WOMAD Festival: Organisers reflect on 'spectacular' weekend
The festival in Malmesbury provides new talent a chance on the big stage - and this year it's been driven by clean energy
As the clean-up begins from this year's WOMAD Festival here in Wiltshire - organisers are already reflecting on what was a 'spectacular' weekend of live music - from artists many of us have never heard of before.
That's the whole mantra of the event, with the festival in Malmesbury providing new talent a chance to perform on-stage, in front of thousands.
And these artists don't just hail from the UK - as the whole mantra of WOMAD is about bringing cutting-edge performances and world-class musicians from every corner of the planet.
They describe it as a place to 'hear the best music you’ve never heard before', where you can 'join in with over 200 free workshops led by musicians and dancers from around the world, taste delicious and exotic food cooked by artists, listen to talks, relax in the arboretum, and discover so much more'.
The 2024 edition was a spectacular event, with the perfect weather helping to bring the best vibes across the entire weekend.
And it wasn't just a place for festival-goers to experience new firsts - as the green energy firm Ecotricity worked with the team this year to power one of the six stages entirely by batteries.
Chatting with Greatest Hits Radio, Festival Director Chris Smith said: "If you love music, you love art, and you love culture, you don't want to go to an art exhibition and see the same pieces every time.
"What you want to do is discover new great artists - and so much more. Our festival is all about artists you've never heard from countries you've never been to - and probably will never get to.
"Our work with our partners Ecotricity has been really important to us, too.
"We've always been pushing to make sure we do things as sustainably as possible, but the new generation of power that's coming through has enabled us to power one of our stages by what's effectively a giant battery - made up of recycled car batteries.
"We think we're the first UK festival to do this - and we're hoping this is something both, ourselves, and other festivals can embrace going forward.
"It's a bit like the future of cars - the market is going towards embracing batteries. Now the technology is there, the dream is to produce as little carbon at events like ours... it's the model for the future, and it's the model for the world.
"And aside from the sustainability, festivals like WOMAD are super important - because we remain determined to make sure events like ours remain accessible to everybody at a time when other events are seeing prices skyrocket."
Now, though, as the clean-up gets underway at Charlton Park, bosses at WOMAD are already looking forward to next year.
Chris Smith added: "The search for artists is constant, so we have a programme director who's - as we speak - looking for artists for 2025.
"We always want to improve the festival by bringing in new ideas, so it's a constant journey from one festival to the next, punctuated with these international events where we find these great artists, great people, and great workshop leaders - and we're really looking forward to it."