Interview: Annette Tripodi & Ian Scobie on WOMADelaide 2022

Back to the Park: WOMADelaide 2022 Returns to Full Strength.

 

Director Ian Scobie and Associate Director, Annette Tripodi talk to Murray Bramwell about reclaiming and re-setting Adelaide’s favourite music event - despite the challenges of COVID-19.

 

WOMADelaide is turning thirty and what a year to have a milestone birthday. From its inception in 1992, when it formed part of Rob Brookman’s Adelaide Festival, this vibrant, richly diverse music event has captured this city and brought visitors and rusted-on fans from all over the country.

 

Based in the CBD in Botanic Park, WOMADelaide (with its slightly clunky portmanteau name) has become a defining part of the South Australian summer. Over thirty years we have seen it become an annual international event, consistent in quality and ever-expanding in its ambition.

 

But in 2021, as is so many ways both locally and globally, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Despite what we would now think of as low infection numbers, it was not possible to run large music events in the usual way. Many were cancelled, some never to rise again. Others, like WOMADelaide, were modestly amended to carefully distanced, seated concert events. The four nights in King Rodney Park were extraordinary, of course. Who wasn’t knocked out by Tash Sultana, The Teskey Brothers and, still in full throttle after all these years, Midnight Oil bringing a powerful message of Treaty and First Nations reconciliation.  

 

Now, a year later, the pandemic situation is more complex than ever. We have (finally) high levels of vaccination but Omicron has brought unparalleled levels of infection, hospitalisation and mortality. Our contact tracing is kaput and, until recently, key medical supply shortages have made life needlessly hard for many. At the time of writing, however, Adelaide seems to be past peak infections and for the great majority the impact of Omicron has been temporary and receding. The Fringe has begun and the Festival is little more than a week away. Hopes are high but no one knows for sure how it will play out.

 

Meanwhile, WOMAD is back to its previous scale with a program spread across seven stages in Botanic Park and a list of performers as extensive and intriguing as ever. It is a bold return and while uncertainties inevitably abound, it has been meticulously planned for many contingencies.

 

Associate Director, Annette Tripodi first joined the WOMADelaide team at Arts Projects Australia in 1997. Her role evolved from there, beginning with responsibility for the Australian content and then, since 2009, she has been in charge of the overall program.

 

“The program planning started in May last year, “she recalls. “We picked up conversations with artists we weren’t able to bring in 2020 and 2021. That included Courtney Barnett who we have never had at WOMAD and is a tremendous performer. And Joseph Tawadros. He will be playing with the 52 piece ASO on the opening night. It is his fifth appearance at the festival. He has performed with his brother, with the Grigoryan brothers, as a solo and duo – all combinations. This orchestral project I can’t wait to see. Joseph has been living in the UK for some time and it wasn’t feasible to bring him over. But now we have this great event for Friday night. He’s an extraordinary musician, composer, and artist – working with Ben Northey as conductor“.

 

Tripodi also speaks proudly of a series of commissions and partnerships with Nexus producers, Farhad Shah and Emily Tulloch, which has gathered in acts such as Dhungala Baarka and ZOJ. Through the Melbourne based Music in Exile recording label and management group she has signed South Sudanese, now Australian based, performer Gordon Koang, as well as Chik Chika and the powerful eight piece Ausecuma Beats, a Cuban /West African style outfit reminiscent of famous WOMAD headliners such as Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita.

 

Also, from the Music in Exile label, is Kenyan singer Elsy Wamayo, now resident in the Northern suburbs of Adelaide, who has developed through WOMADelaide’s talent development academy established last year in conjunction with the Northern Sound System project. Tripodi describes her as “going from zero to hero- she’s now a sophisticated, dynamic performer.” The academy has also developed such talents as the Ugandan dancehall performer, Sokel and the local Indigenous rappers, Sonz of Serpent.

