Craftypics's Blog

Womadelaide 2021 was a very different affair due to Covid and looked for a while that nothing would be proceeding, but then the announcement that just Australian Acts would be playing on just a single stage for Dusk/nightime concerts.

Not really WOMAD as we know and love and more in name and the timing of the shows. Photography passes would be very limited due to a single stage and this year is the first year I have not been there on Media duties, but instead as a general Punter.

Midnight Oil were always going to be a big drawcard as one of Australias premiere live artists and one of my own favourites and Saturday performance promised an older ( hits ) selection rather than the newer Makarata project tracks which are to be highlighted at the final night at Womad on Monday 9th March.

Here is a small selection of clips from Saturdays songs. They are only snippets and no I dont have additional footage as I was there to enjoy the show, but I do like a visual and audio memory of concerts I attend so enjoy

An interesting lens release from Sirui who are better known for their tripods and Monopods. The 50mm Anamorphic F/1.8 was announced late 2019 and was run on an Indiegogo platform. Sub $1000 for an Anamorphic piqued my interest. With the Corona Virus kicking off in China the manufacturing was delayed and delivery dates were pushed back. So after ordering really early January the lens finally turned up Mid April.

Solid build construction and Smooth Aperture ring. I was keen to try it out. Headed into town at dusk with just the lens and a pretty basic tripod and captured some footage. Here it is – no grading done to it -> straight out of camera. I really need to get into the practice of writing down F stops used as that info is not recorded in EXIF obviously. More testing and comments coming in the next few days

There were a LOT of bands that I managed to see some of at Womadelaide, but a few stood out that were memorable and the first one to go into more depth was Ifriqiyya Electrique.  I saw the first part of their Saturday set during the daytime on stage 3 and the description in the program which I don’t always agree with was pretty well spot on. The Sound is Heavy and Hypnotic with lots of Chanting and the stage presence of all 4 members is very photogenic. The weather was heating up but the guitarist was still sporting a black scarf draped over his Black jacket. Acoustically the music is assaulting to the senses. It is heavy, grinding, pumping and almost hypnotic and when I saw they had a set on Monday night also I locked it in.

Combining their sound with background images of Refugees/ poverty and other confronting topics worked superbly and ended up being one of my Festival highlights

Check out all the images up here https://www.craftypics.com/Music/Womadelaide-2020/Womadelaide-2020-Monday

One of the big drawcards for the Adelaide Superloop 500 Final race day on Sunday was the Lineup of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing the after race concert. So much so that a lot of people bought tickets to the “race” but only went to the concert and boy was it packed. I got to the stage mid way through the Support Act –  George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic but could still only manage to get as far as about 50 metres from the stage area but still managed a handful of usable photos only pulling the camera out a few times during the relatively short 90 minute set. To View full gallery CLICK ME

Also took a small amount of Video

With only 3 weeks to go its time to plan your must see artists at Womadelaide. Some Acts will only play a single performance so if there is one you really have to see prioritise it and make sure you leave enough time to travel to that stage. Full Schedule up HERE

For those new to Womadelaide the travel time from the furthest stages can be 15-20 minutes at a brisk walk.  Stage 3 is the furthest stage to the East near Hackney Road. The longest walk is from there to the Novatech stage near Frome road.

Keep an eye out for the APPs out soon for Android and Apple. These apps are great to schedule who to see but I’d suggest grabbing a hard copy from the event in case your phone battery gets too flat.

Sunday at 6pm on Stage 3 sees our local SA based talent TK Maidza play her style of Rapping. I caught her a few years back at Laneway Festival in 2015.

Having Photographed at Womadelaide for over 10 years now I have captured a LOT of images, but I still speak to people in my home town of Adelaide that don’t really know what Womadelaide festival really is so I’ve scoured my archives and selected a batch of images representing World, Music, Art and of course Adelaide over the last 10 years. For those who are regulars to Womadelaide it will be a trip down memory lane, For those that have never been they can see what they have been missing out on.

Ive recently been digitising my Parents collection of Super 8 footage since it’s rarely been seen in the last 20-30 years due to lack of equipment to play it. Most of it has now been captured and now the process to edit out bits that may be relevant that other people may want to see. A few technical things also need to be carried out which are time consuming. Slowing down the frame rate to make it match reality, Denoising the footage and changing Aspect ratios so that it doesn’t look stretched when watching on a HD screen.

There is lots of different footage but will include

• Penang, Malaysia 1966 – 1969
• Sydney and Regional Australia circa 1970
• Adelaide and in particular Blackwood/Hawthorndene in the early to mid 70s
• Europe 1974/1975
• USA 1977

and a lot more including some footage from The Birdman Rally on the River Torrens in the mid 70s

Subscribe to my youtube channel to be informed of New Super8 scans as they are uploaded.