Drums of harmony
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The Womad Sri Lanka Festival of Drums is underway
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IN SYNC A performance at the Womad Sri Lanka Festival of Drums
With Sri Lanka always hitting the world headlines for the wrong reasons, it is with some relief and pride that the art community across the world would view the Womad Sri Lanka Festival of Drums that took off this Wednesday in Colombo and Kandy. Good things have rocky beginnings, and the festival, originally scheduled for March, had to be delayed till September as the island nation rallied itself after the tsunami of December 2004.
Womad, an acronym for World of Music, Arts and Dance, started in 1981. Founder member Thomas Brooman is its artistic director. The English singer and artist Peter Gabriel is also a founding member. Womad produces music events across the world, and with an aim to bring about cultural understanding through sharing of arts, has worked in over 22 countries. A significant feature of Womad events is the creation of festival flags. As in the past, the U.K. visual artist and flag-maker Angus Watt has worked with a team of Sri Lankan visual artists to create a set of festival flags to set up an installation of flags - `flagscape'— on Galle Face Green.
While music has always been the theme of Womad festivals, this is the first time the organisation is presenting a festival of drums.
This festival is produced in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.
Says SLTB Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara, "We are excited to share our unique Sri Lankan drum legacy, that dates back over 2,500 years, with the world."
Star line-up
Top percussion artistes from across the world are participating in performances and workshops. Sri Lanka's star performer and artistic director of the country's State Dance Ensemble, Ravibandhu Vidyapathy, trained in Kandyan dance, Kathakali and a number of traditional drums and known for his path breaking choreography and music, directs the Sri Lankan percussion and dance performances. Other performers include the Chemirani Zarb Trio from Iran, the group Yelemba D'Abidjan from the Ivory Coast, the Dhol Foundation from the U.K., India's celebrated Trilok Gurtu, Joji Hirota with Japanese Taiko drumming, and drummers from Burundi among others. A performance bound to strike the right notes at many levels is the collaboration between American percussion wizard Billy Cobham and the Cuban group Asere. In the organisational stages the SLTB Chairman spoke of making the festival, which continues till September 25, an annual signature event of the island nation. Tourism is not the only draw. In the words of Nanayakkara: "Music has a way of bringing people together, and unity is more important than ever at this time."
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