HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Artist Welfare In a World of Music and Dance

Charlie Clarke | 08.08.2003 20:10 | Culture | Free Spaces | London | Oxford

A sort of international you show me yours and I'll show you mine

Bangles and Sequins
Bangles and Sequins

Cheikh Cesar at The Village Stage
Cheikh Cesar at The Village Stage

Father And Baby
Father And Baby

Toilet Crusaders
Toilet Crusaders

Greek Goads
Greek Goads

Kad Achouri
Kad Achouri

Kad and Band
Kad and Band

Boycotting Nestle
Boycotting Nestle

Pink Lights
Pink Lights

Reflections
Reflections

Fun with Textiles
Fun with Textiles

Thursday Evening before the Throngs
Thursday Evening before the Throngs


Artist Welfare Officer in a World of Music and Dance

Beers, towels and chocolate. My responsibilities were heavy at the WOMAD festival. But it wasn’t all work, work, work. I was privileged to see some beautiful music being performed. The sort of music that demands a purely physical reply. What with Cheikh Cesar’s shoulder shaking rhythms, Mr Scruff’s finger clicking cartoon soul sets, and Lo Jo’s hip rolling gypsy grooves…what was a girl to do but boogie?

Reluctantly shimmying away from the outside stages, back to the Rivermead dressing rooms (I use the phrase loosely), I always chose to take the scenic route through the seven continents of the traders stands. As I hurried through (unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of festival pace) I sniffed and sipped at the flavors, textures and perfumes from the Caribbean, China, India, Africa, Arabia, South and Central America with all the edges blurred.

This over-priced sequined sensual medley is, of course, now a well established side order of the exotic found at most festivals. However, it was particularly exciting to see just how many of the stalls were upholding fair trade or leafleting sustainable projects in developing countries.


A man dressed as a can of condensed milk allowed me to take a photo in return for a donation. He was there to raise awareness of the world's largest baby food company, Nestlé, making huge profits by pushing artificial infant feeding in violation of the World Health Organizations International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes.

And a girl dressed as a gigantic turd rattled her bucket for help towards water sanitation projects. Nice to see people mucking in eh!
Early evening on the Friday an already stoned thirty-something in baggies was embracing life next to the Siam Tent, he was trying to persuade people to join The Revolution. By the end of the weekend I was beginning to think there might actually be one brewing. The musicians played to their audiences like they were sharing something more than their talent. Mutual enrichment seemed the be the main dish of the day. A sort of international you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.

On Saturday, Senegalese duo Pape & Cheikh sang “Yatal queew” (Widening The Circle) through the rain, to a chilled and captured crowd at the main stage. This song flashes a welcoming grin at the virtues of tolerance and co-operation between ethnic, social and political groups and summed up the mood of the festival triumphantly.

And what’s in a name? Highlight of my weekend the political jazz-chanson-fusion singer/songwriter Kad Achouri, meditated on his manifesto “Il Faut Que Ca Change” and reminded us that the name “Mohammed” is not synonymous with danger and suspicion. With a spoon full of sweetness from the backing vocals, the richness of the bass and piano and Kad’s deep liquor voice, Sunday afternoon at the Village Stage felt like pure subliminal indulgence.

Elsewhere music provided the platter on which to serve the common human instinct to swirl around, bang big drums and get funky. Genre surfers The Cat Empire did this with great aplomb as did the brilliant, Birmingham bangra boys Pardesi Music Machine.

Some of the workshops, however, were disappointingly less like breaking the cultural bread and more like warm up gigs. This is not to say that the ones I saw weren’t enjoyable to watch, but it was only when the Maori voice and body percussion ladies got off the stage onto the same level as the eager bum shufflers and taught them how to dance a canoe that any audience participation appeared to be taking place.

Mind you, hoisting two crates of beer behind the semi-opaque curtain of a tai-chi-lie-on-the-floor-and-relax session when I had an aching hangover in the mornings did make me very envious. Not that I’d complain…for keeping the DJs fed and watered I’d dined lavishly on the fruits of the world of world music and dance and met some truly inspirational characters. Eliza, you missed a lovely weekend…..despite the rain.

Charlie Clarke
- e-mail: charliered23@hotmail.com

Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech