Larger than life

There’s something about these impressively large colourful letters that makes us want to grab a set of pom poms and shout, ‘Give me a W, give me an O, give me an M…’ and so on and so forth.

Designed by New Plymouth architects Boon Goldsmith Bhaskar Brebner TA Ltd the multicoloured letters weighing in at almost 20kg each, spell out WOMAD, as in World of Music, Arts and Dance festival held annually in Taranaki. Five sets of these letters can be seen dotted around the festival’s mini village.

The idea was to create a youthful, playful and festive look and feel. So popular is the design, that it is has been picked up by WOMAD in the UK and replicated at other such festivals around the world.

At this year’s festival the WOMAD letters were installed in a lake where they radiated out from the main stage in the TSB Bowl of Brooklands. The five letters were affixed to the lake floor to give the illusion of hovering on the surface of the water. At night they reflected on the surface of the water, amplifying the spectacle on the stage behind them.

WOMAD New Zealand is back on 16-18 March 2012. More information is available here.