 

Another act Tripodi is especially pleased with, is DJ Motez’s world premiere live show- his first venture away from his signature DJ work to include classical singers, a string quartet, and the composer himself on keyboards. He features on Saturday night. Also branching in a new direction is Italian singer, Carla Lippis and her Mondo Psycho – which Tripodi describes as “Spaghetti Western Italian meets dark hard-edge rock.” 

 

While COVID border restrictions have prevented the usual interchange of artists between Adelaide and WOMAD Aotearoa New Zealand (which has a completely separate program when it resumes this year) there is nonetheless a significant group of Kiwi acts in the 2022 line up. The high energy outfit L.A.B whose blend of reggae, funk and electronica with soaring soul vocals is reminiscent of crowd favourites, Fat Freddy’s Drop, will feature on opening night.

 

San Francisco born -NZ resident, Reb Fountain will draw interest with her vocally impressive folk-punk sound. Her debut album captured serious attention and on Sunday night at WOMAD we will hear her perform her newest album, Iris. Unfortunately, COVID quarantine requirements have meant Troy Kingi has had to withdraw from the program.

 

“He and his twelve piece band would have had to isolate for ten days,” Tripodi notes. “With family commitments that was too long. This is the way things are with COVID- infections, close contacts. Just lately I’ve been working on potential replacements and back-ups. Also, groups doing only one show, agreeing to perform a second.”

 

Interestingly, with Australia opening more to international travellers, there are musicians touring here who are booked for gigs at WOMAD. Guatemalan born, Latin Grammy winner, Gaby Moreno will perform, as will Brazilian funk samba trio, Azimuth in combination with composer/producer Marcos Valle. Cedric Burnside from the R.L.Burnside blues dynasty will appear, and late Friday night, Detroit DJ Kevin Saunderson’s live show - Inner City.

 

In the folk realm, the aptly named Bush Gothic, featuring Jenny Thomas, will mix Welsh music and Australian bush ballad guignol. The Crooked Fiddle Band from Sydney not only features an array of esoteric instruments (we are talking here of the Swedish nyckelharpa and the 16^th century cittern) but have been described as “chainsaw” folk. Comparing them to Elephant Sessions, Tripodi notes – “They have an amazing range, and can rock out in a very big way.”

 

The First Nations program has been a strong feature of WOMAD festivals for all of their thirty years. Tripodi is especially proud of the current list. Emma Donovan and the Putbacks and their most recent exceptional albums come first mind. Kutcha Edwards will make a welcome return. Newcomer Baarka, is a young Malyangapa, Barkindji woman from Western Australia who has fast become a name in the Indigenous rap scene.

 

The one and only Ab Original will return to acclaim and the five musicians of the Australian Art Orchestra will perform a new work entitled Hand to Earth. The young band, King Stingray will debut and Electric Fields return with a touring party of 26 including a choir and dancers.  

 

Jamie Goldsmith and others who present the Welcome to Country are also designing the Climbing Tree at the Kidzone and Dancing Fire, an installation of flaming pylons in Frome Park where, each day, other Kaurna ceremonies will also be performed.

 

Other headliners include crowd favourites, the Shaolin Afronauts on opening night, The Cat Empire- festival stalwarts for nearly twenty years, delivering a final performance from their original line-up, Saints legend Ed Kuepper with his new entity Asteroid Ekosystem (including Dirty Three drummer Jim White) and, of course, closing the festival - the mercurial and always re-inventing, Paul Kelly and his band.

 

Annette Tripodi is pleased with the assembled program and is quick to observe that the festival is “back to full bottle – all the WOMAD activities – Taste the World, the workshops, Planet Talks and park activities. And the special new eighth stage for DanceNorth – presenting Noise: six performers and 100 drummers. Every day of the weekend.”

 

For Festival Director, Ian Scobie, 2022 is similarly a collision of circumstances. A milestone 30^th year which is also in the most unpredictable part of the COVID pandemic.

 

“These are weird old times. I’m sick of saying that,” he notes drily. “But you’ve got to roll with it. We are back in the Park.

