Live Review + Gallery: WOMADelaide Day 2 (Saturday, 11th March, 2023)

Day 2 was the first of the full days, beginning at noon.

I took the chance to see Justin Adams & Mauro Durante early on in the day doing a music workshop, explaining how and why they made the music that they do. I was soon to go on to realise what an influential figure Justin Adams is within the musical world (he co-wrote Robert Plant’s 2005 album, Mighty ReArranger and has worked with artists as diverse as Tinariwen, Sinead O’Connor & Brian Eno amongst many others, both as a player and a producer). Later in the evening, I would return to see them play their full set, which took the morning’s playing to a whole new stratospheric level.

My next stop was at the main Foundation Stage to see the wonders of MEUTE, a marching band of eleven drummers and horn players from Germany who utilise their largely traditional marching-band instruments to play an amazing array of techno-style music, and are truly something to behold.

Next up was the marvellous music of Moroccan band, Bab L’ Bluz, who fuse traditional Moroccan music with more contemporary western styles such as blues and rock, and who tempted me to have to go and see them again throughout the rest of the festival.

From here, I returned to the main stage to see the Korean traditional folk/pop of ADG7, a bright and highly effusive collective who played, sang and danced their way through a bubbly set.

Following this, The Proclaimers drew a very large crowd to their performance on the adjoining stage, endearing themselves to fans new and old with their highly distinctive sound.

Fantastic Negrito (aka Xavier Dphrepaulezz) and his band were up next back on the main stage, and he quickly had the crowd eating out of his hands with his flamboyant stage presence, drawing material from his triple Grammy Award winning back-catalogue of contemporary blues. Again, this was an artist set to pull me back for another performance in ensuing days.

I then finished my day two with the repeat performance from Justin Adams & Mauro Durante before dragging my weary bones back to my accommodation to re-set for the next two days.

Justin Adams & Mauro Durante Gallery