind, body, and soul. Conducted by David Sharp, allow the power of music to refresh the human spirit."

Frome Park, while not always in shade, is another new space offered for performances, and the award-winning dance company from Townsville, Dance North, took up the offer to present Noise, a work for six dancers and 100 drummers playing a score by Costa Hagiaglo. It was a vital and vibrant work from a dance company that I once worked with myself, but so long ago that none of the contemporary members of the company would have been born. The 100 drummers were all Adelaide volunteers who had committed to weekly rehearsals since January this year, and their dedication paid off brilliantly.

The 60 metre long Gothic arch tunnel of light was a spectacular sight, and qualifies as a shady area since its magnificence can only be experienced at night, when all of Australia is in the shade.

Kardla Paltendi (Dancing Fire) was an interesting spectacle to watch, and was held in another area of Frome Park, under the same shade as the Cathedral of Light. A collaborative effort between Kaurna man, Jamie Goldsmith, his Taikurtinnadance group, and installation artist, Simon Hutchinson, of Adelaide's nature-play events company, Climbing Tree. It is not a traditional dance ritual of the Kaurna people, but refers to the human fascination with fire, and more particularly with the relatively recent interest in 'fire stick farming', and the first acknowledged Kaurna cultural burning since colonisation. Fire stick, or cultural burning, is the First Nations method of land management, controlling undergrowth, and, therefore, bushfires, by the studied application of fire to the land without causing damage to seeds or insects.

As Jeffrey Newchurch, chairperson of the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation, the Native Title group recognised by the federal government in 2018 as the original landholders of the Adelaide Plains, put it earlier this year, "the cultural burn not only celebrates Aboriginal culture, but it's the first time since colonisation a cultural burn has occurred under the auspice of local government, signalling a strengthened relationship between the Kaurna people and the City of Adelaide." A change in local government thinking that is well worthy of celebration.

The Global Village, where food, clothes, and crafts from dozens of cultures can be explored, offers tables and chairs under the shade of the many trees that are focal points for the hungry, the thirsty, the weary, and the families and friends who meet to share the experience of this incredible festival.

I have been lucky enough to be involved with this festival for many years, as a reviewer, a player, and a punter, and I never tire of it, and yet I never see all of it.

WOMADelaide is much more than a music festival. It is a gathering of multiple cultures and their individual arts, dances, stories, food, and aspirations, and it is an opportunity to look beyond our borders, outside our comfort zones, and appreciate the rich diversity of our species.

This year, there was the sad addition of a stall selling goods to raise money for the people of Ukraine, and seeking support and understanding for the plight of their country, and I wept with girls in flower crowns and embroidered blouses.