The biggest irony is that after all the effort we made to avoid international exposure, we are most confined by WA and New Zealand. We could have brought groups from Scotland and wherever as the rules presently stand.”

 

Scobie and his staff have been in constant, detailed consultation with SA Health over planning. And the decision to go ahead – back with the usual WOMAD model, was made in May last year. Scobie and Tripodi went ahead on programming and preparing for the COVID protection regimes that would be required. He recalls:

 

“Right through last year almost to Christmas, before Omicron, it looked like a lay down misere relatively speaking. All the case numbers were looking good. It was all based on vaccination numbers which were looking good (eventually!) but that all changed when Omicron brought another layer of uncertainty.”

 

Scobie is emphatic about COVID policies for the festival. “We were first to go out and say double vax requirement for entry and then the health advice was 12 years and over. Since the paediatric advice has been available, we are saying that children between 5 and 12 years must have had the first vaccination.”

 

When asked about the anti-vax contingent who are now excluded – his reply: “We have benefited more than we have lost. If you look at national vaccination rates, those who object are a small vocal minority.

 

“In the end, if you aren’t vaxxed – don’t come. We told the artists very early on that that was our policy and that clear proof of vaccination was required. We came out early, but it is standard for pubs and clubs in NSW. It’s a common ruling and, aside from anything, it is a duty of care for our artists and audiences. It’s what we say in our Planet Talks – follow the science ! Reason needs to prevail.”

 

Asked for his thoughts on 30 years of WOMAD he says it is a moment for congratulations to many people. “I must also say I am reflecting that the festival began in a different kind of pandemic- the AIDS pandemic and we had support from AIDS organisations at that point. Over the years there have been other global health crises around the world which also affected our programs.”

 

I asked Scobie what the milestone means in the history of the festival?

“Thirty years is half the age of the Adelaide Festival. I’m sure its longevity has a lot to do with the seeds planted by the original festival in this city and the receptiveness of an audience for an event like this. It shows –and especially in the pandemic- the extent of the feeling and regard with which it is held by its loyal audience. It is a big part of people’s lives – the event itself and participating in it. It is much more than the sum of its parts.

 

“It means different things to different people. Some might have met their future partner there, or got engaged, or just had a fantastic time. It’s in the life zeitgeist of the city and for generations of people. From those who were taken as kids by their parents, who now take their own children“.

 

“And when we have concerns about not being able to have international contingents, we have been able to fall back on the fact that what is important about the festival is the overall experience as much as the great headliners.

 

“Also, after thirty years, to have a program that is essentially locally based is a reflection of Australia in 2022, as opposed to 1992. I think about if we had to program back then with no artists crossing borders, it would have been a very different line-up. That’s a great thing – the depth of diverse material available in Australia now is so healthy and accomplished. And, in these pandemic times, it is important to be engaging so many Australian artists who’ve had it tough and are going to for a while yet.”

 

“Four weeks out, the logistical train is working as usual. There are issues with flights- schedules constantly change due to the airlines’ own staff issues and so on. It’s always a constant jigsaw. The thing this year is that the only constant is uncertainty!

 

“But ticket sales are quite a way ahead of this time in 2020 – our last full scale event. [This year, for COVID, the total gate number is set at 70% capacity.] Interstate sales are high – almost 30% from Victoria, 27% New South Wales and then 30% South Australia. I think this reflects that NSW and Vic have largely moved on in their minds. They have had their lockdowns and they are now out and doing it.”

 

At a time when no one has any real sense what COVID will bring next, even in two weeks or a month, Scobie and the WOMADelaide team have the continuing dilemma that faces anyone planning large social and cultural events. As he says with a tinge of weariness- “Our notion of the future has greatly altered“.

 

As we close our conversation he says- “I’ll see you in the Park.” I ask him if he will be riding his bike. “Of course,” is the reply. “I’ll take my bike, and my hat – and my mask.”

