WOMAD Limited

That's a wild-

Um, sorry, I've accidentally hit a sting, but, [clears throat] um, so for those who haven't been to WOMAD and aren't familiar, could you give a rundown of what WOMAD is?

Sure.

I mean, well, it's a-- look, it's the World of Music, Arts, and Dance.

That's what WOMAD stands for.

But I mean, I think as far as a festival is concerned, it's, you know, a place where people go that they, uh, listen and hear a hugely diverse range of music, which is of really, really high quality-

Mm

... um, from around the world.

I think she worked as a prison officer and tried and tried and tried to get into music.

I saw her performing at WOMAD one year.

She was absolutely fantastic.

High energy.

Cape Town-based Unmute Dance Theatre is taking South African inclusive dance to an international stage when it joins the prestigious WOMAD Cape Town 2026 program this September, presenting a new collaborative work inspired by the enduring legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

We are catching up today with Nadine McKenzie, who is the director of the Unmute Dance Theatre.

And, you know, Unmute has done work that consistently challenges conventional perceptions of disability and who belongs on the stage.

And having seen them on stage, I think the collaboration with WOMAD really does reinforce the company's belief that inclusive art is not a specialist category.

It is part of the cultural mainstream, and Nadine is a strong activist for that.

Nadine, welcome to Jet Setting with Janet.

You know, it's a pretty broad, diverse line-up.

Musician Troy Kingi, Grammy-winning tour reg band Tinariwin, and the Fijian Flying Circus are the first acts announced for the 2027 WOMAD Festival.

Troy Kingi will perform two shows at the festival, which is held at the Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth.

WOMAD took a year of purposeful rest this year due to rising costs and an uncertain economic environment.

A spokesperson said earlier this year that the time was right to make a comeback.

And that's the news.

Yeah.

It was like, I remember when we did the, I don't know how much you want to sidetrack, but when we did, um, Milton Keynes we did a show with Peter came back as vocalist for in order to try and help WOMAD which was having a bit of trouble at the time yeah and we played Salisbury Hill and he said he was very proud so it's in seven you know I said yeah no it's in seven it's great it's very good you know it doesn't sound clever and then he went back and he had to play something we just turned it on again he was playing the drums and I looked up at the back of him when he was playing it and Every moment he threw something, what the hell? What's going on? You haven't realized, you see.

So I said, well, that's it.

You know, I think it's often, you know, as I say, we use seven quite a lot over the years.

Obviously, Phil had to then play it.

The funny thing about that one was when we played it on stage, we did this concert one time when Peter came back for a show, Milton Keynes, which was to sort of help out WOMAD, which was in a bit of trouble at the time.

Anyhow, he came on and on the songs he didn't sing on, he played drums or tried to play drums.

And I saw him playing drums on Turn It On Again, and I looked up and I thought, he's not going to get this.