Mother Nature smiled upon us this year, drenching the festival with nothing but sun. This being the 10th Earth Celebration, many of the kinks of staging an event on this scale have been ironed out, leading a number of people to remark that the smoothly run, laid back mood blended seamlessly with Sado .
Musically, we knew things were going to cook because in honour of the 10th Anniversary all the featured performers were invited back from previous years. The first night's concert began with Kodo

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, followed by the Irish music of the Donal Lunny Special Earth Celebration Band , winding up with a blending of both groups and everyone in the green fields of Shiroyama Park up and dancing to the Japanese/Celtic beat.
The second night featured the Renegades Steel Drum Orchestra from Trinidad and Tobago, their harmonies very much at home in the hot August Sado night. Next came the fusion of sounds of EC's 10th Anniversary Omedeto Band, featuring Yosuke Yamashita, Kazumi Watanabe, Leonard Eto etal..
The third night began with the hypnotic sounds of the bamboo gamelan orchestra from Bali, Suar Agung , transforming the park, it seemed, into a temple filled with the scent of incense and tropical flowers. The contrast of the second half could hardly have been greater as the startlingly urgent drums of Doudou N'diaye Rose Percussion Orchestra from Senegal made our pulses race; transporting us in an instant to equatorial Africa.
For the audience of almost 3,000, the final night

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brought together Bali (Suar Agung), Senegal (Doudou Rose), Sado (Kodo), Tokyo (Yousuke Yamashita) and the talking drum master from Ghana, Aja Addy in a controlled riot of colours and sounds, truly a celebration of the Earth's cultures; communicating perfectly with each other and the audience without the benefit of words. During the day and after the concerts the port of Ogi hummed with Fringe events from Japan and beyond, a monkey, puppets, jugglers and taiko, guitarists and singers performed beneath the welcome shade of the pines of Kisaki Shrine.
For those wanting to explore more deeply, a series of workshops was held during the day on butoh dance, steel drums, Balinese dance, taiko, African drums and dance and Sado folk dance, each taught by a master of the genre. The little park in the square was transformed into an international casbah of handmade clothes, instruments, jewelry and cuisine. It was here too, and on Sobama beach where many camped, that the meeting and mixing of hearts and cultures took place, where the festival became not just a series of concerts, but a celebration.
A special thanks to the many volunteers who came from both near and as far away as the seven members of San Jose Taiko from America.
And so ends one 10 year cycle of summer Earth Celebrations. Next year's festival will be held from May 15th -17th. This will free up Kodo to participate in a number of festivals in Europe to which we have a standing invitation, but have been unable to attend. Please join us in celebrating music and dance from around the world in the heart of the unfolding beauty of Sado's spring.