Tougher to survive as a music festival in the UK, says Womad founder Peter Gabriel

Two men stood smiling on a stage with lanyards on which say 'Womad'

Image source, GarryjonesphotographyImage caption,

Peter Gabriel on the WOMAD stage with festival director Chris Smith

ByMartin Vennard, BBC World Service and Kirsten Robertson

Published27 July 2026

The large number of music festivals held in the UK makes the industry "tougher to survive" here than in other countries, one festival founder has said.

World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival (WOMAD), which attracts acts from across the globe, was founded by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel and was first held in Somerset in 1982. This year it was held at Neston Park in Wiltshire.

"We've always had some enthusiastic supporters, but keeping the budget under control is never easy," Gabriel told the BBC.

"I think in the festival business in the UK... we've a lot more festivals than any country, I think per head of population, so it is tougher to survive."

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Figure caption,

Peter Gabriel on WOMAD (and new album!)

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Last month WOMAD had to cancel plans to hold a festival in Glasgow for the first time.

Organisers said a competitive market combined with low ticket sales meant it was no longer viable to bring the music event to Scotland.

This year's festival in Wiltshire welcomed over 460 performers from 38 countries.

Colombian music duo Ácido Pantera, Swedish-Danish ensemble Bitoi and singer Clara Serra López were all part of the line-up.

Chris Smith, festival director, said: "We're one of the few independent festivals left of any scale in the country. We took the year out to completely reset and go to the blank canvas because we thought that's what we needed to maintain our place - and it's worked."

Gabriel said: "The last two WOMADS lost a fair bit of money, so this is a gamble again to see if we can survive. But it seems to be working well."

A man in a colourful outfit dances as a man plays a drum behind him

Image source, GarryjonesphotographyImage caption,

The festival celebrates world music and arts

The festival has moved to its new site from Charlton Park, near Malmesbury, where it had been held since 2007, and for the first time, the main stage was powered by renewable energy stored in huge batteries.

Gabriel said: "I really like it [Neston Park]. I'm a tree man, and I love the big old trees around the place; they centre me."