Live Review + Gallery: WOMADelaide Day 3 (Sunday, 12th March, 2023)

I started out on Day 3 with the intention of visiting a couple of the workshops that some of the artists do throughout the festival. My first port of call was to see Indigenous artist, Richard J Frankland, and I then followed up by seeing Bab L’ Bluz after having caught Julian Belbachir play a set on Stage 3. The workshops are interesting in being able to see and hear, first hand, how the artist(s) create their music, and the stories behind this.

Following on from the second workshop, I went to catch Kronos Quartet, who I had heard (but not photographed) the previous day and who sounded simply amazing.

My next artist was to catch the repeat performance of Fantastic Negrito, an artist who is always captivating on stage (and he didn’t fail to please, yet again).

I rushed from this to catch Tanzanian-born Aussie, Beckah Amani who was on the Moreton Bay Stage, a smaller, intimate stage set beside a massively sprawling Moreton Bay fig tree. WOMADelaide provides so many beautiful settings within the confines of The Botanic Park, where the festival is held.

From here, I moved to the Frome Park Pavilion to see Tiana Khasi, an Australian-born artist of Indian and Samoan descent who delighted the crowd with her soulful jazz feels.

Next up was Kokoroko, the UK Afrobeat jazz/soul 8-piece who drew a large crowd to Stage 2 followed by New Zealander, Ria Hall, who had the Stage 7 crowd dancing along to her, and her band’s reggae beats.

Next, I moved back to the Frome Park Pavilion to see Adelaide’s own Sons of Zöku, a psychedelic rock band with strong Indian flavourings…..and in retrospect, I must admit to them being my favourite act of the festival.

……and to back up the fantastic set by Sons of Zöku, Niger’s Mdou Moctar took to the nearby Stage 7 and blew everybody away with their fantastic blend of powerful guitar playing and hypnotic rhythms which go to creating their own, unique Saharan desert rock sound.

Having ended my evening on such a huge high, I decided to call it a night (with truth be told that I was very weary by this stage), and make my way back to my digs in preparation for the final day on Monday.

Richard J Frankland Gallery