WOMAD brings New Zealanders flocking to New Plymouth for the best showcase of world music treats, workshops, films and cooking demonstrations in all the land. For the ‘artist in conversation’ programme, artists talk about the musical journey that led them to Aotearoa, from as far a field as Colombia, Cambodia, Germany and Hawai’i.
Wellington representation comes in the form of soul, funk, hip-hop band Rhombus – collaborating for this performance with contemporary artist Michael Tuffery, who will create live visual projections.
The Whitireia performing arts group sees graduates and students from Whitireia NZ present traditional Maori, Samoan and Cook Island dances and rhythms.
For those who can’t get away for the weekend, Melbourne band Barons of Tang is also playing in Wellington on Friday.
The cheeky seven-piece started life as the band for a travelling theatre show. Singer Julian Cue tells the story of how they got their strange name.
“We were living in a warehouse, running the [theatre show’s] bar when we weren’t performing. We were all down-and-out artists and musicians, and we ended up doing a lot of dumpster diving – which is where you go round the back of any supermarket, go through the bins and essentially get a free meal. On this particular occasion we ‘dumpstered’ three boxes of tang; an American powdered fruit drink, which is terrible stuff. We put it on the bar, and everyone ended up drinking it. At the end of night everyone was snorting lines of tang off the bar, proving their manhood by who could snort the biggest line. We became known as the barons of tang, and the alias stuck.”
The band play what they refer to as ‘Gypsy death-core’.
“The players take gypsy elements and bend them out of shape, bringing the music into a more modern context with distorted guitars,” explains Cue.
The band also incorporates elements of tango, jazz and punk music.
“We’re pretty much the noisiest, most outrageous act a world music festival can confidently book. I reckon audiences will be surprised, but pleasantly surprised.”
WOMAD, Brooklands Park, New Plymouth, March 18-20.
Barons of Tang, Mighty Mighty, March 18.

Here are some top picks for the festival from the Music 101 team:
Amadou and Mariam met at Mali’s Bamako Institute For The Blind, fell in love, and starting making music together more than 30 years ago. Their love of music is contagious, and the band brings solid grooves that will have the festival moving.
Hanggai bring together traditional Mongolian throat singing and horse-head fiddle with electric guitars and a heavy metal attitude.
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer that could take on [virtuoso beatboxer] Rahzel with her vast array of squelches, pops, lip smacks and grunts. She puts a contemporary spin on an ancient tradition that imitates animal and nature noises.
Whether you came across Horace Andy as part of 60s Jamaican group The Dominoes or in the 90s with trip-hop collective Massive Attack, his distinctive vibrato is un-mistakable. Warm up your voices ‘cause you’re bound to want to sing along.
Locals include the new generation of Patea Maori Club, Tiki Taane with full Kapa-Haka group (Haka-Step, is what he’s dubbed it) Lawrence Arabia, who’s in fine voice and has new songs, and Will Crummer, whose recordings of Rarotongan love songs in the 60s have just been revived at Roundhead studios with Nick Bollinger and Don McGlashan.