Best fest: 2018 one of the busiest Womads yet
In a break from tradition no one stole Womad’s brightly coloured letters this year but plenty of people were caught out trying to sneak in to the three day festival.
With a sell out of 17,000 people at the event on Saturday and at least 15,000 on Sunday it was one of the busiest Womad’s seen at Brooklands Park in New Plymouth.
As usual some of those who came along tried to get in without buying a ticket.
Taranaki Arts Festival Trust CEO Suzanne Porter said some people were so creative in the methods they employed to avoid paying she felt like they deserved recognition.
‘‘We love it. I always want to give a prize to the best one. But some of them are so dumb, like putting a piece of tea towel around your wrist,’’ she said.
‘‘We had the normal issues this year of kids trying to jump the fence but that’s a good thing because if they want to break in they want to be a part of it.’’
While three Womad attendees failed alcohol breath tests at police check points on Friday night, Porter and Womad event director Emere Wano said intoxication levels were no higher than usual for a festival.
‘‘They weren’t high. They were normal festival incidents,’’ Wano said.
‘‘I would say it’s one of the quieter Womads we have had,’’ Porter added. ‘‘People were having a party but they were being adult about it.’’
There had been reports of people burying alcohol in the venue weeks before Womad started but Porter said after years of hearing about such efforts they were still to find a buried cache.
"I suppose you could bury it in a garden bed and get away with it.’’
Wano and Porter said they felt the festival had aced the one bane of most festival experiences – the toilets. While queues for the loos peaked at certain times, overall they felt the number of conveniences was spot on.
‘‘It’s a timing thing,’’ Wano said. ‘‘A stage finishes and then everyone goes to the loo and so you have a big scrum of people whereas 20 minutes later there’s nobody.’’
‘It’s the nature of the beast,’’ Porter said.
She said the toilets at Womad were amazing compared to some of the festivals the pair had been to.
‘‘I put toothpaste in my nose to block the smell.
‘‘We’ve been at festivals watching people come out of the toilets with their eyes watering,’’ Porter said.
The pair said the festival’s enduring success over the last 14 years was down to the park venue.
‘‘Here, it’s provincial so it’s a destination to come to and when they get here they feel they’re coming away to something rather than just going to concert,’’ Wano said.
‘‘The park, the landscape, the backdrop, all of it is part of the whole Womad experience and I think that’s why it works.’’