Womad NZ 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary for the festival at the Bowl of Brooklands Photo / Federico Pagola
Womad NZ 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary for the festival at the Bowl of Brooklands Photo / Federico Pagola
From Korean folk-pop to very talented Occitan troubadours, genre-pushing hip-hop jazz to a Kiwi meteorologist, the first teaser of talent booked for Womad NZ 2023 contains plenty for festival fans to look forward to.
While the full lineup for the three-day festival will be released on October 20, the TaranakiArts Festival Trust released a small teaser of artists today.
Multi-award-winning Korean folk-pop music group ADG7 will take the stage at Womad NZ 2023. Photo / supplied
The list of confirmed acts and appearances includes ADG7 (Ak Dan Gwang Chil), a multi-award-winning Korean folk-pop music group, featuring six Korean traditional musicians and three powerhouse female folk singers. Formed in 2015, the year Korea celebrated its 70th anniversary of national liberation, ADG7 combines South Korean traditional music with catchy pop styles. The unique mix of tradition with modernity and plenty of comedy has brought the group plenty of awards and even more fans.
Tom Scott's hip-hop jazz ensemble Avantdale Bowling Club was booked to perform at Womad NZ 2022, and while Covid-19 precautions meant the festival didn't go ahead, music fans will be pleased to see the award-winning ensemble features in next year's lineup.
Tom Scott's hip-hop jazz ensemble Avantdale Bowling Club is likely to draw a large crowd at Womad NZ 2023. Photo / Christian Tjandrawinata
In 2019, Auckland rapper Scott won the prestigious Taite Music Prize, which recognises outstanding creativity, for the Avantdale Bowling Club self-titled debut album. Scott is well-known to Aotearoa music fans, particularly as the bad-boy frontman of Kiwi hip-hop group Home Brew. Avantdale Bowling Club's name is a play on Scott's home town - Avondale, and his lyrics tell of the struggles he faced growing up there, as well as trying to carve out a life across the ditch in Melbourne, balancing the responsibilities of adulthood and parenting against a sense of homesickness.
French group San Salvador, a group of Occitan troubadours, are set to perform at Womad NZ 2023. Photo / Antoine Parouty
Also part of the lineup is French group San Salvador. The six-member band combines Occitan poetry with hypnotic vocal harmonies and plenty of powerful percussion. Occitan, also known as lenga d'oc by its native speakers, is a Romance language spoken in southern France, including Correze where the group is based.
Kiwi artist Dick Frizzel, MNZM, will feature as part of the always-popular World of Words lineup. The World of Words celebrates diverse and exciting voices designed to inspire people to think, talk, laugh, listen and learn, and Frizzel is guaranteed to get people doing all of those things. A versatile painter, he is also a highly sought-after designer of various products from toys to wine as well as being the author of a range of books including The Sun is a Star – A Voyage Through the Universe; and Me According to the History of Art.
The OMV STEAM Lab is a stage where science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics unite, with inventors, innovators and people at the top of their fields invited to share their knowledge with Womad audiences. The Womad NZ 2023 lineup will include meteorologist and author Lisa Murray who as well as being head of the weather communication team at MetService-Te Ratonga Tirorangi is also co-author of the book; New Zealand's Wild Weather.
Tickets for Womad NZ 2023 are on sale now, with festival-goers already keen to secure their tickets to what will be the 20th anniversary of Womad NZ at the award-winning Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth.
Details: What: Womad NZ 2023 When: March 17-19, 2023 Where: Bowl of Brooklands, Brooklands Park, New Plymouth, Taranaki Tickets: www.womad.co.nz
