WOMADELAIDE
final program announcement
More than 50 new groups added to
2018 FESTIVAL
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WOMADelaide today announced a mammoth 54 additional groups and projects – including 28 internationals – for the 2018 event, to be held from 9-12 March in Adelaide’s Botanic Park. The final lineup includes New York’s gypsy punks, Gogol Bordello; American bassist-singer Thundercat; breakout Israeli hip-hop artist Victoria Hanna and indigenous rising talent, Baker Boy.
Since forming in 1999 Gogol Bordello have injected Eastern European musical influences into underground rock to forge their unique sound. Their live shows, with giddying theatrics and a large dose of chaos, pack a power punch and dispel the notion that ‘everything has been done’.
Thundercat, having released three critically acclaimed albums and had a hand in two Grammy-winning albums (To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar and The Epic by Kamasi Washington), weave a heady mix of jazz, hip-hop, psychedelia, and funk.
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Joining them on the 2018 line up is Victoria Hanna, who performs Aramaic hip-hop and hypnotic, rhythmic raps on ancient Hebrew texts. Hanna is a vocal experimentalist who is both unpredictable and bewitching.
Singer, dancer and actor, Baker Boy, known in Arnhem Land as the ‘fresh new prince’ has had a phenomenal year or so, twice winning NT Song of the Year and scoring top honours in triple j Unearthed’s National Indigenous Music Awards competition.
WOMADelaide Director Ian Scobie AM, said “It is so exciting to be able to reveal the entire program, which crosses so many new boundaries, and countries as varied as Ghana, Sweden, Cape Verde, Turkey, Cameroon and PNG, as well as highlighting major projects in dance, circus and the visual arts. The 2018 festival is a true celebration of the wealth of musical and creative invention from some of the world’s most original, brilliant and adventurous artists”.
The diverse international lineup also includes Bulgaria’s incredible polyphonic singers Eva Quartet; Zanzibar’s mini classical orchestra Rajab Suleiman & Kithara; rising New Orleans stars Tank and The Bangas; Scandinavian folk duo My Bubba; Blick Bassy’s inspiring blend of blues, Bossa Nova and folk from Cameroon and the exquisite rigour and grace of China’s TAO Dance Theater.
From Australia, a vast range of musical territories will be covered; songs from the Russian heartland by Dustyesky to the hip-hop collaboration of Remi x Sampa (Remi Kolawole and Sampa The Great); the return of Mama Kin after eight years in the form of her new project Mama Kin Spender (with Tommy Spender and a 16-piece choir); the nu-soul of Hiatus Kaiyote’s Nai Palm and the vintage sounds of Tex, Don & Charlie.
Off stage, the festival includes an ethereal gallery of large-scale grass photo-synthetic portraits taken by renowned British visual artists Ackroyd & Harvey, at WOMADelaide 2017. The duo creates artistically beautiful and scientifically enlightening ‘living installations’ that draw together the disciplines of sculpture, photography, ecology and biology into artworks that grow and decay over time.
KidZone, WOMADelaide’s dedicated world of kid-friendly fun, returns with best-selling children’s author, singer, actor and Play School favourite, Justine Clarke, reading her new book The Gobbledygook and the Scribbledynoodle, as part of the festival’s Story Time Series. Climbing Tree – the team behind the world’s largest nature-inspired playground at Morialta – will also expand their Nature Village; a mini nature adventure world featuring woven huts, nature play exploratory elements and more.
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The 54 additional groups and projects announced today are:
a Bitna Ta – PNG/Australia
Abbey Howlett (Adelaide – Electrolounge) – Australia
Ackroyd & Harvey (visual artists) – UK
Baker Boy – Australia
Bashka – Turkey/Australia
Bedouine – USA/Syria
Cie Bivouac – Erica’s Dream (Circus) – France
Blick Bassy – France/Cameroon
Constantinople & Ablaye Cissoko – Canada/Iran/Senegal
Deborah Conway – Australia
Didirri – Australia
DJ Marky – Brazil
Dustyesky – Australia
Elephant Sessions – Scotland
Eva Quartet – Bulgaria
Francois Knoetze (site performance) – South Africa
Ghada Shbeir – Lebanon
Gogol Bordello – USA
Hana & Jessie-Lee’s Bad Habits (Adelaide) – Australia
Hartway (Adelaide – Electrolounge) – Australia
Hat Fitz and Cara – Ireland/Australia
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – USA
JAZZ Party – Australia
Jojo Abot – Ghana
Justine Clarke (KidZone) – Australia
Kings & Associates (Adelaide) – Australia
Lonelyspeck (Adelaide – Electrolounge) – Australia
Lura – Cape Verde
Mama Kin Spender – Australia
Mission Songs Project – Australia
Moussa Diakite & Wassado – Mali/Australia
My Bubba – Sweden/Iceland
Nai Palm – Australia
Nano Stern – Chile
Naomi Keyte (Adelaide) – Australia
Nature Village (KidZone) – Australia
Nickodemus (DJ set) – USA
Peanut Butter Wolf (DJ set) – USA
Cie Pernette –Commandeau (Dance – site performance) – France
The Pin (live panel discussion with Remi x Sampa & N’Fa Jones, ex 1200 Techniques) – Australia
POW! Negro – Australia
Rajab Suleiman & Kithara – Zanzibar
Remi x Sampa – Australia
Robyn Davidson (author, ‘Tracks’ & ‘Desert Places’) in Conversation with Roysten Abel (Director, The Manganiyar Seduction)
San Lazaro – Australia
Soul Capoeira (Adelaide – workshop) – Australia
Tank and The Bangas – USA
TAO Dance Theater – China
Tex, Don & Charlie – Australia
Thundercat – USA
Tim Whitt (Adelaide – Electrolounge) – Australia
Victoria Hanna – Israel
Yellow Blue Bus (Adelaide) – Australia
YID! – Australia
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The above artists join the 21 artists already announced –
Adrian Sherwood – UK
Anoushka Shankar – India/UK
Architects of Air “Arboria” – UK
The Avalanches – Australia
Bixiga 70 – Brazil
Chico Trujillo – Chile
Dan Sultan – Australia
Daymé Arocena – Cuba
Gratte Ciel – Place des Anges – France
Havana Meets Kingston – Cuba/Jamaica
Kamasi Washington – USA
Le Vent du Nord – Canada
The Manganiyar Seduction – India
Noura Mint Seymali – Mauritania
Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band – Ghana
Rahim Alhaj Trio – Iraq
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Mexico
Thievery Corporation – USA
Tinariwen – Mali
Violons Barbares – France/Mongolia/Bulgaria
Yirrmal & the Miliyawutj Band – Australia
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The Planet Talks program will be released in December.
WOMADelaide, 9-12 March 2018, Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia.
Information and Tickets
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