talent en route

At work lately we've been reaping the benefits of a lot of talent en route to or from Womad - the World Music Festival in Adelaide.

Acts like Gotan project, Kronos Quartet, Mariza (which Lara saw and gave a glowing review, thank you) and one of my favourites, Salif Keita. All of these performances were held in the Concert Hall so one large lighting rig was supposed to fit all. The majority of them had their own touring sound and lighting crew so other than tweaking the rig to fit their individual requirements there was no actual design input required from our side.

With one exception - Salif.
The band had just arrived from Adelaide the day before and were pretty bushed so not only were we providing the design and operation we did so with no rehearsals and sandwiched between 2 Sydney Symphony rehearsals that required an empty stage.

A bit stretched for time? Absolutely! We didn't get a Set List until half an hour before curtain up but despite all these 'minor set backs' the show rocked. The band all look pretty relaxed in these shots of the sound check but once the house lights went down light it was on!

Salif announced to the crowd that it was his birthday and he wanted everyone up and dancing. It must be said that the Concert Hall is not really conducive to rave dancing - it hasn't got much of a Mosh pit - but this didn't put the audience off. Old and young they clapped and stomped all the way through, culminating in one big party on the stage when Salif pulled people up on stage to dance with him.

At the end of the night I was exhausted but satisfied. The challenge had been met - the show went on - and in theatre that's all that matters.