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VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
Stuff journalist Federico Magrin went to his first Womad in 2023.
REVIEW: As I plunged into the crowds attending the biggest music event in Taranaki, I was already regretting not going to festivals often enough.
On Friday, I walked to Womad from home, reaching fellow festivalgoers just in time for the best performance of the three-day-long event – MEUTE.
The German techno marching band delivered two deep bass acts at the weekend, with several covers of international techno hits such as You & Me.
It was a hard performance to follow, but Mdou Moctar, Youssou N’Dour and ACAPOLLiNATiONS, among the other 40 musical artists, were all stunning.
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Dancing to Mdou Moctar’s Tuareg rock songs gave me a cathartic feeling, with my closed eyes I envisioned the African starry heavens above the nomads travelling through the Sahara desert.
The Nigerien band is part of a new wave combining rock and Berber music from western and central Sahara – countryman Bombino is just another of the songwriters from Niger resurrecting nomadic melodies and tunes of the Tuareg people.
I strolled through rivers of teenagers, young adults, families and elderlies, all moving their limbs with rhythm and enjoying the peaceful and spacious event, which was made possible also by the work of 600 volunteers.
VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
Tuareg rock band Mdou Moctar was one of Magrin’s favourite acts.
Attending jam-packed music festivals across Europe was one of the activities I would do on a yearly basis, as I travelled through the techno music scene popularised by superstars Carl Cox and Marco Carola in the 2010s.
In 2023, I came to Womad for the first time and I found 15,000 concertgoers of all ages, but the staple backbone of festivals is always, I think, the groups of youths making it alive and vibrant.
Music festivals have always been a joyful triumph of the youth culture.
Andy MacDonald / Stuff
There was still plenty of fun, food, music and dancing to be had on the final day of Womad 2023.
Throughout the ages, youth culture has shaped the way organisers have managed music festivals and German composer Richard Wagner was no different.
In 1876, the Bayreuth festival was first established by Wagner, who you might know for the version of Ride of the Valkyries featured in Apocalypse Now.
Back then, the music festival foresaw the forthcoming German-dominated era of the early 20th century.
VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
German band MEUTE played two acts at Womad
German values such as remorselessness, a joyful moral and the will to power were branded by attendees such as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Almost one hundred years later, Woodstock festival also heralded a new era in 1969, setting the times for the establishment of liberalism across the Western world.
VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
Womad is a mix of music breaking national boundaries, international food and slam poetry, says Magrin.
The festival-goers who listened to the like of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the tear-jerker version of With A Little Help From My Friends by Joe Cocker, announced an era where liberal values disdained by their frigid and prude parents took over political institutions and commercial practices.
Womad was no different from these historical precedents, as global music, international food and slam poetry filled the New Plymouth festival.
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