WOMADelaide 2023 headliners include Florence + The Machine, Bon Iver and Gratte Ciel’s Place des Anges
A visually stunning act that caused controversy five years ago, Florence + The Machine and Bon Iver are the first headline acts for 2023’s WOMADelaide festival.
Entertainment
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Genre-defying UK act Florence + The Machine, US indie-folk outfit Bon Iver and French art collective Gratte Ciel will be three of the headline acts at next year’s WOMADelaide festival.
Fronted by enigmatic Florence Welch, Florence + The Machine has sold more than 17 million albums, won multiple Brit Awards and, this year, released the critically-acclaimed Dance Fever which has been described as “an ecstatic prayer for post-pandemic redemption”.
The band last played in Adelaide in 2019 to a sold-out crowd of 14,000 adoring fans.
Bon Iver, led by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, will perform a set that spans their 15-year career on the opening night of the festival, Friday 10 March.
In 2011 their eponymous release won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist, and the dreamy Wisconsin outfit has gone on to be nominated a further nine times, including for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for their 2019 release i,i.
In 2020 Bon Iver gained a new generation of fans when they joined Taylor Swift for the song Exile, which exploded across global music charts.
Gratte Ciel will present, for the second time, the aerial spectacular Place des Anges.
The show, a mix of music, acrobatics and death-defying theatrics, caused some controversy when it was first staged at the 2018 festival due to the tonnes of feathers released onto the crowd during the nightly performances.
WOMADelaide’s social media pages received a number of complaints, with some punters calling it “off brand” and others pointing out that it may have been problematic for both vegans and allergy sufferers.
The Advertiser’s critics, however, were wowed by the performance, writing: “Mortgage the house. Sell your possessions. Do anything that makes it possible to see Place des Anges … It is absolutely wonderful, with dozens of gleaming white angels sailing high above the crowd, a seemingly endless rain of feathers gently falling on the thousands upon thousands of delighted faces. It is uplifting, affirming and sheer beauty.”
Festival director Ian Scobie said he was excited by the announcement.
“Florence + The Machine, Bon Iver and Band Gratte Ciel are three outstanding artists who will be part of WOMADelaide 2023 and we look forward to revealing more in October and November when our program of around 70 groups is complete,” Mr Scobie said.
“Place des Anges is truly one of the greatest aerial spectacles in the world. To be the only place where the company has performed outside of an urban environment, amongst natural surrounds in the middle of a music festival, makes their return five years on extra special.”
Three and four-day early bird tickets will open to WOMADelaide subscribers from 9am Thursday, with tickets on sale to general public from 9am Friday. WOMADelaide’s subscriber mailing list can be joined at www.womadelaide.com.au
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