Womad 2026 review and photos

[kerplunk]

Review - https://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/26/womad-festival-2026-review.shtml

 

Photo gallery - https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/womad/2026/galleries.shtml

[Watergirl]

Very nice to read your review.  Here's mine. 
I enjoyed it all so much that I bought a pre-sale ticket for 2027!

 

____

 

WOMAD FESTIVAL

23-26 July 2026  Neston Park, Corsham, Wiltshere

 

Womad is back! The festival took a year off last year to recalibrate. They were moving to a new location, and no doubt the fact that so many festivals have ceased to exist as a result of financial problems in the current climate made it important for Womad to get things right going forward. And did they! The festival was a resounding success. Sold out, with brilliant music and smiling faces all around. 

 

From 2007 until 2024 the festival was held at Charlton Park in Wiltshere. I went there six times.  Sometimes the festival clashed wth Cambridge Folk Festival, but since the pandemic I have found myself preferring Womad. It offers greater diversity. There are acts from all over the world and I feel I can trust the organisers to come up with stuff I will enjoy. 

 

The new site is a beauty. Neston Park is an estate near Corsham.  Melksham is the nearest train station; Bath the nearest bigger town. The Real World studios are nearby in the village of Box. The weather was again very warm and the site thankfully has many shaded areas with trees. The camping fields offer enough space that people do not need to camp on top of each other. There are four main stages and best of all, programming is such that there was never any sound overspill. Toilets were mostly of the compost variety. The food I sampled was delicious, albeit expensive, and they had very nice Clear Head alcohol-free beer on tap, which predictably ran out on Saturday. 

 

I went as an Oxfam volunteer, which benefits a good cause and was enjoyable as ever, but I have to admit that it was killing me how much I was missing that I wanted to be at, due to having to work. I was not able to participate in the many interesting workshops and presentations on offer. I am planning to go as a punter next year, and volunteer elsewhere where the lineup is less crucial. My shifts were in the camping fields. This was relatively easy due to the Womad festival goers being very well behaved (“You can’t go that way“; “Oh, I see”). I enjoyed spending time up on the fire tower, from where the view was great.

 

Peter Gabriel made an appearance at the World of Words stage. Lopa Kothari was on compere duty on the World Stage (the main stage), and for me a most welcome addition was Justin Adams compering the second stage - the Big Top. Justin is a fantastic guitarist who has collaborated with and produced many world music greats (Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Souad Massi, Sharon Shannon). Justin is so knowledgeable and enthusiastic, it was a real joy to have him in the Big Top all weekend, and I liked his unshouty style of presenting.

 

These were my musical highlights:

 

1. GANAVYA (India) - Big Top

 

Singer Ganavya is from New York, of Indian heritage, and she spent many years living in Tamil Nadu. The first striking thing when she walks onstage is how pregnant she is. She explains she is eight months. At times it looked like there might be a Womad baby. Ganavya is accompanied by a harpist and a cellist. Stunning music and great storytelling too. She is a graduate from Berklee College of Music and has worked as a teacher as well, which is evident from her engaging talk. She reminded me of Arooj Aftab, mostly because of her dry and self-deprecating sense of humour. Her show ended with a wonderful singalong traditional, the high point of the entire festival for me. I will certainly seek her music out further.

 

2. SEPPUKU PISTOLS (Japan) - World Stage

 

The Seppuku Pistols are an anarchist punk group with traditional instruments. There’s thirteen of them, different ages. They started in the middle of the crowd and then made their way over to the stage. Many of the members play percussion. The leader is an older guy, who spoke at length and with great conviction in Japanese, before yelling “translate!” to a band member. There was so much going on, sometimes you didn’t know where to look. I was near the front, but band members frequently went with instruments and all into the moshpit. At the same time someone could come crowdsurfing overhead. Apparently one of them broke his ankle, didn’t realise and finished the gig. “I think you all need to go and decompress”, Lopa Kothari said to the audience once it was over. Everybody left the main stage with big smiles, shaking their heads.

 

3. GANNA (Ukraine) - Sunflower Tent

 

Ganna is a Ukrainian singer, based in Berlin. She performs solo, standing behind a table with equipment. This is never my favourite set-up, however her voice, songs, stage presence and stories were so remarkable that I can get over the lack of a proper band. My shift partner saw her at the ‘Taste the World’ stage and told me she is equally good without the box of tricks. Her singing is not unlike Sámi joiking. Ganna’s singing was so impressive that everyone (finally!) stopped talking. Her music is an intriguing mix of traditional songs over very contemporary electronics. She spoke about the situation in Ukraine, including some very personal stories. I would have loved for this show to have been longer.

