Womad, Charlton Park, festival review: After incessant rain the sun came out for Souad Massi
Its Friday morning Twitter feed announced the closure of Tree Climbing due to rain. On the ground, Womad was even more challenging, the site sinking under a month’s rain – and it didn’t stop until Souad Massi took the late evening Siam stage with her exquisitely melancholic Maghrebi ballads and songs of conscience and justice. Following her, veteran singer Kasse Mady Diabate delivered an expansive, luxurious music of Malian warmth, a pulsing West African Minimalism.