Shapeshifter - WOMAD 2020 (photos)

Kia Ora Groovers.  Tonight we start off a series of photos taken at WOMAD 2020 (Mar 13-15)
First up is one of the country's most iconic bands, Shapeshifter, who stepped in at the 11th hour when Ziggy Marley had to pull out.

Formed in Christchurch in 1999, Shapeshifter's brand of South Pacific jungle/drum and bass and heavy soul has become an integral part of the tapestry of our live and recorded music scene. Consistently selling gold to platinum and playing sold-out tours across the country and abroad, their influence and impact is undeniable.  Click and expand the slideshow above to view the photos.

Photo: McKenzie Jennings-Gruar

Click below to see their new video, Break Me Down.

WOMAD 2020 is all go!

WOMAD New Zealand is famous for bringing together artists from all over the globe for a vibrant showcase of the world's many forms of music, arts, and dance.

The 2020 festival is no exception and will feature close to 100 hours of music, dance and voices across eight stages. Over three days Ngāmotu's stunning Brooklands Park and the TSB Bowl of Brooklands will once again be transformed into a village of colour, energy and inclusion. WOMAD New Zealand 2020 features cutting edge performers and world-class musicians from every corner of the planet, delivering fresh new takes on traditional music.

And come March 2020, multi-award-winning, solo artists, duos, trios and 12-piece brass bands from around the globe will come together to perform at WOMAD New Zealand. Finnish Beatboxing, Maloyan Dance and Black Samba will join hands with Reggae, Rap, Folk, Funk, Jazz, Soul, Classical and Afrobeat to celebrate the world's differences.

Pioneering young artists alongside inspirational icons are set to promote acceptance, joy, love, hope and change via the universal language of mankind, music.

 WOMAD New Zealand is very proud to present, for the 16th year anniversary of the festival (in alphabetical order) Albi & The Wolves (Aotearoa/NZ), Blind Boys of Alabama (USA), Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita (Wales/Senegal), Destyn Maloya (Réunion), Ezra Collective (UK), Flor de Toloache (Mexico/USA), Hiatus Kaiyote (Australia), Hot Potato Band (Australia), Ifriqiyya Electrique (Maghreb/Europe), KermesZ à l'Est (Belgium), King Ayisoba (Ghana), L.A.B. (Aotearoa/NZ), Laura Marling (UK), Liniker e os Caramelows (Brazil), L Subramaniam (India), Marina Sattir & Fońes (Greece/Sudan), Minyo Crusaders (Japan), MONTELL2099 (Aotearoa/NZ), Odette (Australia), Orquesta Akokán (Cuba), Reb Fountain (Aotearoa/NZ), RURA (Scotland), Salif Keita (Mali), Shapeshifter (Aotearoa/NZ) Soaked Oats (Aotearoa/NZ), The Black Quartet (Aotearoa/NZ), Trio Da Kali (Mali), Troy Kingi (Aotearoa/NZ) Tuuletar (Finland).

 The ever-expanding World Of Words stage, now held on the sun-drenched lawn of the Kunming Garden will be hosting poets, musical legends, authors, entertainers, comedians and educators to leave you both thinking and laughing.

Being hosted on a brand new stage in the tranquil setting of the Pinetum is WOMAD New Zealand's first-ever STEAM Lab. Come and hear speakers from Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics fields talk about incredible breakthroughs and their journey of innovation. Introducing WOMAD New Zealand's inaugural Book Club.

The book chosen for the 2020 festival is We Can Make A Life by Chessie Henry.

Book Club aims to bring people together to express their perspectives and explore the themes within the book while getting insights from Chessie herself. WOMAD New Zealand remains a place to bring artists together from all over the globe to break down barriers, educate, inform and inspire. Come and lose yourself in the sights, sounds, and tastes that blend together to make up the vibrant WOMAD experience!

https://www.womad.co.nz/

THIS JUST IN! Shapeshifter are coming to WOMAD 2020

Shapeshifter are the latest artists to be added to WOMAD's stellar 2020 line up.  Repalcing Ziggy Marley, who had to pull out for family reasons, the Christchurch D'n'B hroes will light up the Bowl stage and bring some much needed groove to the festival's first night.

Shapeshifter are no strangers to performing at packed-out festivals including WOMAD UK. They create a stadium-sized sound which adds layers of heavy soul, drum & bass, jazz, funk, rock and electronica to solid bass culture foundations, capable of morphing from rolling drum & bass to pummeling guitar-driven jams to horizon-shifting electronic soundscapes.

