I want to be there...
2 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Saturday, March 5 at Saturday, March 05, 2005.
Womad is on in the Adelaide parklands again this weekend.
Womad (World of Music and Dance) is a special time and place. On the outside it is just a big world music festival, held in the parklands. But for anyone who has actually spent a weekend at one of the festivals, it is much more. First, the location. It seriously must be one of the best festival locations on earth. Adelaide temperature at this time of year is, scientifically speaking, perfect - sunny, in the mid 20's, dry, with a cool breeze and clear blue skies. The Adelaide parklands are just beautiful - lush grass and giant swooping willow trees, creating that secret garden feeling, 5 minutes walk from the city centre.
Second is the people. Womad has a weird target market. It is attended by a mix of hipppies, yuppies, world music fans (who normally fit into the first two categories) and curious locals. Now say what you like about hippies and the cultural legacy they left behind - but they sure are nice people to share a festival with. And the yuppies, well they get off on feeling sophisticated and worldly, so they show up, behave themselves and have a good time. And the locals - well, Adelaide people enjoy having something big show up in the city - kind of like a backwoods country town when the circus arrives, and we like it even more when the thing tht shows up involves reggae, weed smoking and lazing around in the grass.
The outcome of all of this is that Womad is blissful and peaceful and friendly in a way that almost no other large public festivals are anymore. People fall asleep on the grass with their wallet on the ground next to them and their mobile phone on the other side - and the only annoying thing that might happen is if a stranger wakes them up to warn them that they are missing some really awesome Algerian hip-hop on stage 3. Parents take little children to Womad - there is nothing threatening or uncool happening there that you wouldnt want a 6 year old to see. I know Jerry Seinfeld once said this was impossible, but it really is fun for the whole family.
I put a lot of Womad's success down to the people who don't come. In particular, Womad features a startling lack of drunken yobbo beer boys. Obviously Mick and Bazzo don't find the idea of Packistani prayer singing a great concept for a friday night, and even better, they don't see the potential to feed off the energy and exuberance of the crowd for their own purposes of getting drunk and picking up girls. Thus, Womad benefits from a complete abscence of fights, vomiting, shouting, aggression and all the usual things that blight any place open the great unwashed. There is also a secondary benefit - Womad is held at the same time as the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix race - which acts as a "flypaper" in many ways for the beer boys, who are either on pilgrimage to Melbourne or in front of the TV watching the race.
There is a great story behind this particular bit. The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix used to be held in Adelaide, and was about the only big recognised international event that Adelaide could boast of. So, of course, we small town people got all proud of hosting such a shit-boring event, started talking up "sensational Adelaide" (two words which should never, ever go together) and began feeling like the weird kid in the playground who is suddenly befriended by some cool guy in a leather jacket. The whole thing came tumbling down when Melbourne and its brilliant, ruthless State Premier, convinved the F1 people to move the race to Melbourne.
So now, Melbourne has a F1 Grand Prix (held without fail in shithouse Victorian weather) and on the same weekend each year, Adelaide has a world music festival. We win. So anyone up for a festival in the park over a few sunny days, with peaceful, stoned vibes and a complete lack of assholes? And a larger than usual amount of live salsa, African reggae, Hebrew folk and Argentinean dub? Well if you happen to live in Adelaide, then its on right now, and you are probably already there. And if you are too far away to make it, well, just wail away in a fake Hindi accent, bang a few pots together, roll a fat one and lie on the grass. You're practically there already.
Womad (World of Music and Dance) is a special time and place. On the outside it is just a big world music festival, held in the parklands. But for anyone who has actually spent a weekend at one of the festivals, it is much more. First, the location. It seriously must be one of the best festival locations on earth. Adelaide temperature at this time of year is, scientifically speaking, perfect - sunny, in the mid 20's, dry, with a cool breeze and clear blue skies. The Adelaide parklands are just beautiful - lush grass and giant swooping willow trees, creating that secret garden feeling, 5 minutes walk from the city centre.
Second is the people. Womad has a weird target market. It is attended by a mix of hipppies, yuppies, world music fans (who normally fit into the first two categories) and curious locals. Now say what you like about hippies and the cultural legacy they left behind - but they sure are nice people to share a festival with. And the yuppies, well they get off on feeling sophisticated and worldly, so they show up, behave themselves and have a good time. And the locals - well, Adelaide people enjoy having something big show up in the city - kind of like a backwoods country town when the circus arrives, and we like it even more when the thing tht shows up involves reggae, weed smoking and lazing around in the grass.
The outcome of all of this is that Womad is blissful and peaceful and friendly in a way that almost no other large public festivals are anymore. People fall asleep on the grass with their wallet on the ground next to them and their mobile phone on the other side - and the only annoying thing that might happen is if a stranger wakes them up to warn them that they are missing some really awesome Algerian hip-hop on stage 3. Parents take little children to Womad - there is nothing threatening or uncool happening there that you wouldnt want a 6 year old to see. I know Jerry Seinfeld once said this was impossible, but it really is fun for the whole family.
I put a lot of Womad's success down to the people who don't come. In particular, Womad features a startling lack of drunken yobbo beer boys. Obviously Mick and Bazzo don't find the idea of Packistani prayer singing a great concept for a friday night, and even better, they don't see the potential to feed off the energy and exuberance of the crowd for their own purposes of getting drunk and picking up girls. Thus, Womad benefits from a complete abscence of fights, vomiting, shouting, aggression and all the usual things that blight any place open the great unwashed. There is also a secondary benefit - Womad is held at the same time as the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix race - which acts as a "flypaper" in many ways for the beer boys, who are either on pilgrimage to Melbourne or in front of the TV watching the race.
There is a great story behind this particular bit. The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix used to be held in Adelaide, and was about the only big recognised international event that Adelaide could boast of. So, of course, we small town people got all proud of hosting such a shit-boring event, started talking up "sensational Adelaide" (two words which should never, ever go together) and began feeling like the weird kid in the playground who is suddenly befriended by some cool guy in a leather jacket. The whole thing came tumbling down when Melbourne and its brilliant, ruthless State Premier, convinved the F1 people to move the race to Melbourne.
So now, Melbourne has a F1 Grand Prix (held without fail in shithouse Victorian weather) and on the same weekend each year, Adelaide has a world music festival. We win. So anyone up for a festival in the park over a few sunny days, with peaceful, stoned vibes and a complete lack of assholes? And a larger than usual amount of live salsa, African reggae, Hebrew folk and Argentinean dub? Well if you happen to live in Adelaide, then its on right now, and you are probably already there. And if you are too far away to make it, well, just wail away in a fake Hindi accent, bang a few pots together, roll a fat one and lie on the grass. You're practically there already.
Adelaide and sensational fit very nicely together thanks cobber.
Unfortunately there is talk of the Grand Prix (which my dad has always pronounced as "grand pricks") coming back to Adelaide. Is it because of the weather, the supposedly better track?
Nope, it's because apparently Melbourne is taking/costing too much money and there is more profit to be had holding a car race in a "last latté before Perth" outpost that's too meek and aware of its social ranking to ask for much.
The GP should be a huge 4 lap race around the Victor Harbor-Adelaide road.
Slobs