When: 27th – 30th July 2023
Where: Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England
After its impressive 40th-year sell-out celebration last summer, the international arts festival WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) returns this year with yet another fantastic wide-ranging bill of music, arts and dance acts from countries and cultures around the world that will appear across seven separate stage and workshop areas in the picturesque setting of Charlton Park in Wiltshire some 2 miles northeast of the town of Malmesbury.
The first artists to be announced to appear at WOMAD 2023 – an event accurately described as The World In A Weekend – include the Nigerian Afrobeat musician Femi Kuti and his band the Positive Force; Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer, Horace Andy; the Portuguese fado singer, Mariza; the country’s former culture minister and three-time Latin Grammy Award-winning singer Susana Baca from Peru; the Afro-Fusion group Mokoomba from Zimbabwe; and the Algerian Berber singer, songwriter and guitarist, Souad Massi.
The United Kingdom will also be well represented with appearances from Bombay Cycle Club, Kate Rusby, The Comet Is Coming, Kathryn Joseph, and King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys amongst many other great acts besides.
WOMAD is not just about incredible music; it has an abundance of activity; the World of Words celebrates all things spoken; fascinating talks, thought-provoking conversation and inspirational authors, for poetry the Hip Yak Poetry Shack will have some of the best-spoken word artists in the country and the regular features will all be back: the WOMAD Book Club, Sunday Papers Panel, One Track Minds, and a poetry slam with a prize of your own performance slot in 2024. There will be mind-expanding talks, experiments and performances at the Physics Pavilion; pampering and tranquillity at the World of Wellbeing and luxury at the WOMAD Spa, an oasis of calm with wood-fired hot-tubs, and all-day yoga.; an exclusive installation in the World of Art; and some of the weekend’s performers will get the chance to show off their culinary credentials in the legendary and unique Taste the World stage.
Festivalgoers have the unique opportunity to get involved and learn from the experts the incredible skills on show with a whole array of workshops; from taking dance lessons to picking up a musical instrument from the other side of the globe. And there are more child-friendly activities and workshops than any other festival at the World of Children where the theme for this year is Wonders of the World, the culmination of which is the now-legendary Sunday afternoon parade across the festival site. All children 13 years and under are free.
All the information for this year’s WOMAD festival, including how to buy tickets, can be found HERE