Wompapalooza

Womadelaide provided yet another relaxing, fun and mind-expanding (musically, that is) weekend.

I came down with a cold on Thursday night, so the first half-day at the festival involved a lot of tissues, which was a hassle, but I survived. My cold improved quickly and we all had a really good time. Adelaide hasn't had rain for a while so there was a lot of dust kicked up in the park, which wasn't so pleasant. There seemed to be a lot more people around than there were the last two years. Not to a really painful degree, but if it got much more crowded it would lose some of the aspects I love most about this festival - the comfortable friendly vibe, ease of getting around and finding your mates, and at most, short queues for food and beer. It's still nowhere near as bad as a Big Day Out type of thing, and for the most part the people are still pretty friendly and polite. And not drunk, which helps. There are always a few issues about sitting down versus standing up in front of various stages (the smaller stages are quite low, and if people stand at the front, no one else can see anything) - but the festival management seem to be onto it and had the MCs make some announcements about how it should work for specific stages and specific shows. Stand or dance at the sides worked quite well. Dividing the crowd down the middle, not so well.

As always one of my favourite things was the flags by English artist Angus Watt dotted around the park. I could lie back on the grass and stare at these for ages. I even made a little video of a flag moving in the breeze, but I'll spare you that. They are all mounted on bamboo poles which make a funny groaning sound which you can only really hear up close.