Saturday evening’s WOMADelaide program was one I was very much looking forward to and from African desert blues, to Israeli Ladino singing and awe inspiring percussion, the world was reflected in all its glory and I was happily overwhelmed at the task of attempting to be in 3 places at any one time.

Breezing past colourful children and oddballs, I quickly made my way over to the new addition of Speaker’s corner, a stage set up near the Frome Road gates where I joined some mates to catch the last minutes of Sambasunda who are a percussive orchestra from Indonesia. Not that many had made their way over for the workshop which was a shame because it was a great taste of the intricate rhythms and explosive pulsing beats of the jungles of Indonesia, only I was disappointed to find out that their actual show wasn’t until tomorrow.

Now I might be mistaken but Etran Finatawa, who were billed as a ‘cross-cultural, sub Saharan musical experiment’ perhaps comprised of a few members of Tinariwan, a traditional band of Touareg nomads from the Malian deserts who played at Womad 2 years ago, as I recognised quite a few of the droning vocal lines and bluesy riffs.

The cross over of northern desert drone with the call and response vocals of the Wodaabe tribesmen from southern Africa was quite magical and the striking image of traditional men with full flowing robes and head scarves exposing only the slightest hint of eyes and teeth as they strolled onto stage 2, complete with electric guitars squalling was one that will stay with me.

Next up I experienced a little of Kev Carmody, a prolific and well loved indigenous Australian, who’s mix of acoustic guitar and disarming crowd banter seemed to be going down a treat as people settled down on picnic blankets in the twilight.

I quickly moved on to the main stage to catch Lila Downs a Mexican singer with a huge voice who was backed by an American musician called Paul Cohen blending original material with traditional rancheras, songs which Lila introduced as being about the 2 things all Mexicans hold close to their hearts, tears and tequila.

As an aspiring, yet still undoubtedly amateur drummer, it was with great anticipation that I made my way over to where Bill Cobham was about to take to the stage. A huge crowd had gathered to welcome a man who has played drums with luminaries such as Miles Davis and as he slowly began to feel his way around the bright green kit sparkling under the stage lights it was easy to see why he is lauded as one of the best kit drummers in the world.

While his skill and precision behind the kit was amazing, I must say that after a while, a man interpreting the mysterious rhythms inside his own head does not hold ones undivided attention. Soon even I had my fill of drum solos and as the crowd thinned out dramatically I heard one guy remark ‘That was boring as shit’ which made me giggle all the way across the park to where the Waifs were just drawing to a close.

I was just in time to hear them forget the words to their huge hit of a few years ago ‘London Still’ though this didn’t seem to matter as the whole front section of the crowd knew it inside out and sung it loudly.

I made my way back over to speaker’s corner, where Felix from The Cat Empire was giving an address as one of the 80 odd Australian’s ‘trained’ by Al Gore earlier in the year in furthering the message of climate change and environmental destruction contained within his documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

With the night drawing to a close, I managed to squeeze in a little of Yasmin Levy and her band of Israeli and Armenian troubadours who were a haunting mix of sparse arrangements and gypsy flavours. The hand claps and evocative A Capella vocals of the encore track with lyrics that loosely translated as ‘What foods did your mother eat while she was pregnant to make you so beautiful’ was stunning.

Though all was not over as Mr Scruff, a celebrated DJ from the UK sent the night off with a bang, opening his set with a cruisy lounge version of Van Morrison’s Moondance, which gave way for the Sam Cook soul hit ‘What a wonderful world’ it wasn’t long before the crowd pleasing rocksteady reggae made an appearance with just a dash of the more edgy, fast tempo ragga thrown into the mix.

As the reggae subsided to make room for more Latin flavours in the second half of the set, I was really impressed with Mr Scruff’s subtle mix skills. I could’ve sworn I heard a trace of a Lionel Ritchie chorus amongst the Brazilian mambo which had the crowd dancing up a storm under the fig trees and was great way to end a night of worldly delights

Womad is a precious opportunity to expand musical horizons and appreciate the unifying force of music in all its forms and I was once again left in awe and quietly stoked that every year the world comes to our doorstep, it really is an amazing place!!