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International arts festival

WOMAD ('/w//oʊ/,/m//æ//d/ WOHmad; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance.

WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, with Thomas Brooman, Bob Hooton, Mark Kidel, Stephen Pritchard, Martin Elbourne and Jonathan Arthur. Original designers were Steve Byrne and Valerie Hawthorn. The first WOMAD festival was in Shepton Mallet, UK in 1982. The audience saw Peter Gabriel, Don Cherry, The Beat, Drummers of Burundi, Echo & The Bunnymen, Imrat Khan, Prince Nico Mbarga, Peter Hammill, Simple Minds, Suns of Arqa, The Chieftains and Ekome National Dance Company, founded by Barrington, Angie, Pauline and Lorna Anderson, the pioneering African arts company in the UK amongst others performing. Gabriel and his company, which had funded WOMAD, faced financial ruin from high costs of the festival in its first year, worsened by the lack of suitable transport to the venue (Shepton Mallet Showground) and a lack of publicity. At the suggestion of Tony Smith, the manager of Gabriel and Genesis, he and the remaining members of Genesis agreed to play together for a single show under the name Six of the Best at Milton Keynes. This performance included a dynamic inclusion of Ekome National Dance Company, fusing live African Drum on Peter Gabriel's track "Rhythm of the Heat". The show rescued the company and made it possible for further WOMAD events to take place. Since 1982, WOMAD Festivals have travelled all over the world, bringing artists to 27 countries and entertaining over one million people. The main UK event settled at Rivermead in Reading, Berkshire, from 1990 until 2006. Before moving to its present home in Charlton Park, Wiltshire from 2007. In 2017 WOMAD UK marked its 35th anniversary. Headliners Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, Toots and The Maytals, and Roy Ayers, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 along with 30 other artists performed for a record setting audience for the festival of 40,000 people. In 2022, after two forced cancellations due to the Covid 19 pandemic the UK festival returned for its 40th anniversary. Peter Gabriel appeared on stage with Friday night headliner Angelique Kidjo as well as introducing Osibisa on stage on Saturday afternoon. Other headliners included The Flaming Lips, Fatoumata Diawara & Lianne La Havas. Other keys acts across the weekend on other stages included Kae Tempest, Kanda Bongo Man, Gilberto Gil, The Selector and Les Amazones d'Afrique.

A triple album was released in 2007 to mark the 25th anniversary of WOMAD featuring recordings from many of the festivals in the UK and other sites across the world. Various other Real World Records albums feature recordings from the 1982, 1988, 1996 and 2002 UK festivals. Artists such as 23 Skidoo, Sons of Arqa, Echo & The Bunnymen and Tankus The Henge have released recordings from the UK festivals. For the 40th anniversary of the first UK festival in 2022 Real World Records released the Live at WOMAD 1982 double album on CD, vinyl and download featuring mostly previously unreleased recordings from the very first UK festival. The CD included two bonus songs. The vinyl included a replica of the original poster.

From the outset, the WOMAD name has reflected the festival's idea; to be embracing but non definitive, inspiring and outward looking; and more than anything, enthusiastic about a world that has no boundaries in its ability to communicate through music and movement.

WOMAD has always presented music that they felt to be of excellence, passion and individuality, regardless of musical genre or geographical origin. WOMAD encourages collaboration amongst the artists they invite to perform. The first WOMAD Festival in 1982 had Echo and the Bunnymen join forces with the Drummers of Burundi, and WOMAD Abu Dhabi 2010, saw a collaboration between Tinariwen, TV on the Radio members Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe, Grammy winning producer Ian Brennan (music producer, author), and the French Algerian Mehdi from Speed Caravan. Workshops. Adult workshops are taken by the musicians and will involve dance, musical instruments and discussions. Children's workshops involve painting, circus skills, graffiti, modelling, story telling and more. Taste The World. Musicians cook a choice of dish from their home country in front of an audience. Global Market. The Global Market sells international food and wares.

