murraybramwell.com

February 25, 2014

Music World

Murray Bramwell previews a selection of the singers and sounds from Womadelaide 2014, opening March 7 to 11. Botanic Park, Adelaide.

For more than twenty years the first week in March in Adelaide has heralded, not just the Festival and Fringe, but Womadelaide, the enduringly popular music event with the portmanteau name that is both a local and national institution. First staged in 1992, under the wing of Rob Brookman’s Festival, Peter Gabriel’s UK concert venture Womad (that’s acronym for …

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February 27, 2013

New Sounds in the Park

WOMADelaide 2013
Preview

Murray Bramwell

The line-up for this year’s WOMAD in Botanic Park has been announced and the anticipation begins. It is a big list – with three days and four nights to cover – and there is the usual mix of familiar names and those never-heard-of-till-now- performers who will doubtless join the 20 year list of artists who, once seen and heard, are never forgotten.  Names like Youssou N’Dour, Sheila Chandra, Toumani Diabate, Afro Celt Sound System, L. …

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March 16, 2012

Capacity crowd gathers to celebrate a world of diversity

Filed under: 2012,Archive,Womadelaide

March 13, 2012

Adelaide Festival 2012

WOMADelaide 2012
Botanic Park, Adelaide
March 9 – 12.

It is now twenty years since the first WOMAD, scheduled as part of the 1992 Adelaide Festival, introduced world music to Australian audiences. The original program lineup was modest in number but not in stature – introducing, among others, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, violinist Dr L. Subramaniam, and, memorably, the charismatic Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. From there, this unique festival established a …

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WOMADelaide – 20 Years in the World

Filed under: 2012,Archive,Womadelaide

March 9, 2012

WOMADelaide – 20 Years in the World

As Adelaide’s most cherished musical festival celebrates a major milestone it is timely to consider just how far it has come since 1992 when that strange acronym was first welded on to our city’s name – and WOMADelaide arrived. Rob Brookman had programmed this weekend of something called ‘world music’ as part of his Adelaide Festival, and he (and Administrator Ian Scobie) negotiated with UK Director Thomas Brooman to bring …

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November 06, 2011

Womad Earth Station

Filed under: 2011,Archive,Womadelaide

Adelaide
October 24

Womad Earth Station
Long Gully, Belair National Park, Adelaide
October 21-23.

When, back in March 1992, Adelaide Festival director Rob Brookman was launching his first ever Womad event, he had intended that it be held in Belair National Park in the Adelaide Hills. Severe seasonal fire danger alerts put paid to that plan and, at the last minute, everything re-located to Botanic Park in the CBD where Womadelaide has been a great biennial, and now annual, success …

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March 01, 2010

A World of Difference

Filed under: 2010,Archive,Womadelaide

2010
A World of Difference

Womadelaide 2010
Botanic Park
March 5-8.

Murray Bramwell previews highlights from next month’s Womadelaide

To mark the new decade, and fifty years of the Adelaide Festival, Womadelaide 2010 is bigger than ever. Stretched to a fourth day, it now finishes on the night of the March Monday holiday. The program has added eight more acts, four international, four Australian, and claims performances from more than 500 artists from 27 countries.

Womadelaide remains one of South …

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March 01, 2009

Planet Soundings

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Murray Bramwell previews CDs for Womadelaide 2009

Now in its annual cycle, it seems no time at all before the next Womad program appears. Opening on March 6, the 2009 version is the thirteenth full-scale festival and again the program looks both recognizable and entirely unfamiliar. This is the paradox of the event and an important part of its success. There are few fixtures as pleasingly ritualized as Womadelaide and that is a strong reason why the numbers returning remain …

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March 14, 2008

Hot Stuff

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Womadelaide 2008
Botanic Park
March 7 – 9

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Womadelaide this year will be remembered because the weather was seriously hot – and so was the music program. When even the usually green swath of Botanic Park is looking parched and dusty we know that climate change is not just an Al Gore lecture and the current drought is getting very worrying. The temperatures climbed into the forties and day time sessions tested even the young and …

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January 01, 2008

Planet Soundings

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Murray Bramwell previews CDs for Womadelaide 2008

Now in its annual cycle, it seems no time at all before the next Womad program appears. Opening on March 6, the 2009 version is the thirteenth full-scale festival and again the program looks both recognizable and entirely unfamiliar. This is the paradox of the event and an important part of its success. There are few fixtures as pleasingly ritualized as Womadelaide and that is a strong reason why the numbers returning remain …

Continue Reading Back to top

March 20, 2007

Global Songlines

Filed under: Archive,Womadelaide

Womadelaide : Sounds of the Planet 2007
March 9 -11.

Murray Bramwell samples some recent CDs from this year’s Womadelaide artists.

It is now only a week away. Well established in its annual cycle, Womadelaide, follows the seasons back into the Adelaide autumn. And, after such a parched summer, the cool green expanse and easy shade of Botanic Park seems more beguiling than ever. This year’s is the eleventh event and marks the fifteenth anniversary of this “world of music …

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