After finishing a Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) – a lifetime ago! – my first proper job was as a Public Relations Consultant/Publicist, in the late 1980s corporate world, in Adelaide and Sydney.  After that, I did 3 years of temp work in the UK and a lot of travelling.  Going to Edinburgh Fringe and a ton of other events made me determined to work in the festival world when I (reluctantly) came home.  I was Publicist & Marketing Manager for Adelaide Fringe and a bunch of other arts events and tours, before switching to a more behind the scenes role as Project Manager for ComeOut (now DreamBIG) children’s festival.  I started at Arts Projects Australia (APA) in 1997, working on the Australian Performing Arts Market and as a Tour Manager and Assistant Producer on music, theatre and dance tours by incredible international artists.  APA is the event manager for WOMADelaide and my first role was as a volunteer ‘artist minder’ in 1997, looking after a Spanish and a Portuguese group when they were here.

I was Operations & Program Manager 1999-2008, during that time producing the off-site nightclub we ran for WOMADelaide 1999-2004 and, gradually, taking over programming the Australian artist content for the festival.  From the 2009 festival onwards, I became more involved with programming the international content then, eventually, the overall program, becoming Associate Director in 2020.  I work in consultation with our Director, Ian Scobie and colleagues at WOMAD in the UK and NZ as we also produce the international program for WOMAD NZ, which happens the weekend after WOMADelaide.

To go back a step, I work on getting the program together (60+ groups from 25+ countries) from about April- October.  This involves many phone calls, meetings, going to festivals and shows, emails, draft budgets etc.  Once the full program is locked away, everyone’s contracted and announced, we drill into the nitty gritties to make sure each artist’s experience on the ground is the best we can make it.  I’m very much a ‘to-do-list’ person, so I check what’s the most pressing priority before running through my emails to do the same.

It’s not always easy to strike a balance between what needs doing now, what can wait, and what other people in our team need from me in a couple of weeks’ time and, of course, dramas can pop up unexpectedly.  I oversee the Travel/Logistics team and brief the 30+ artist minders, 7 stage MCs, do interviews, copywrite and proofread … it’s a very varied role.  It might sound odd but the thing I like to do most is the daily schedule of who’s on when each day!

Our March 2020 festival went off without a hitch, just before the world locked down.  After that, the uncertainty and anxiety about whether WOMADelaide would happen again, and whether I had a job/future career, was awful.  Everyone in the industry was feeling the pain and I am so thankful that we managed to stay afloat and keep things moving.  We didn’t get approval from SA Health to do our planned all-Australian festival in 2021 so, in 3 weeks, we reinvented ourselves and transformed into a series off 4 sunset concerts – 11 Australian groups, 6,000 seats a night (1.5m apart!) in a new city venue, King Rodney Park.

This was pre-vaccinations, so it feels strange to recall now.  Miraculously, 19,000+ people came and it was fantastic.  In the lead-up to the 2022 festival, the international borders were still closed so we worked on a return to our usual venue (Botanic Park) and all-Australian programming, with 60+ groups and 7 stages.  In the end, we were able to have a handful of international acts in the program as well, and I think it was the biggest music festival in Australia since our March 2020 event!  COVID was still very present so we had to put back-up artists, MCs, staff and crew in place, just in case someone got sick, which added a layer of stress.  That’s a very quick summary of a sh***y time!

Meeting amazing people, experiencing great music and being able to work on, or be at, other WOMAD (World of Music, Arts & Dance) festivals in Singapore, Chile, Seattle, the UK, Athens and NZ

It’s mostly been women who have inspired me.  It all starts with my mum, Margarita, but some standout colleagues and mentors have been Deborah Heithersay (from my public relations life) and Jill Berry and Sheree Le Cornu (Adelaide Fringe), all of whom led the way, encouraged and taught me.

We want a safe, happy and successful festival.  I can’t wait to see the joy and delight on people’s faces as they experience WOMADelaide for the first time, particularly for the nightly aerial spectacular Place des Anges, by French artists Gratte Ciel https://www.womadelaide.com.au/artists/gratte-ciel

I am a regular at The Gov, Jive and Summertown Studios; they’re run by great people and exude a warm, welcoming vibe.  Adelaide is chock-full of talented artists and I’m mates with many of them so it’s hard to choose.  The artists coming out of our WOMADelaide x NSS Academy music development program, artists from our 2022 festival (Motez, Electric Fields, The Shaolin Afronauts, The Empty Threats and Carla Lippis) and those coming up in our March program (Didier Kumalo, Sons Of Zöku, Alexander Flood, Aurora Vocal Ensemble) are my current loves.

After steering well clear of karaoke since about 2010, I did a session with friends at a daggy RSL in Adelaide last December.  The choice was easy – Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5!