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The organizer of WOMAD New Zealand says it had no choice but to withdraw from the 2021 event.
The crowd at the Bowl Stage, WOMAD 2020
Photo: Isabella Brown
Taranaki Arts Festival Trust said it risked losing millions of dollars and being declared bankrupt if Covid-19 disrupted the festival.
However, WOMAD UK, which oversees the event internationally, said it was going ahead with plans for a festival in New Zealand in March, based on kiwi talent.
For two decades, sounds from around the world have played around the Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth, drawing tens of thousands of people from across the country to the three-day WOMAD festival.
The Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT) has so far entered into the contract to host the event, but will not do so next year.
Executive Director Suzanne Porter said there had been a difference of opinion between TAFT and WOMAD UK about the risk that Covid-19 posed for events in New Zealand.
“Our government will shut things down as we have seen recently in Auckland with just two days notice.
“We analyzed what that financial risk was, we modeled it completely.
“We could carry that risk until February and in February we started to break the $ 2 million mark and I need to be very clear here: TAFT carries the loss, so we can’t take that risk.”
Reb Fountain performing at WOMAD 2020
Photo: Isabella Brown
Porter said it would only take Auckland to shut down for WOMAD to go down completely.
If that happened in the last week before the festival, the charity exposure would have been closer to $ 3.5 million.
“We would be committed to paying the artists. They would be in town. We were committed to paying for the hotel rooms because they would be in the hotel rooms. Our site would be set up.
“So we couldn’t honor our debts, which is not the way TAFT works. We are not people who just wouldn’t pay our debts and go out of business, it’s just not kaupapa.”
Porter said the trust had examined all avenues and even asked the government to underwrite the event, but it fell on deaf ears.
“That’s really the gist of the decision. It has been heartbreaking. TAFT has been here from the beginning, taking risks, taking losses for several years.
“We were happy to take a year off in 2021 and come back in 2022 when hopefully our borders will be open for at least some countries and to promote the full WOMAD experience again.”
However, the director of WOMAD UK, Chris Smith, found the image of Covid in New Zealand to be much more optimistic.
“We have looked at what is happening in New Zealand and we can certainly see that there are many events that are still happening and selling very well and there is clearly a demand.
“The situation in New Zealand is very positive regarding the pandemic and the advice we received was that there was good reason to continue.”
It was believed that WOMAD UK was now working with multinational concert producer Live Nation at the New Zealand event.
Ezra Collective performing at WOMAD 2020
Photo: Isabella Brown
Porter said he believed that TAFT had lost its hosting rights indefinitely and that Live Nation would want a multi-year agreement to intervene.
Smith, however, said that WOMAD UK was willing to work with the trust again.
He said WOMAD New Zealand 2021 would be different and feature an almost exclusively Kiwi lineup.
“There is a wide range of artists from different cultures living in New Zealand who play creatively and at a high level, and that is the model that we have developed in Australia and that we are looking to use in Spain and the UK.
“So we are moving a lot during this difficult period to try to keep the spirit of the event alive and to keep the spirit of cultural exchange alive, but extracting the resources that are within the countries we are working in.”
That didn’t wash out with Graham Donlon, host of the Most FM radio show Music Without Frontiers in New Plymouth.
“WOMAD is an international experience and its own name is World of Music Art and Dance. The emphasis is for me on the world and I think having a focus on New Zealand or Aotearoa would damage the WOMAD brand.”
Children entering the WOMAD 2020 children’s zone
Photo: Isabella Brown
Donlon said an Aotearoa music festival was fine, but the WOMAD brand should go away.
RNZ’s own world music fan Trevor Reekie was simply delighted that the event was taking place.
He calculated that New Zealand had the talent pool to pull it off.
“There are people who could book such a festival and there are many bands that are obviously based in New Zealand, but many of them have attended festivals abroad and are very familiar with the WOMAD format.
“All you can do is have faith in the people who are organizing the festival and hopefully everything will be fine for the audience.”
Chris Smith of WOMAD UK said that if all went according to plan, the Bowl of Brooklands would be back in the spotlight for three days in March.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Porter said that TAFT, which had lost two full-time equivalent employees and reduced contractor hours, was out of her hands and was already planning a new international event for 2022.