The five-strong lineup are thrilled to be bringing their very own genre-defying amalgamation to WOMAD New Zealand for the first time next week for a breathtaking show like no other. On stage at 10.15pm Friday on the Bowl Stage. WOMAD NZ Director, Emere Wano says “After the news of Ziggy’s withdrawal we were thrilled when Shapeshifter, without hesitation confirmed to play on Friday night. The group and their management worked quickly with us to get things sorted so that we could make an announcement today!  It’s the first time that they have played at WOMAD New Zealand which makes it even more special for all of us.”

 “It has been far too long since we have played down in Taranaki and so we are utterly stoked to be headlining the Friday night at WOMAD! Got some brand new flavours alongside some classic old treats to play, can't wait!" - Shapeshifter.

WOMAD New Zealand is very proud to present, for the 16th year anniversary of the festival (in alphabetical order): 
Albi & The Wolves (Aotearoa/NZ), Blind Boys of Alabama (USA), Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita (Wales/Senegal), Destyn Maloya (Réunion), Ezra Collective (UK), Flor de Toloache (Mexico/USA), Hiatus Kaiyote (Australia), Hot Potato Band (Australia), Ifriqiyya Electrique (Maghreb/Europe), KermesZ à l'Est (Belgium), King Ayisoba (Ghana), L.A.B. (Aotearoa/NZ), Laura Marling (UK), Liniker e os Caramelows (Brazil), L Subramaniam (India), Marina Sattir & Fońes (Greece/Sudan), Minyo Crusaders (Japan), MONTELL2099 (Aotearoa/NZ), Odette (Australia), Orquesta Akokán (Cuba), Reb Fountain (Aotearoa/NZ), RURA (Scotland), Salif Keita (Mali), Shapeshifter (Aotearoa/NZ), Soaked Oats (Aotearoa/NZ), The Black Quartet (Aotearoa/NZ), Trio Da Kali (Mali), Troy Kingi (Aotearoa/NZ) Tuuletar (Finland).

 The ever-expanding World Of Words stage, now held on the sun-drenched lawn of the Kunming Garden will be hosting poets, musical legends, authors, entertainers, comedians and educators to leave you both thinking and laughing. 

The new schedule is available now: https://www.womad.co.nz/schedules/

COMING TO WOMAD 2020: Ziggy Marley

The call to stand together in activism through love rings out loud and clear from this eight-time Grammy Award-winning musician and reggae icon.  Singer, songwriter, producer, author, humanitarian and visionary, if anybody can encourage change through music, it’s Ziggy Marley. As much as he upholds a family legacy that began with his father, Bob Marley, he’s blazed a trail of his own.

His seventh studio album, Rebellion Rises, is a positive and peaceful manifesto for hope and change.

Make Sure you're at WOMAD on Friday Night, when Ziggy plays.  

See the WOMAD 2020 Schedule Here

Check out his Website Here

Check out his new album on Spotify:

WOMAD 2020 Day Schedule Available

Click to enlarge

In what has become a welcome pre-Christmas tradition,  WOMAD New Zealand has today announced the 2020 festival Day Schedule. The full stage schedule will be released in January 2020, including the World Of Words, Taste The World, STEAM Lab and on-site performance schedules.

 See your festival favourites perform twice or schedule your weekend around the exclusive one-off performances. The highly anticipated reggae icon Ziggy Marley will be performing once on Friday night, as will jazz, soul, funk fusion group Hiatus Kaiiyote. Folk award-winning Laura Marling will make a one-off appearance on Saturday as will Aotearoas reggae, electronic, blues, rock, and funk supergroup L.A.B. Closing off what promises to be a very special weekend, the Ambassador of African music Salif Keita will perform one of his last shows ever on Sunday.  The Spinoff accurately reported on the back of the sold-out 2018 festival that, "WOMAD would never be so cruel as to only play things once, so most acts put on repeat performances over the weekend allowing you the chance to customise an itinerary that would rival an around the world music trip."

 WOMAD New Zealand 2020, welcomes double performances from the living legends of gospel, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, the mesmerising harp-kora duo of Catrin Finch & Sokou Keita, Maloya dance group Destyn Maloya, the Ezra Collective - hot off the UK jazz scene, the all-female Mexican mariachi ensemble Flor de Toloache, energetic brass band Hot Potato Band and the rhythmic trance group Ifriqiyya Electrique. Explosive eight-strong Belgium ensemble KernesZ á l'Est, genre-bending Janggu player Kim So Ra, Ghanian kologo star King Ayisoba, the Brazilian black soul and samba group Liniker e os Caramelows and Indian Classical maestro L Subramaniam will all play twice throughout the festival.