 

WOMADelaide will take place in Botanic Park from Friday March 11 to Monday March 14.  

 

Murray Bramwell

 

When: 11 to 14 Mar

Where: Botanic Park

Bookings: womadelaide.com.au

Interview: Balkan Ethno Orchestra

Out of these difficult few years of negative, comes a resounding positive.

It is the Balkan Ethno Orchestra which is coming to Adelaide as a highlight of WOMADelaide 2022.

 

This 10-plus ensemble of authentic Balkan musical exponents is, indirectly, the very beautiful product of Australia’s immigration history.

 

It is made up not only of musicians born within the Balkan countries but of musicians born of parents who had immigrated from the Balkans to Australia. And, these Balkan-Australians represent all walks of life - from a speech pathologist and a nurse to a project manager and a carpenter.

 

They also represent all sorts of musical backgrounds, from rock to jazz. They play all manner of instruments. Some sing in choirs. Some of them are old friends from childhood. Some are married couples. Together, they form a tight-knit and specialist musical community - and the essence of the spirit of WOMADelaide.

 

Anja Curcic is a singer with the group and speaks for them about their formation and their imminent visit.

Anja is Australian-born, daughter of a Serbian mother and Bosnian father.

“I’ve been singing since I was a wee little bub,” she laughs.

 She really found her heart in Balkan music when she was doing some online research “discovering my family roots”. In so doing, she discovered their music and has been delving into it ever since. 

 

The other members of the Balkan Ethno Orchestra represent all strands of the Balkan countries - Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and, together, they are bringing ancient traditional music forwards so that, without losing its integrity, it opens up for a new world and new generations.

 

Since forming in 2019 and throughout the ensuing pandemic years, the orchestra has maintained a discipline of regular rehearsal.

 

“We usually hire a rehearsal space,” says Anja. “We have tried meeting at someone’s home but what with food and drink, when we get together like that, it can turn into a party.”

 

“But we do have a social life together. We are all friends, some from childhood. So we do socialise together.  It adds to the chemistry of the music.”

 

The music is a serious business and, says Anja, the BEO musicians are working ferociously to be ready for WOMADelaide. 

It is their first WOMAD experience but they have had some impressive exposure at Australian multicultural events including back-to-back performances over three days at the National Multicultural Festival in Canberra, the Serbian Festival Sydney, and also performing with world music legend, Amira Medunjanin on her tour down under. 

 

“But WOMAD is big deal,” declares Anja.

“We are very excited. I don’t think it has really hit us yet.”

 

The BEO has a vision. It is the preservation of old Balkan songs.

“So they are not forgotten,” says Anja.

She explains that their vulnerability lies in the fact that traditional ethnic music has been passed on from generation to generation orally. 

 

At the same time that the BEO preserves the songs, they also may make them their own,

“We can add contemporary genres and instruments to introduce this ancient music to a broader audience of all ages,” says Anja.

“We have in our group musicians of disco, country and rock and heavy metal backgrounds.”

 

Thus blending in to the timeless spirit of Balkan tradition music, some of it melancholy, much of it foot-tappingly ebullient, the orchestra has quickly gained traction on the Australian musical landscape and last year it released its first EP.

 

“It is called Zora which means ‘the dawn’ - and isn’t that apt for us,” declares Anja.

Indeed.

 

One can have a taste of their wonderful sounds here: YouTube

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 12, 13, and 14 Mar

Where: Botanic Park

Bookings: womadelaide.com.au

Interview: Reb Fountain for Womadelaide 2022

In itself, her name rings a sense of gentle beauty with firm resolve.

And, in herself, so it very much seems to be - which fills one with a deep pleasure that our dear Ian Scobie and team have done it again. They’ve picked a jewel to adorn WOMADelaide.

 

Reb’s lyrical name is well known in New Zealand, we hear. She’s a multi award winning songwriter. She’s just finished touring with Crowded House.

But Covid has been a patchy business for entertainers, Reb Fountain among them.

