WOMAD 2012: A Festival Review, Part II

All words and photos by Alex Kavanagh (http://www.alexkavanagh.com/) (excluding lead photo, above). Part I of Alex’s review can be found here.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Ahhh, another beautiful morning in the south-west. After a bracing cold-water shower (shower!), a nice cuppa and a fried breakfast cooked in a wok, we were set. There were a couple of people we wanted to see, so we made loose plans and hoped to take in some bonus acts along the way. This is Womad’s true forte: the voyage of musical discovery you’re forced to embark upon. It’s inevitable you’ll only be familiar with a handful of names on the bill, unless you’re a true connoisseur of world music, so you have to experiment. Don’t like something? Move on. And if you do like something, chances are you’ll fall head over heels for it. Like when you take a punt on a CD by a group you’ve never heard of and it’s brilliant. It’s that feeling you’ve unearthed a gem that makes it feel that little bit more personal, more intimate. Thirty years have given Womad the time to perfect their formula, and its determined open-mindedness is what truly sets it apart from other music festivals. … Continue Reading



By Robert Freeman
By Nick Cowan
By Leanne Petersen





Join the conversation...