WOMAD has announced the first acts joining the global party at Charlton Park near Malmesbury this July, with house and techno legends set to deliver one of their famed live shows.
The homegrown collective are back with a new album Monsters Exist.
Five-time Grammy award-winning reggae superstar Ziggy Marley (Jamaica) will also take to the stage bringing the richest Jamaican heritage there is to the WOMAD with his soulful sounds.
Over his career, he has honoured his family’s heritage in making music that has a social conscience, whilst asserting himself as a true reggae star in his own right.
Dramatic virtuoso guitarist Anna Calvi will also bring her beautiful and thunderous sounds to the stage.
Now celebrating its 37th, WOMAD is a melting pot of music, dance, food, art, spoken-word, poetry, science and more, embracing the joys of diversity and tolerance.
Other acts announced include Salif Keita, the Malian afro-pop singer who will bring a cocktail of pop, funk and jazz and African rhythms, funk legends Cymande from the UK who combine the best of western and African musical traditions and energetic, passionate Afro-punk band Tshegue (France/Democratic Republic of Congo). Reggae reigns strong at this year’s festival, as the remarkable Brushy One String (Jamaica) joins the line-up.
As well as the stellar line-up of musicians taking to the stage, WOMAD offers a chance to celebrate the spoken word in the World of Words with talks, debates, panels and performances, to get even closer to the artists as they rustle up their favourite dishes from home at Taste the World and to be inspired in the World of Physics with workshops galore.
Festival-goers can also chill out in style at the World of Wellbeing with hundreds of therapies to heal your mind, body and soul and, for the younger ones, a whole universe of fun and games at the World of Children, this year cosmically themed around space.
WOMAD Charlton Park 2019 takes place at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, between Thursday, July 25 and Sunday, July 28. Tickets and full details can be found at womad.co.uk
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