 

4. OUMOU SANGARÉ (Mali) - World Stage

 

The only artist on the lineup that I had seen before. The “Songbird of Wassoulou” has continued to release quality albums and I knew this was guaranteed to be good. Oumou was the final act on the main stage on Sunday; a fitting end to the festival. Her band are a mix of Mali-based and French musicians; the keyboardist stood out in particular. Oumou looks positively regal to begin with, but loosens up once she takes off her high heels. She addresses the crowd mostly in French. Sound was exceptionally good for this gig, though it has to be said it was good on the whole, with the exception of the Sunflower stage, which was a bit muddled at times.

 

5. FRESHLYGROUND (South Africa) - Village Stage

 

Freshlyground are an Afropop band from Capetown, who have been around since 2002. After seeing several performers with laptops on stage, it was a relief to see such a seasoned band with real instruments (I love the flute). The band’s long-time singer went solo in 2019, and they are now fronted by 20-year-old Mali Makhoba, an very charismatic singer who describes herself as “just a girl from the township”. This is a very uplifting gig that draws a huge crowd to the relatively small Village Stage. They finish with their hit ‘Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)’, which they recorded with Shakira on vocals for the World Cup in 2010.

 

6. MÁDÉ KUTI (Nigeria) - Big Top

 

Son of Femi Kuti, grandson of Fela Kuti. 30-year-old Mádé Kuti is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and bandleader. He has a stellar band with him, including two energetic dancers, and together they put on a fabulous show. I saw Femi Kuti on the Womad main stage a few years ago, but I have to admit I enjoyed Mádé more. He pays tribute to his father and grandfather (he covers ‘Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am’), takes his place amongst the brass section so that other band members can solo, and brings his reluctant wife on stage for a dance (“She hates it when I do that!”).

 

7. SABINE MCCALLA (USA) - Village Stage

 

Sabine McCalla is from New Orleans, of Haitian descent, and the sister of Leyla McCalla, who played a great set at Womad 2024. Sabine is accompanied by a guitar player and her laid-back songs are perfect for an early afternoon set in near tropical weather. “Aligators are circling round Lake Pontchartrain”… I love that line from her song ‘Baby please don’t go’.

 

8. ANNIE AND THE CALDWELLS (USA) - World Stage

 

More music from the South, this time from Mississippi. Annie Caldwell played Womad a few years ago with the Staples Junior Singers. This time she has brought her family band, with three of her daughters singing. It is a slightly slicker affair and I have to admit I thought the gospel from the older group was even better.

 

9. MOHAMMED REZA MORTAZAVI (Iran) - Big Top

 

Mohammed is a percussionist extraordinaire. He plays an entire one hour set on a Persian drum that looks not unlike a bodhrán. It is incredible how many different sounds he gets out of this single instrument, just by using his two hands. His was a late show and by that time I had been up since 5 a.m. so I was struggling against sleep a little.

 

10. RUST (Lebanon / Syria ) - Sunflower Tent

 

Rust are Petra from Lebanon and Hany from Syria. They are based in Prague and they call their music electro tarab. I like Petra’s vocals very much, but would have loved to know a bit more about the songs. Hany stands behind a deck with equipment. Many of the songs build and build and end in banging techno, which goes down well at the midnight slot they occupy. Do check out their EP ‘Masaf’.

 

Disappointment:  

Tian Qiyi (UK).  A band of two brothers, sons of Jah Wobble. Their mother is Chinese and there is a strong Chinese influence in their music. I had listened to their album ‘Red Mist’ and had high expectations, but found them disappointing live. The guys were playing and singing live, but everything else was recorded. 

 

Would liked to have seen:

Yegor Zabelov, accordion (Belarus)

Bitoi, Scandi-folk with electronica (Sweden)

Lemoncello (Ireland)

Stafford Campbell (UK)

Yasmine Hamdan (singer from Soapkills, Lebanon)

 

Heard good reports from fellow volunteers about:

Barrington Levy (reggae/dancehall veteran, Jamaica)

Wild Wild Women (hip hop girls from Mumbai, India)

Ta Dhom Project (hip hop with percussion, India)

 

Womad 2027 will be from 23-26 July.

www.womad.co.uk for tickets.

 

Helen.