A world apart
Very few festivals can boast the staying power of WOMAD . An inimitable presence in the UK ’ s independent festivals landscape for four decades , its organisers have overcome countless challenges to establish it as a burgeoning global festival brand . Access looks back at 40 years of the event .
Words : Christopher Barrett
WOMAD ’ s organisers have overcome their fair share of challenges in the past four decades , but one of the most considerable came last summer when they were forced to cancel the event at the eleventh hour due to a lack of Government support . Rather than choosing to back independent festivals owned by UK businesses , the Government instead used its Events Research Programme to enable festivals staged by US conglomerates to take place the same weekend . “ That was emotionally and psychologically challenging for everybody ,” says WOMAD festival director Chris Smith . “ I won ’ t pretend that financially we ’ re as strong as we were , but it wasn ’ t the disaster that it might have been because we have good long relationships with a huge number of our suppliers , and they supported us .”
On the back of May ’ s WOMAD festival in Cáceres , Spain , the WOMAD team is preparing for the UK event ’ s return to Charlton Park for the first time since 2019 . The 40,000-capacity festival will see performances from a typically diverse selection of artists from far-flung corners of the world . Among the line-up is Mali ’ s Fatoumata Diawara , The Flaming Lips from the
US , The Garifuna Collective from Belize , and Japan ’ s Minyo Crusaders .
Despite ticket prices having been raised for this year ’ s event , due to soaring supply chain-related production costs , Smith says they have been selling faster than ever : “ We are two months ahead of where we were in 2019 , so we are fully expecting to sell out early .
“ We are lucky to have long-term relationships with many of our audience – around 80 % are returners – so having those relationships , that trust and the respect on both sides , makes a real difference .”
Naive newcomers The first World of Music Arts and Dance ( WOMAD ) festival took place from 16-18 July 1982 at Royal Bath & West Showground , a stone ’ s throw from the Glastonbury festival site . Among the acts to play were Peter Gabriel , Imrat Khan , Simple
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