WOMADelaide announces 2nd round of acts

PRESS RELEASE:

Joining an already remarkable array of artists, including the Grammy Award-winning Angélique Kidjo, Canadian academic and environmentalist David Suzuki, American singer-songwriter John Grant and Malian stars Songhoy Blues, to name a few, is the UK’s Mercury Prize nominated and politically charged electronic act, Asian Dub Foundation in their WOMADelaide debut and an Australian exclusive.

At the forefront of the London’s musical temperament for over 20 years, Asian Dub Foundation is a sound sphere where ragga meets sitar, dub meets bhangra and punk rock meets hip-hop. The past two decades has seen Asian Dub Foundation’s music mobilise people the world over, and their most recent studio album, More Signal More Noise, remains potent and relevant in the face of oppression and social injustice.

Asian Dub Foundation’s musical diversity has seen them work alongside Sinead O’Connor in the 2003 collaboration 1000 Mirrors, share the stage with the Beastie Boys and also with Primal Scream, and led to an invitation from David Bowie to perform a live score to French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovit’s cult classic, La Haine, at the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival in the UK in 2002.

“It’s exciting to be able to present such a feisty international act in Asian Dub Foundation on the main stage on the final night of the festival next year,” said Director, Ian Scobie. “They will undoubtedly close the night, and the festival, with the power and energy that their audiences have come to expect.”

Also announced today is the beautifully minimalist, West African inspired pop of French-Cuban twin sisters Ibeyi - daughters of Buena Vista Social Club percussionist Miguel Anda Diaz - the eight-piece New York ensemble Hazmat Modine who transform 1920s American music into a cocktail of Tom Waits- and gypsy-flavoured tinpan alley blues, the stunning Israeli-born Ethiopian singer-actress Ester Rada, bringing funk and Ethio-jazz into the mix, and the acclaimed Tex-Mex indie band Calexico (pictured) from the US, returning to WOMADelaide after a six-year absence.

WOMADelaide 2016 will feature a major site installation in the form of Sacrilege, an interactive, life-sized inflatable replica of Stonehenge created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.  

Measuring 34 metres long and five metres high, Sacrilege is Stonehenge with an irreverent modern makeover; a family-friendly intersection between art and history that invigorates the mystical place that has bounced through people’s curiosities for millennia.

The artists announced today for WOMADelaide 2016 are - 

• All Our Exes Live in Texas (Aust)
• Alsarah & the Nubatones (Sudan/USA)
• Asian Dub Foundation (UK)
• Calexico (USA)
• Cedric Burnside Project (USA)
• Debashish Bhattacharya (India)
• Djuki Mala (Aust)
• Ester Rada (Ethiopia/Israel)
• Hazmat Modine (USA)
• Husky (Aust)
• Ibeyi (Cuba/France)
• Kev Carmody (Aust)
• Miles Cleret - DJ (UK)
• Mojo Juju (Aust)
• Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro (Japan)
• NO ZU (Aust)
• The Once (Canada)
• Osunlade  - DJ (USA)
• Quarter Street (Aust)
• Radical Son (Tonga/Aust)
• Ripley (Aust)
• Sadar Bahar - DJ (USA)
• Sampa the Great (Zambia/Aust)
• Spiro (UK)
• The Spooky Men’s Chorale (Aust)
• The Strides (Aust)
• Surahn (Aust)
• Tulegur (China)
• Wasted Wanderers (Aust)

Site and KidZone artists include –

• Acrojou "The Wheel House" (UK)
• Fair Play Comedy "Fairly Fresh Fish Company" (UK)
• Jeremy Deller’s "Sacrilege" (UK)
• The Miraculous Theatre Company "Romantic Botanic" (UK)
• The Future Postal Service (Aust)

The above artists join the lineup announced on 24 September:

·      47SOUL (Palestine/Syria/Jordan)

·      Angelique Kidjo (Benin) & the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Aust)

·      Australian Dance Theatre “The Beginning of Nature” (Aust)

·      The Cat Empire (Aust)

·      DakhaBrakha (Ukraine)

·      Diego el Cigala (Spain)

·      Edmar Castañeda Trio (Colombia/USA)

·      The Jerry Cans (Canada)

·      John Grant (USA)

·      Ladysmith Black Mambazo (South Africa)

·      Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat (Iran)

·      Marlon Williams & the Yarra Benders (NZ/Aust)

·      Orange Blossom (France/Egypt)

·      Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico (Greece)

·      Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (Nigeria)

·      Songhoy Blues (Mali)

·      Violent Femmes (USA)

And from The Planet Talks program, presented by The University of South Australia - 

·      David Suzuki (Canada)

·      First Dog on The Moon (Aust)

·      Simon Hackett (Aust)

·      Tanya Monro (Aust)

More artists will be announced in November.

WOMADelaide, 11-14 March 2016, Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Aust – for information and tickets visit www.womadelaide.com.au