WOMAD

I spent my 24th birthday being driven to New Plymouth, a town five hours south, drinking mimosas (open container laws be damned).

Tim and Zack took me to WOMAD, that's World of Music and Dance for those not in the know.  It was as fun and hippie as you would expect with lots of barefoot children, fire poi, zhengs, and bhatoora.

It was pretty awesome.  I've been to a few musical festivals, that while fun, had there drawbacks: overcrowding (Voodoo Fest), drunken jerks (Jazz Fest), too expensive (Conchella) and just plain dangerous (Virgin Music Fest in inner-city Baltimore...shudder...).  This one was interesting in that everyone was so polite.  When a couple asked another couple to move their lawn chairs so they could have a better view, the little sadist in me anticipated a fight. But nope, they moved right along.  Also we were able to leave our belongings at the main stage and not worry about them getting stolen.  

Anyway, I've already written 700 words on the festival for the paper on deadline so I'm not going to go into it anymore, except to say that the next WOMAD is in Abu Dhabi at the end of April.  So if Columbia doesn't happen, I think I know where I'm headed next.*

*Please, please don't tell Mum

Here are some pictures of the festival taken with my trust iPhone.  I also included a beach shot.  That body of water is the Tasman Sea and if you squint really, really hard you can see Australia.