Staged by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and WOMAD, the multi-cultural festival is unusual among international events in being staged in two separate locations. Three stages grace the Abu Dhabi Corniche beach's white sands, while the historic Al Jahili Fort in the desert town of Al Ain provides a picturesque setting for two further stages. In all the festival attracted some 22,000 people a day, a total of 80,000 over the weekend.
Artists included Paloma Faith (United Kingdom), Baaba Maal (Senegal), Toumani Diabaté (Mali), Tarab Al Emarat (United Arab Emirates), Hindi Zahra (France/Morocco), El Tanbura (Egypt), Jimmy Cliff (Jamaica), Afro Celt Sound System (United Kingdom) and Sain Zahoor (Pakistan). Many performers also led workshop sessions every night at the festival, where audiences could learn more about the artist, their culture, musical inspirations and the stories behind the music. Other attractions included children's workshops and Taste the World, a popular WOMAD feature that sees artists from Europe, Africa, India and UK cook and share traditional dishes.
WOMAD directors Chris Smith and Claire Wrightson brought in Judgeday to head the technical production, with David Taraskevics assisted by Becky Parson. Ampco, who have worked with WOMAD for over two decades worldwide, supplied FOH and monitor control systems with 10 crew for the North and South beach stages, as well as the main stage at Al Jahili Fort in Al Ain, under Ampco production manager Dieter van Denzel. Backline production manager Natasja Geerdink was assisted by three technicians, Jarno Linsen, Klaartje van Engelen and Frits Ton.
Van Denzel said, "We used our special festival infrastructure for quick changeovers. The beach location didn't provide any new challenges, as we have worked on beach festivals for over 30 years, including many that WOMAD have done. The only difference was the very high temperatures, so we had to arrange extra cooling fans for some equipment."
Ampco's control equipment on the North stage, with FOH engineer Peter Velthuijzen, included a 48 channel Midas Heritage 2000 and an effects rack comprising Lexicon, TC Electronic and Yamaha effects units, and insert racks with Klark Teknik DN 3600 digital EQ, XTA GQ 600 2x30 graphic EQ, Avalon and dbx comp/lim's and Drawmer noise gates. Intercom was an ASL PS 278/279 dual channel series with Beyer DT109 headsets.
Ampco's new self-contained Lake drive racks controlled the overall equalisation of each loudspeaker system, providing engineers with an 8x8 matrix drive rack to handle various speaker systems and sound zones.
Monitors were mixed by Koen Benschop on a 48 channel Midas Heritage 3000, with a Klark Teknik DN3600, dbx comp/lim and Drawmer noise gates. Effects units were Lexicon and TC Electronic. Stage technician Matthew Buttle was in charge of Ampco's festival stage infrastructure and a microphone package that included more that 60 microphones, featuring a mixture of Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, Neumann, ASL and various 'specials' for ethnic acoustical instruments. Wireless systems were Shure UR4D R9 wireless microphone systems with various mics and accessories, while in-ear systems were Shure PSM700s.
The South stage and featured a broadly similar package, with a Midas Heritage 2000 at FOH, mixed by Jan Willem Stekelenburg, and a Midas XL3 on monitors, in the hands of Richard Procee with stage technician Erik Mertens.
This was also the first year that Ampco had provided a monitor system for the Al Ain main stage, with Nico Raatgever on monitors and Petra Randwijk on stage patch.
"It was another wonderful WOMAD Abu Dhabi," said van Denzel. "The atmosphere at both the beach and the fort w
