Why WOMAD Matters
WOMAD (World of Music Arts & Dance) is important to New Plymouth for just one reason.
If you want to understand everything about football (and I know you don’t) then you should read a book called Soccernomics. Aside from describing the in’s and out’s of professional football, the book also discusses the wider issue of sports events and community. The authors provide in great detail how (unsurprisingly), large events such as the Olympics and World Cup Soccer finals cost host nations squillions of dollars. And I mean squillions – money that the hosts simply never get back. The London Olympics ended up costing US$10.4 billion and the World Cup in Brazil cost $14 billion. Now, however you look at it (I look at it and imagine it’s mine) that is a lot of money. Think how many hospitals you could build or how many pies you could buy for starving children.
Simply put, these events make no economic sense whatsoever. However, despite the mega-bucks and mega-losses, these events do make people of the host countries feel good. In fact, it makes them feel really good. Google ‘London Olympics’ and things like “recognised as the best Olympics ever” rise to the top of the page. Recognised by whom? By what criteria? It would appear that the people of Britain loved it and are glad they spent all that money. Same goes for Brazil. (Yes, not everyone in these countries are happy, but they tend to be people called Derek and Jean whose idea of a spend up is two for the price of one tea bags). Anyway, my point is that feeling good is the real benefit of such events.
Which brings me to WOMAD.
Now I know WOMAD is not exactly the Olympics, but for New Plymouth the financial commitment and risks are nonetheless just as real. And just like the Olympics, the people that organise them get free tickets. These are the people that you will hear extolling the festival’s economic benefit, laced with anecdotes of enhanced city and regional profile. But, just as with the Olympics such spinoffs are invariably exaggerated and overstated. (much like the size of a man’s fish).
However, the merits of this skite-ary and self justification do not matter. No, the single benefit of WOMAD, and the only benefit that matters, is that it makes us feel good. And by ‘us’, I mean New Plymouth citizens who play host, and those self confessed hippies who maraud the festival. As a community, our sunken hairy chests swell with pride when the sun shines and visitors hail our fair city. We delight in the visual feast of out-of-towners adorned with hemp shoulder bags and fingerless sandals as they stroll along the walkway and frequent our cafés.
As citizenry we make a special effort to attend the event, buoyed in the knowledge that this is ours. We meet our friends and chatter like excited children at a party about how great it all is. Even for those of us who don’t especially like the music (Yes I’m one of those who prefer a rock guitar lick to a wailing waif), we bask in the sound of taiko drums and bleeding Romanian trumpets. Sounds of sunny WOMAD that melt our freckles.
New Plymouth will not have WOMAD forever, but for now it does wonders for our community spirit and regional self. For that reason and that reason alone, it’s a great event ‘like no other’.
Richard A. Bain
self confessed hippie