 Also scheduled for more than one performance is the empowering Greek-Sudanese multi-talent Marina Satti & her group Fońes, Japanese folk group Minyo Crusanders, the Cuban 12-piece big band Orquesta Akokán, Scottish folk music ensemble RURA and Finnish vocal folk hop singers Tuuletar. Trio de Kali, a young supergroup from Mali is scheduled to perform two sets, one with New Zealand's classic ensemble The Black Quartet.

 Representing Aotearoa, Albi & the Wolves, Reb Fountain, Soaked Oats, and Troy Kingi are all scheduled for repeat performances over the three days and The Black Quartet are set to play twice, once in a highlight performance with Trio Da Kali (Mali). From when the gates open at 4.30pm on Friday, March 13th until the last act finishes at 11.45pm Sunday, March 15th, 2019, the stunning 55-acre Brooklands Park and the TSB Bowl of Brooklands is filled with thousands of happy people for a late summer indulgence in world music, food and dance.

Book now - get that Xmas present sorted!

www.womad.co.nz

WOMAD 2020 Artists Announced

Tonight WOMAD 2020 Artists are announced: A political Jamaican Reggae icon (Ziggy Marley), an ambassador of African music (Salif Keita  ), masters of gospel (Blind Boys of Alabama) and a group of seasoned musicians from Aotearoa are just a few of the heavy-hitting performers announced for WOMAD New Zealand 2020.

At a ceremony held at Parliament tonight and hosted by the MP for New Plymouth, Jonathan Young and Justice Minister Andrew Little the line-up for WOMAD 2020 was announced.
Last year, the Prime Minister was due to open WOMAD.  However only an hour before the awful news of the shootings in Christchurch came through, changing our nation forever.  That terrible incident affected the mood and vibe of WOMAD 2018.

Taranaki Arts Festival CEO Suzanne Porter (responsible for WOMAD) remembers having to make the tough call to continue.  “It was a difficult decision, but it would have been like giving in.  We wanted to show the world that we stood for diversity and celebration of all cultures.” Andrew Little, reminiscing on his speech last year, when he had to stand in for the Prime Minister at short notice, summed up the sentiment in his speech tonight, acknowledging that there is a time to grieve, a time to cry, a time to heal and a time to dance.  WOMAD is that time, he said.

WOMAD New Zealand is famous for bringing together artists from all over the globe for a
vibrant showcase of the world's many forms of music, arts, and dance.The 2020 festival is no exception and will feature close to 100 hours of music, dance and voices across eight stages. Over three days Ngāmotu's stunning  Brooklands Park and the TSB Bowl of Brooklands will once again be transformed into a village of colour, energy and inclusion.

Joining the already announced mesmerising duo of Welsh harpist Catrin Finch & Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita and the living legends of gospel music Blind Boys of Alabama are twenty cutting edge performers and world-class musicians from every corner of the planet.

Delivering fresh new takes on traditional music are multi-award-winning, solo artists, duos, trios and 12-piece brass bands from around the globe. Finnish Beatboxing, Maloyan Dance and Black Samba will join hands with Reggae, Rap, Folk, Funk Jazz, Soul, Classical and Afrobeat to celebrate the world's differences. Pioneering young artists alongside inspirational icons will come together across the weekend to promote acceptance, joy, love, hope and change via the universal language of mankind, music.

WOMAD New Zealand is very proud to present, for the 16th year anniversary of the festival (in alphabetical order)

Albi & The Wolves (Aotearoa/NZ), Blind Boys of Alabama (USA), Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita (Wales/Senegal), Destyn Maloya (Réunion), Ezra Collective (UK), Hiatus Kaiyote (Australia), Hot Potato Band (Australia), Kim So Ra (South Korea), King Ayisoba (Ghana), L.A.B. (Aotearoa/NZ), Liniker e os Caramelows (Brazil), L Subramaniam (India), Ziggy Marley (Jamaica), Minyo Crusaders (Japan), Muthoni Drummer Queen (Kenya/France), Orquesta Akokán (Cuba), Reb Fountain (Aotearoa/NZ), RURA ( Scotland), Salif Keita (Mali), Soaked Oats (Aotearoa/NZ), Trio Da Kali (Mali), Tuuletar (Finland).

https://www.womad.co.nz/