Las Palmas de Gran Canaria hosts the 32nd edition from 21 to 25 October, back in the Canaries after 2018. Five days on an island with a sound all its own: the lively isa, the slow and courtly folía, the aching malagueña and the syncopated tajaraste, all riding on the timple, the little five-string guitar that carries Guanche roots and old Latin American trade routes in the same breath. Around all that: 2,600-plus delegates, 260 or so artists from 90-odd countries, seven stages, 700 companies working the trade fair floor, plus films, talks and an awards night, in a city with its sights set on European Capital of Culture 2031.
Every year the line-up is in the hands of the 7 Samurai, the international jury who put the WOMEX stages together. Five of them choose the showcases and two look after the conference, and this year they worked through more than a thousand proposals to arrive at the acts you'll catch in October. That's where our Road toWOMEX begins, as it has every year since 2021.
Each stop brings a Q&A with one of this year's showcase artists, along with a playlist they've put together just for Rhythm Passport: their own words, and the tracks that shaped their sound.
Follow our Road to WOMEX, then meet the whole family in Las Palmas: become a Womexican by following THIS LINK
