Womadelaide's largest program ready to attract record crowds

Womadelaide's largest program in its 26-year history is on track to bring record crowds, organisers say, with ticket sales and perfect weather indicating it could top 2015's total of 95,000 people.

Tens of thousands of people will pour through the gates from tonight as the four-day music, dance and art festival begins with a program of 600 artists from around the world.

Womadelaide Director Ian Scobie told the ABC “we're looking like we may well have a record year.

"A lot of people wait to see how their plans turnout, how the weather is ... at the moment we're feeling very positive about how it might turn out."

Scobie said people could expect something "unique" from French aerial performers Gratte Ciel and their production Place des Anges, which will see acrobatic angels flying across the tree tops.

He added “that will be very special and memorable for the audience, but another thing we're doing each night is the extraordinary Manganiyar Seduction, a musical performance featuring 40 musicians from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan.

"Both of these events are like nothing people will have seen before, which is very hard to find these days."

This year sees the festival introduce cashless bars at which patrons will have to use their bank cards to buy a drink or pay using their festival wristbands. The wristbands can be preloaded with credit online or with cash at dedicated top-up booths.

Scobie said payWave technology was increasingly the method of choice for people and offered a "smoother and faster service", advising “aving an electronic service is more efficient than somebody handing over a $50 note and the change then being counted before it's handed back.

"The other reason is the security associated with managing cash and getting it on and off site."

Womadelaide is being performed on eight stages across the Botanic Park site in Adelaide’s north, as well as a children's area, Taste the World cooking demonstrations and food and merchandise stalls.

The festival will also host several large-scale installations. 

However, the main drawcard remains the music, with headline act Anoushka Shankar - daughter of famed sitar player Ravi Shankar - to play tonight for one show only.

Other better-known acts over the weekend include Thievery Corporation and Andrew Sherwood from the UK, Gogol Bordello and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble from the US, and Australia's The Avalanches, David Bridie, Dan Sultan and Baker Boy.

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