WOMADelaide, Australia’s most diverse and exciting music festival, today announced a further 25 artists for the 2012 event.
With 2012 heralding the 20th anniversary of WOMADelaide in Australia, next year’s milestone in Adelaide’s Botanic Park from 9-12 March will see a number of past festival favourites return, and the Australian debut of some of the world’s most exciting new artists.
Joining the likes of the inspirational Staff Benda Bilili from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit, Mali’s desert bluesmen Tinariwen and South African icon Johnny Clegg (announced in October) will be funk legends Chic (USA), acclaimed Australian performer Gurrumul, Penguin Café (the new generation of the UK’s Penguin Café Orchestra), singer/dancer/percussionist/songwriter Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast; Finland’s ‘extreme accordionist’ Kimmo Pohjonen and DJ Krush from Japan.
Director Ian Scobie said “The 2012 festival allows audiences to relive several of our favourite WOMADelaide artists from the past two decades, while discovering some amazing new performers who will join us for the very first time.”
Dance, visual arts, street theatre and food will again play a prominent part in the WOMADelaide experience and the inclusion of Ireland’s ponydance theatre company will have WOMADelaide audiences in a dancing mood with their highly interactive performance, “Anybody Waitin’?” To be performed in some of the festival bars in the evenings, ponydance delivers a witty and comical 30-minute routine in a whirlwind of movement.
In addition to performances, workshops, Artists In Conversation, Taste the World cooking sessions by artists and guest super-chefs, the festival will include the family favourite KidZone, with free activities all weekend, plus over 100 food, crafts and display stalls and a parade made up of hundreds of WOMADelaide kids and parents.
The final program, including a number of other headline artists and full details of the site program, will be announced in early January 2012.
The WOMADelaide 2012 line-up to date is:
Bonobo (UK)
Chapelier Fou (France)
Chic (USA)
Diego Guerrero y El Solar de Artistas (Spain)
DJ Krush (Japan)
Dobet Gnahoré (Ivory Coast)
Eddi Reader (Scotland)
First Aid Kit (Sweden)
Frigg (Finland/Norway)
Groundation (Jamaica/USA)
Johnny Clegg (South Africa)
Kimmo Pohjonen (Finland)
Le Trio Joubran (Palestine)
Lo'Jo (France)
Mahala Rai Banda (Romania)
Master Drummers of Burundi (Burundi)
Mo' Horizons (Germany)
Nano Stern & The Sindicato (Chile)
Narasirato (Solomon Islands)
Pascals (Japan)
Penguin Café (UK)
ponydance theatre company “Anybody Waitin’?” (Ireland)
Sharon Shannon Big Band (Ireland)
Shivkumar Sharma (India)
Staff Benda Bilili (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Tinariwen (Mali)
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UK)
And from Australia –
The Barons of Tang
The Bearded Gypsy Band
The Bombay Royale
Blue King Brown
Grace Barbé (Seychelles/Australia)
Gurrumul
Jay Hoad Band (Fiji/Australia)
Jinja Safari
JUMPS
La Voce Della Luna (Italy/Australia)
Melbourne Ska Orchestra
The Pigram Brothers
Shane Howard
For tickets and more info go to www.womadelaide.com.au.
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