"I performed at WOMAD New Zealand,” she says. “It was my last gig before lockdown.”

WOMADelaide will be her first foray into Australia and she seems effervescent at the thought.

“It is pretty special and the band is excited."

 

Fountain has worked with her touring band of Dave Khan, Karin Canzek and Earl Robertson for two years now and, says she warmly, they feel "like family" to her.

 

Despite a music education in jazz, Fountain has evolved style which defies the pigeon holes of musical definition. Melodic, anthemic, sometimes ethereal.... Some cast it somewhere between "noir folk-punk" and pop. There’s an occasional zephyr of Kate Bush in there somewhere.

 

She undulates arms and sways, tossing a luxurious cascade of hair as she performs. She does not push out her songs. She uses the art of underplay and a subtlety which simply magnetises the attention. She is different.

 

“I enjoyed singing jazz and it taught me a lot but I don’t throw in any trills or frills to fill in the space in my songs. There’s no need to be flashy to communicate,” she says.

She relates to the word “nuanced".

She feels that hers is the style of the outsider, the person who does not belong.

She feels thus because, while she comes to us from New Zealand, it was from San Francsico that she came to New Zealand - aged 11 with hippie-spirited parents who had decided to migrate and then found it was more of a culture shock than perhaps they had anticipated, seeing Christchurch and the little town of Lyttleton where they had settled was not at all as progressive as San Francisco had been.  They felt like outsiders then and, says Fountain, she has never lost that feeling. 

But Lyttleton had a folky tradition and her family were of that ilk, raising her on a diet of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.  So it comes to pass that today she cites Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading as subjects of her admiration and, above them all, Marianne Faithfull.

 

She attributes the “migrant family” phenomenon to her urge to write her own music.

“It was a way of making sense of myself and my relationship to the world,” she says.

“Although I had, had some formal education, most of what I have learned in life has been on the road, making mistakes, working on myself. It has been more a journey of inner work than practical. I’ve been trying not to be self-centred and impossible for people to relate to.”

 

As an interviewee on the phone from New Zealand, she conveys modesty and an engaging personality. She expresses herself as soul still growing and exploring the new. 

“I’m 48 but I feel like a spring chicken,” she laughs.

“I had a lot of issues when I was young and they toughened me up and freed me so I became more able. Now I feel liberated.”

 

But she is not unencumbered. Fountain has a strong political conscience and she applies energy to causes such as climate change, lamenting the lack of action on that front. Injustice to the people of Palestine is another.

“Everywhere there is a lack of mindfulness,” she laments.

“In a market-driven economy it is difficult to be mindful, to remind people of the importance of mindfulness.”

 

Perchance the messages of her sublime music will offer just such reminders to people in these troubling times.

 

You can get a taste of her here: YouTube

 

Samela Harris

 

When: Fri 11^th Mar / Sat 12^th Mar

Where: Botanic Park / Tainmuntilla

Bookings: Womadelaide.com.au

 

Interview: Kelly Vincent on UnSeen and disability advocacy

Are disabled people “unseen” by the able-bodied?

Kelly Vincent thinks so. Indeed, she believes they have lived under assorted misconceptions, some of which she describes in words reminiscent of a Victorian novel.

"Either we are sad, sick, and sorry, sitting at home staring wistfully out of a rain-streaked window, or we are these inspirational, superhero mega-humans who have to be ‘overcoming’ our disabilities by doing extreme sports or something,” she says.

“But”, she swiftly asserts, "most of us don’t fit those stereotypes.”

 

Just as with the able, everyone has a different story.

 

The rise and rise of disability arts has been delivering those stories - right into the popular mainstream. 

Theatre ever was one of the world’s greatest tools of communication. 

Here in Adelaide, a big nod goes to Pat Rix who earned the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Adelaide Critics Circle for her foresight and vigour in founding the famous Tutti ensemble, now directed by Gaelle Mellis.

