Searching for soap at Womad

I’ve just spent the weekend in glorious sunshine listening to music at the Womad World Music Festival in Taranaki feeling pretty sure it will be the last party on earth, at least for a while. Disneyland shut, Formula 1 cancelled, the United States shutting its doors to Europe, New Zealand imposing stringent travel bans – but at Womad, we partied.

But between the bands, buddha bowls and henna tattooing, everyone was talking about Covid-19 and people are worried.

Most people I spoke to at Womad were surprised that it had gone ahead, and they’d all checked the Womad website and Ministry of Health’s guidance on whether to go.

At a time like this, everyone’s crying out for information and guidance.

Okay, so what Womad did well was stick up posters everywhere saying wash your hands and use soap.

What it did badly was to provide any infrastructure to help people act on the advice. There was no soap in the mobile toilet block near our tent site. Don’t worry, we took our own.

The queue to the loo was long, but the queue for the single dinnerplate-sized basin serving six cubicles was even longer.

It just proved to me how empty communication at a time like this is worthless.

Overall, I think the Government, and its massive information and communication machine, is doing a pretty good job.

I hope someone’s planning to give the directorgeneral of health, Ashley Bloomfield, a big pay rise or medal once this is over. He’s been fronting this for weeks now and must be exhausted.

Anyone who’s been involved in emergency communications knows what a stressful nightmare it is.

Behind those press conferences, hundreds of people are trying to sift fact from fiction with the aim of providing timely, useful and correct guidance to us and ministers trying to make sensible decisions in the midst of uncertainty.

And with the number of cases here now ticking slowly up, people’s need for information will only increase as it touches every part of life.

Someone at Womad told me 12 of her colleagues were laid off last week and more redundancies are expected.

My English niece is now effectively stuck in Australia trying to work out what to do next – come back here or head home.

Government departments are preparing staff for work-from-home scenarios where staff will be working from home, sick or not.

The tourism industry is on the brink of panic. Regions that had escaped the brunt of the impact of China and Asian travel bans will now be hit by the Government’s decision on self-isolation and travel bans within the US and Europe. How will the industry weather this storm?

Should people send their children to school? Should schools be closed? Should shops close? Should people visit elderly relatives or stay away to keep them safe?

If people stay off work can they expect to be paid? The list of questions will keep getting longer and those behind the scenes will be trying to work out answers.

So, while I’m glad I’ve had my weekend of fun listening to world music, I’m pretty sure I’ll be listening to Japanese electronica and Greek choral funk at home from now on and hanging on Dr Bloomfield’s every word.

Sue Allen has worked in journalism, communications, marketing and brand management for 15 years in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.