Hailing as one of the premier world music events in Australia, Womadelaide 2021 didn’t disappoint.

Even though this years event looked vastly different than previous years, with 4 twilight concerts across 4 evenings, almost 19,000 punters walked through the gates of Adelaide’s King Rodney Park.

With a seated audience and a strict covid plan, dancing was allowed, albeit in your seat, this didn’t dampen the atmosphere greatly. While not having any international acts this year, a great lineup of Australian artists ensued including the wonderful Archie Roach on his seventh and final appearance performing songs from his debut Charcoal Lane.

Lior followed backed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra performing Compassion – an evocative and powerful Hebrew/Arabic sung performance.

Sarah Blasko enraptured us with a wonderful performance of her album As Day Follows Night  on its 10 year anniversary.

Across the following days saw solid performances from likes of soul/hip-hop duo MRLN x RKM, Vika and Linda, Miiesha, Kaiit, Tash Sultana, Siberian Tiger, The Teskey Brothers and of course Midnight Oil.

The Oils played 2 nights across the festival with the first night being a selection of material spanning their career and the final night saw them close out the festival with their recent release The Makarrata Project featuring first nations collaborators.

Such a good event that wasn’t dampened by covid, so here’s to seeing it return in its full capacity next year.

Words & images by Lucas Packett