 

Kelly cut her performance teeth on the No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability. It was No Strings which last year teamed with Singapore’s Diverse Abilities Dance collective to do a pioneering cross-cultural Zoom production called SAME-SAME which drove home the message of human universality. Able or disabled, people of both worlds were sharing the same experience of Covid and lockdowns.

 

From her beginnings with No Strings, Kelly Vincent's talents have kept rising. She has become not just an actress, playwright, and poet but also an influential activist.

 

She is well remembered as a Member of the Legislative Council for the Dignity Party.  She was aged just 21 in 2010 when elected, becoming the youngest member of the Parliament of South Australia and the youngest woman elected to any Australian parliament.

 

These days she is being hailed as creator of the True Ability Ensemble which is working with the renowned Alirio Zavarce to present this new show in the Festival Centre’s The Space. It opens on December 1.

 

It’s called UnSeen. It aims “to give disabled people the opportunity to tell their stories and be seen for who they really are.”

 

Hence, it features an all-star cast of disabled performers who are liberated to present the world from their own perspective. It’s a lively ride of true-story time delivered by the cream of professional theatre.  It is clever, funny, heart-warming, sad, and surprising.

 

"Since leaving Parliament it has been a joy to get back to writing and theatre,” she says. "I’ve always felt like my realest self there.”

 

Kelly is not only one of the creators of UnSeen, she is one of its performers.

 

“I appear physically in about four scenes, but there is a lot more of me in the writing,” she expounds. 

 

"Even though the writing is based on the experiences and words of the other cast members, as disabled people we have a lot of common experiences. It’s been an adventure finding the poetry and the humour in that.”

 

Kelly also has been enriched by her co-performers. She cites Wren Dow, a queer, neuro-divergent writer, actor, and hip hop dancer.

 

"I particularly love Wren’s monologue and dance,” she says. "It’s a really powerful statement about disabled people taking agency over our own bodies." 

 

Wren is in good company. 

 

Among them is Kym McKenzie who has been a disability theatre stalwart and star since joining No Strings Attached in about 1999.  Restless Dance veteran Rachel High has extensive international experience and even a Best Performance nomination in the SA Screen Awards. Singer Sergei Jakube comes out of the Choir of Hard Knocks and Tutti. There’s Dion Allen, Ad'm Martin, the legendary Jamila Main, Jye Parry, Lucy Lopez Rivera, Justine van Eyssen along with a strong production team and, of course, the beloved director Alirio Zavarce at the helm alongside Kelly.

 

"It’s funny, when we attend meetings for True Ability together, it’s not uncommon for someone to assume Alirio is my boss,” reflects Kelly. "I guess it’s because he’s this able-bodied man with a big voice and even bigger energy. In fact, our work comes from a completely equal partnership where we encourage each other’s strengths and fill the gaps in each other’s knowledge. We have this connection where he can say 'I want you to write something like…' and make a bunch of vague gestures and I know what that means, and vice versa.”

 

Of course, it is not all smooth sailing. Artistic disagreements can arise.

"But we love and respect each other enough to tell each other when we’re falling short and take on that feedback. That’s important for any creative partnership and friendship. We know pretty much all of each other’s buttons and how to push them. But that’s the price you pay for the special love we have.”

 

Meanwhile, Kelly has other irons in the fire.

She keeps in touch with the human rights policies which are so important to her by working part-time for an LGBTIQA+ rights advocacy organisation.

And, she has just published a book, her first. 

It is called Dandelion Heart and is a collection of essays and poetry on disability.

And there is another book in the wings.

 

As for Gravity, that State Theatre Young Guns award-winning play which in 2009 brought her talents to the attention of the arts world, it never did get produced.

"Producers, if you want a short black comedy about identity crises, love and mental health, email me,” she laughs.

 

Unseen

Kelly Vincent and Alirio Zavarce and the True Ability Ensemble

When: 1 and 2 Dec

Where: Space Theatre

Bookings: ticketek.com.au