WOMADelaide today announced a further 40 extraordinary artists for its 30 year celebration to be held 11-14 March in Adelaide's Botanic Park/Tainmuntilla, including festival favourites The Cat Empire, the debut of Kiwi powerhouse L.A.B., hip-hop supergroup A.B. Original and oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros with a 52-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
The Cat Empire joined the WOMADelaide family in 2003 when they played WoZone, the festival's late-night club. Next year's show will be their sixth appearance on the main stage since then and their final SA show with the original lineup, accompanied by dancers and other special guests.
Winners of the 2020 Best Roots Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards, five-piece L.A.B have become a phenomenon over the past few years, selling out 10,000 capacity stadiums in NZ with their weighty mix of reggae, electronic, blues, funk and rock.
Hip-hop heavyweights A.B. Original return to the festival after five years, with MCs Briggs and Trials pumped to be putting together a one-off live experience featuring guest musicians and vocalists TBA.
Cairo-born ARIA-Award winning composer and oud master Joseph Tawadros AM will perform his grand, cinematic Concerto for Oud & Orchestra and four other works with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and his brother James Tawadros on Arabic percussion on the opening night of the festival.
A small but stellar international contingent will also perform at WOMADelaide 2022, including Brazilian jazz legends Azymuth & Marcos Valle; Grammy nominated Mississippi blues artist Cedric Burnside and Grammy-winning Guatemala born, US based folk singer Gaby Moreno.
Also appearing will be Scottish trad-electronic band Elephant Sessions and NZ's multi award-winning Troy Kingi, currently conquering his dream to release ten albums of ten different genres in ten years and multi-instrumentalist Tio from Vanuatu.
Joining them will be world-renowned composer-producer-DJ Floating Points (UK) and Grammy nominated environmentalist and house music DJ Jayda G, alongside NZ DJ AROHA.
WOMADelaide has joined forces with Music In Exile to present South Sudan's 'King of Music' Gordon Koang, Ausecuma Beats and Chikchika and with Nexus Arts to present ZÖJ, Dhungala Baarka and Farhan Shah & Sufi-Oz. WOMADelaide x Northern Sound System Academy graduates Sokel, Sonz of Serpent with the Tervete Collective and Elsy Wameyo will also perform.
"Expanding our 30th anniversary lineup with the calibre of artists we are announcing today is hugely exciting," said Ian Scobie, Director.
"The diversity of the lineup, from Carla Lippis' Mondo Psycho - a Spaghetti Western project we have commissioned - to Asteroid Ekosystem (Ed Kuepper, Lloyd Swanton & Alistair Spence) is a real triumph. Bring on March 2022!"
South Australian Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said the latest line up release for the 2022 WOMADelaide festival was exciting news for the state.
"Welcoming 40 more artists to Adelaide's iconic festival is sensational news and means South Australians and interstate visitors can start planning how they'll enjoy these incredible four days in March," said Mr Harrex.
"With WOMADelaide's return to seven stages in the stunning Botanic Park and a celebration of the festival's 30 years, there are so many reasons to book a ticket, book a hotel stay, and enjoy all that Australia's most liveable city has to offer."
The complete list of artists announced today is:
• A.B. Original
• Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - Silence
• AROHA - DJ set
• Asteroid Ekosystem
• Ausecuma Beats
• Australian Art Orchestra - Hand to Earth
• Azymuth & Marcos Valle
• Bullhorn
• Bush Gothic
• Carla Lippis' Mondo Psycho
• The Cat Empire - final SA show of the original line-up
• Cedric Burnside (USA)
• Chikchika
• Dhungala Baarka
• Elephant Sessions (Scotland)
• Elsy Wameyo
• The Empty Threats
• Farhan Shah & Sufi-Oz
• Floating Points (UK) - DJ set
• Gaby Moreno (USA)
• Glass Beams
• Gordon Koang
• Jayda G (CAN) - DJ set
• Jerome Farah
• Joseph Tawadros & James Tawadros (duo show)
• Joseph Tawadros with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
• Karen Lee Andrews
• L.A.B (NZ)
• Luluc
• Makepisi
• Sokel
• Sonz of Serpent
• Springtime
• Taikoz
• Te Tangi O Te Ka'ara
• Tijuana Cartel
• Tio (Vanuatu)
• Troy Kingi (NZ)
• Victor Martinez Parada
• Yé-Yé 2.0
• ZÖJ
WOMADELAIDE, 11-14 March, Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia.
Event details at southaustralia.com.
WOMADelaide is proudly supported by the State Government through the South Australian Tourism Commission.
