Community Programme

THE PURPOSE

Through our partners Todd Energy, the TSB Community Trust and the New Plymouth District Council, our aim is to make WOMAD accessible through workshops, concerts and artist interactions with select communities. This year’s events included song and dance workshops, a Cook-Off competition for Taranaki secondary school children and a free pop-up concert in New Plymouth’s CBD.

TODD ENERGY COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

Todd Energy is a long term partner of WOMAD and through its valuable support WOMAD is able to extend its activities beyond the festival into the local communities. This year, Todd Energy brought the Canadian group The East Pointers to selected schools in the Ngati Rahiri area where they held Ceilidh (pronounced “Kay-lee”) workshops, involving folk-music and traditional Celtic dancing.

The East Pointers

NEW PLYMOUTH DISTRICT COUNCIL COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

New Plymouth District Council’s community programme provided an opportunity for the public to experience a free taste of WOMAD prior to the event and for select international artists to get involved at a community level. The free WOMAD pop-up concert took place at the Puke Ariki landing the Thursday before WOMAD and included festival artists The Soil (South Africa), The East Pointers (Canada) and The Swan Sisters (NZ / Aotearoa). The Swan Sisters

TSB COMMUNITY TRUST COOK-OFF

Each year, teams of students from Taranaki secondary schools are invited to cook a dish from one of the top 10 cuisines of the world. The competition takes place at WITT in the week leading up to WOMAD and the students have their dishes judged by celebrity chef and Nova Energy Taste the World host Jax Hamilton. In the 2017 cook-off students were tested on a range of criteria, including creativity, presentation and more. Eager to see who won? Check out Nova Energy Taste the World on Sunday, the winning team are making their dish at 1pm!