17 Mar 2024

Regional Wrap: Ngāmotu New Plymouth’s Fin Rah Zel at WOMAD  

From Culture 101, 1:25 pm on 17 March 2024

 

Fin Rah Zel

Fin Rah Zel Photo: supplied

For a band from Taranaki, making the WOMAD lineup is a dream come true. For Ngāmotu New Plymouth indie group, Fin Rah Zel, this weekend is it. 

Known for its outlier music and visual art scene, the band joins Mark Amery at WOMAD to talk about Ngāmotu for this week’s Regional Wrap.   

WOMAD - World of Music Art and Dance - is an international arts festival, but the focus is firmly on a diversity of world sounds not always encountered. 

Following the festival established in Adelaide in 1982 -  a New Zealand iteration has been held in beautiful Pukekura Park in New Plymouth since 2003 (biannually initially, now annually). 

Womad Audience at the Bowl Stage

Womad Audience at the Bowl Stage Photo: Supplied

With its iconic location - with Taranaki Maunga in the background - the festival has become a key drawcard for visitors to the region, alongside the impressive new Len Lye Centre (the first public gallery in NZ devoted to a single artist), which opened alongside The Govett Brewster Art Gallery in 2015.

The exterior of New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, one of New Zealand's leading contemporary art museums.

Photo: Sam Hartnett