I've taken so many photos of the beautiful flags at Womadelaide before, and posted quite a few of them, so I wanted to try something different for the blog. I started by trying NOT to photograph them and focus on other subjects, but that was hard. So I ended up going in the other direction and grabbing as many as possible, thinking I could use them as raw materials for some more complex compositions.... admittedly this tiled mosaic is not very complex, but it's just a first attempt. I had so much fun cropping interesting squares from the flags that I went on to crop mostly abstract squares out of lots of other photos too.
I was surprised to see it was way back in 2007 that I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more people at Womadelaide. (The first year I went was 2005.) The increased crowding was even more noticeable in the last few years, especially on the Saturdays, when there would tend to be an influx of people just for the day or evening, many drawn by a big popular act such as the Cat Empire or John Butler Trio. And some (not all) of those who are just out for the night, are out for a big, hard-partying night. There would be huge queues for toilets and we'd try to get meals at odd times to avoid queues there too. And as I predicted in 2007, this did detract a little from what I loved about this festival. It was still for the most part a very pleasant, easy, family-friendly experience, but with a lot more crowding and queueing and mess at least some of the time.
This year, however, it was noticeably quieter, which I think can be traced to the lack of a single big - ie reasonably mainstream-popular - act. Sadly, this is likely to be seen as a mark of failure, because ticket sales will have been lower. But it was definitely one of the factors that made it a perfect weekend for me. Along with the weather, of course! And of course the music and the musicians - more on that soon.
2 comments:
We used to have a smallish singer/songwiter festival on the river every July. It was crowded but manageable. A few years ago, they moved the stages and it grew to be huge. The intimate nature of the music was lost and they stopped allowing chairs and coolers to be brought in so the day became significantly more expensive. We stopped going. I used to love plopping ourselves down and listening to smaller acts and lesser known musicians. The larger stages and more famous acts aren't as appealing.
Oh, and I always love the flag photos. They look happy and festive.
Love the way you've put the photos together. You have a great eye for design.
ily ma
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