The internationally acclaimed, genre-defying British group Florence + The Machine and Grammy Award-winning US indie-folk band Bon Iver will make their WOMADelaide debut at the 2023 festival, which will see the welcome return of international artists, together with the breath-taking aerial spectacular, Place des Anges, by French company Gratte Ciel, from 10-13 March in Adelaide’s Botanic Park.
Florence + The Machine, fronted by enigmatic singer Florence Welch, will be returning to Adelaide for the first time since 2019 where they played to a sold-out audience of over 14,000 adoring fans. The hugely influential group, renowned for their dramatic and spellbinding live shows, will headline Saturday 11 March at the festival.
Having sold 17million albums, won multiple Brit Awards, been nominated for six Grammys and topped charts around the world, Florence + The Machine are touring on the back of their uplifting fifth studio album Dance Fever, released in 2022 and described by Rolling Stone as “an ecstatic prayer for post-pandemic redemption.”
Bon Iver, led by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, will perform a set that spans their 15-year career on the opening night of the festival, Friday 10 March. In 2011 their eponymous release won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist. The dreamy Wisconsin outfit has gone on to be nominated a further nine times, including for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for their 2019 release i,i.
In 2020 Bon Iver broadened their international appeal when they joined Taylor Swift for the song Exile, which exploded across global music charts and reached No.1 on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart. Bon Iver also created 2 A Billion, a campaign working to bring gender equity centre stage by partnering with local charitable organisations.
Place des Anges (place of angels) is one of the world’s most extraordinary aerial performances featuring a host of feathered angels who dance and descend from high above the treetops and the audience in a celebratory ethereal ballet.
An Australian exclusive, Place des Anges will be performed nightly, transforming Botanic Park into a magical wonderland of music, acrobatics and death-defying theatrics.
Softly cascading feathers fall from the heavens, as the angels swirl amongst the stars and gradually descend to earth to play with the audience.
Photo Credits: Florence + The Machine – Autumn De Wilde; Bon Iver – As supplied; Place des Anges – Grant Hancock
