Worldwide Festival raised the bar this year as Gilles Peterson delivered the perfect combination of sounds, visuals and tastes in Sete, South of France. Both the music and the crowd are truly international with a big following from France and Belgium amongst other countries. WWF have created a real worldwide glue that bonds everybody in the festival, helping to create the laid back vibes and happy faces. With a range of music, venues, and faces, worldwide keeps the punter high with excitement for what is to follow as each day of the week long festival goes by.
The first night set the standard high for the rest of the week as the likes of Floating Points and Four Tet took over the Theatre de la Mar; WWF’s truly mesmerising open air venue. Picture this: Sister Sledge’s Thinking of You streams through the speakers, you’re dancing and you look up to the stars and then look over and see the ocean. Its an incredible feeling. SlumVillage’s JRocc offered an outstanding set in the theatre, covering classics such as Michael Jackson and finishing with James Blake. It was incredible!
The evenings were rich established artists and new musicians. The Theatre de la Mar hosted the golden tones of Ady Suleiman and Laura Mvula, who enchanted the audience feasting on mussels and rosé with the sunset. Gilles Petersons first set of the week followed on from Mvula, and it was a knock out. Gilles served us delights from Brazil, Africa, Europe, and the USA in true worldwide style. The recipe of carnival, hiphop and dance amongst other genres created an absolutely delectable night.
The beach stage gave no mercy to hangovers with banging tunes all day that swayed everybody up on to their feet. Lovebirds Want You in my Soul rang hard all week and Gilles indulged us with seaside delicacies of Seu Jorge and Luther Vandross. He reminds us that the speakers are good enough to successfully play vinyl, reinforcing the importance of the music, not just the party at WWF. Lefto also smashed it on the beach stage with a couple more heavy sets in the night time venues.
I caught up with Ady Suleiman, one of Liverpool’s new soulful treasures. On playing at Worldwide, he said ‘it was sick! Biggest crowd I’ve played too, I was pretty buzzing when I came off stage and playing before Laura Mvula reminded me of being on tour with her and the band last year which was great.’ Referring to the dramatic Theatre De La Mar.
Ady exclaimed that the ‘the venue is absolutely insane!’ Hiatus Kaiyote on the Sunday night was Ady’s highlight of the festival though, ‘I really love them and then I got to meet Nai backstage which was really cool! Gilles Peterson asked Ady Suleiman to perform the day after a gig at the Shipping Forecast in Liverpool this year. With Gilles’ sharp eye for talent, we can be sure Ady Suleiman will carry on delivering great music. You can see him at Bestival this year, and if you’re around before that check out his gig dates for Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham here: www.facebook.com/adysuleimanmusic
WWF hosts events in 6 venues, with DJ sets at the beach stage and street partys at other venues. St Christ venue hosted the rest of the night time music, with speciality DJs such as DJ Marky, Mala in Cuba, Ben UFO and Debruit. Impeccable sets were also delivered by Fatoosan, Kenny Dope, Ben UFO, Sassy J, Romare and Thristian. Other highlights of the week included Mount Kimbie, Todd Terje, Thundercat and Noze.
The last night took the festival up a notch with new tracks from Bonobo and an energetic set from Skream. Newbies Cashmere Cat delivered a serious set at the festival despite being cut short by the pesky police.
WWF puts into practice the ideal week long party. As only one venue is used every night there is no need to face missing out on anything, and no need to ring all your friends to check where they are heading. Gilles’s presence is strong at the festival, as he is always chilling on stage listening to an artist or dancing to the likes of Mala in Cuba – it is clear that Gilles loves the music. I mean really, loves the music. That is what WWF is all about.
‘This is the most enjoyable thing I do every year, come together with all my friends and all my family….’ Gilles Peterson
We second that!
FIRST PUBLISHED AT GBC, JULY 24th, 2013
http://gbcmag.com/2013/07/24/worldwide-festival-2013-review/
Marina Garvey Birch 