WOMAD in the UK takes place in the grounds of Charlton Park, a stately home in Wiltshire. The arena holds at least 5 main stages with a further one in the Arboretum. An old fashioned steam fair, global market, children's area, wellbeing section is also found on the WOMAD UK festival site. WOMAD Charlton Park falls on the last complete weekend in July. In 2019 the capacity of the festival was 40,000.

The first year on the new site was also a very rainy and muddy year with festival goers nicknaming the site "WOMUD".

Due to the previous year's flooding and some inaccessibility, the site was moved around and expanded. Stages included: Open Air, Siam Tent, Big Red Tent, Little Sicily, Dance Tent, Drum Tent, BBC Radio 3 Stages & Taste The World Stage. Also, the first year Radio Womad broadcast was launched.

The 2014 headliners included Youssou N'Dour, Sinead O'Connor, Manu Dibango and Les Ambassadeurs. Sinead O'Connor replaced Bobby Womack, who had died a handful of weeks before the festival. She dedicated her performance to him.

WOMAD UK cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The festival, Radio Womad and BBC Radio 3 run a free on line only "WOMAD at Home" event the same weekend with exclusive and archive performances. Also, Will Lawton and the Alchemists gain permission to access the site and recorded a short two song set and are "The only band to play WOMAD 2020", with the video and images being released via their Facebook and Instagram accounts. "WOMAD at Home" T shirts are sold to help raise funds for the festival crews affected by the forced unemployment.

WOMAD UK cancelled again. Radio WOMAD again broadcast exclusive live shows from the presenters respective homes over the weekend.

WOMADelaide, Adelaide, South Australia (bi annually from 1992 to not interfere with the then bi annual Adelaide festival and then annually from 2004 due to its popularity and collaboration with the Adelaide Festival, no camping, capacity 30,000 daily, four days Fri Mon mid March [originally three days until 2010]). The 2021 event was one of the first of its kind due to Australia's unique lockdown rules and a smaller event of 6000 capacity was held in its place. WOMAD New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand (originally in Auckland as part of the WOMAD express and held bi annually from 2003 in New Plymouth and then annually from 2013, day and weekend tickets offered plus camping allowed, 23,000 capacity, Fri Sat, late March). WOMAD New Zealand 2021 was cancelled in late 2020 due to COVID 19 pandemic complications; because of New Zealand's social distancing regulations during the emergence of COVID, its local organizing committee argued that the financial risk was too high if restrictions were to potentially be reinstated in close proximity to the event. The event did also not go ahead in 2022 for the same reasons, but did recommence in 2023. The 2020 event was one of the last festivals in the world to run just prior to the worldwide lockdowns were imposed. WOMAD Santiago, Chile (three day annual event held end of March or start of April, since 2015). WOMAD Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain (a free event held in a medieval town square over four days, in May, held since 1992). The 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to the pandemic. WOMAD Rome (a three day event launches in 2023 at the beginning of June). WOMAD South Africa (a multiple location event, billed as a safari, [initially delayed because of the pandemic when it was due to launch in 2020] was started in 2022 and held in October over a series of days at small boutique events in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Sowetto and Hermanus with hopes for bigger events in 2023 and beyond). WOMAD Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain (a free three day event that began in 1993, held in the modern part of the capital city's main parks held across two stages and a third indoor stage plus activities for children, culminating in a parade on the final day, held in November). The 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Based on Charlton Park every year since the second year (2008) the UK festival moved there, the official festival radio station is broadcast on a temporary FM licence (usually on 87.7FM) just prior to the festival opening its gates to the public and broadcasts 24 hours a day every day until late Monday after the public gates have closed. Each year the station hosts several exclusive live sessions and interviews from artists playing at the festival across the weekend. The FM signal reaches about ten miles away from the festival site. During the forced cancellations of the festival in 2020 and 2021 the radio station was set up to broadcast remotely from several of the presenter's homes across the UK and was broadcast live via Mixcloud where listeners could also interact with other listeners and the presenters for the "WOMAD at home" events. The shows showcased several highlights of previous live sessions from their archives. There was also a special live x mas show in 2021 and two special live announcement shows in early 2022, to tie in with the line up announcement from the festival, broadcast from station manager Steve Satan's kitchen.