WOMAD 2020 Introduces Montell2099, Stacey Morrison & The Steamlab Speakers

Just announced! Closing the Gables Stage on Saturday night is Auckland-based beatmaker MONTELL2099, one of the most exciting new electronic music talents to emerge from New Zealand in recent years. Plus – speakers for the inaugural STEAM Lab have been announced.

In an era where musicians often lean on gimmicks to market their work, MONTELL2099 is connecting with his audiences on the strength of his music alone, and he’s only just getting started. Mixing bubbling melodies, manipulated vocal snippets and booming bass hits, his idiosyncratic productions ripple and thud with club-ready swing and funk. With a taste for genre-bending releases, MONTELL2099’s mantra is simple–surprise his listener on every corner!

Stacey Morrison is looking forward to taking the stage as the host of OMV Taste The World at WOMAD NZ, 2020.  Excited to be part of this delectable festival highlight Stacey can’t wait to share her love of kai with international artists, and festival audiences, after hosting five seasons of her lifestyle and cooking show Whānau Living.

“I can’t wait to see artists from around the world step off the stage and into the kitchen. No doubt their joy at sharing delicious, fresh and unique recipes from their homelands will be contagious and leave WOMAD audiences hugely inspired.  OMV Taste the world is such a colourful setting, and I’m excited to help the artists feel welcome in Aotearoa”

Download the Taste The World schedule.

THE STEAM LAB

THINK MATH AND SCIENCE IS BORING? WELL, COME DELVE INTO THE STEAM LAB AND THINK AGAIN!

Download the Steam Lab schedule 

WOMAD’s newest stage invites you to step into a place of wonder, a place where Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) unite. Hear from inventors, innovators and people at the top of their fields pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo.

Join us in the transformed Pinetum, into a haven that evokes curiosity, where innovative minds that have solved real-world problems are celebrated. Visionaries will share their incredible groundbreaking journeys of discovery and leave you wanting to know more!

MEET THE INAUGURAL STEAM LAB SPEAKERS

Dr Nicoline den Breems

Dr Nicoline Breems research interests lie in the interdisciplinary field of Systems Biology, Mathematical Biology and Bioinformatics with a special interest in modelling host immune interactions. She is interested in optimising parameters, and the use of ordinary differential equations, data-driven analytical and numerical analyses to simulate and investigate the complexity in biological systems. Her current research involves developing project complex system models to simulate cell signalling, e.g. cancer-immune interactions and gene network regulation, in biological systems.

Shayne Gooch

Shayne Gooch is the Dean of Engineering (Academic) at the University of Canterbury. Shayne has been working with the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery via the Len Lye Foundation on the design of Len Lye sculptures since 1996. His first project was to commission and build Big Blade (2001) as part of a PhD study in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Simon P Taylor

Dr Simon Taylor was awarded the Kudos Science Educator award in 2014 in recognition of his outstanding contribution towards encouraging an understanding and appreciation of science to youth and the wider community. Simon has publicly lectured in astrophysics, nuclear fusion, cosmo- chemistry, the beauty of physics and music, the physics of surfing and learning futures. Currently, Simon lectures at Waikato University.

Suranga Nanayakkara

Suranga Nanayakkara is among that rare breed of engineers that has a sense of “humanity” in technology. In 2011, he founded the “Augmented Human Lab” to explore ways of creating ‘enabling’ human-computer interfaces as natural extensions of our body, mind and behaviour. His emphasis on “enabling” rather than “fixing,” has technologies that Suranga has developed have a potentially much broader range of applications. His work is most important to the people whose lives it most directly impacts those who face challenged to function in the world due to sensory deficits in hearing or vision. Suranga is an Associate Professor at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, the University of Auckland (UoA).

KIDZONE PROGRAMME

Download the Kidzone schedule 
Welcome to Kidzone, a place where kids can let their creative juices flow!
Kidzone has a magical festival atmosphere, where creativity and entertainment through music, dance and storytelling are the focus.
Throughout the festival, the carefully curated programme in Kidzone will encourage young WOMAD’ers to create arts and crafts, musical instruments, masks and lanterns of their own as they get amongst the festivities! There is storytime and theatre time. Dance workshops and natural play. Kidzone is a safe and welcoming environment for whānau and children up to 12 years of age.

THE THREE DAY STAGE SCHEDULE

THREE DAYS – OVER 80 LIVE PERFORMANCES – FIVE STAGES

Download the Three-Day Stage schedule
*please note WOMAD NZ reserves the right to alter the schedule without notice or notification.

See your festival favourites perform twice or schedule your weekend around the exclusive one-off performances.

The highly anticipated reggae icon Ziggy Marley will be performing once on Friday night, as will jazz, soul, funk fusion group Hiatus Kaiiyote. Folk award-winning Laura Marling, Aotearoa’s reggae, electronic, blues, rock, and funk supergroup L.A.B and Auckland-based beatmaker/DJ MONTELL2099 will all make one-off appearances on Saturday. Closing off what promises to be a very special weekend, the Ambassador of African music Salif Keita will perform one of his last shows ever on Sunday.

The Spinoff accurately reported on the back of the sold-out 2018 festival that, “WOMAD would never be so cruel as to only play things once, so most acts put on repeat performances over the weekend allowing you the chance to customise an itinerary that would rival an around the world music trip.”

WOMAD New Zealand 2020, welcomes double performances from the living legends of gospel, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, the mesmerising harp-kora duo of Catrin Finch & Sokou Keita, Maloya dance group Destyn Maloya, the Ezra Collective – hot off the UK jazz scene, the all-female Mexican mariachi ensemble Flor de Toloache, energetic brass band Hot Potato Band and the rhythmic trance group Ifriqiyya Electrique.

Explosive eight-strong Belgium ensemble KernesZ á l’Est, genre-bending Janggu player Kim So Ra, Ghanian kologo star King Ayisoba, the Brazilian black soul and samba group Liniker e os Caramelows and Indian Classical maestro L Subramaniam will all play twice throughout the festival.

Also scheduled for more than one performance is the empowering Greek-Sudanese multi-talent Marina Satti & her group Fońes, Japanese folk group Minyo Crusanders, the Cuban 12-piece big band Orquesta Akokán, Scottish folk music ensemble RURA and Finnish vocal folk hop singers Tuuletar. Trio de Kali, a young supergroup from Mali is scheduled to perform two sets, one with New Zealand’s classic ensemble The Black Quartet.

Representing Aotearoa, Albi & the Wolves, Reb Fountain, Soaked Oats, and Troy Kingi are all scheduled for repeat performances over the three days and The Black Quartet are set to play twice, once in a highlight performance with Trio Da Kali (Mali).

From when the gates open at 4.30pm on Friday, March 13th until the last act finishes at 11.45pm Sunday, March 15th, 2019, the stunning 55-acre Brooklands Park and the TSB Bowl of Brooklands is filled with thousands of happy people for a late summer indulgence in world music, food and dance.