There is a certain tenor a WOMAD stalwart comes to expect: a practiced routine, a beaten track past well-known landmarks, a familiarity akin to coming home. Sometimes it’s good to mix it up a bit.

This July marked the festival’s first edition in a new location just up the road from Charlton Park, its much-loved site for 17 happy years before taking a break in 2025.

Organisers have been quick to reassure returnees that they’ll find the new spot welcoming and Neston Park, just half an hour away in Corsham, does indeed have a home-from-home feel, the flutter of those familiar flags helping crowds settle quickly into the weekend.

Some old favourites are missing: the d&b Soundscape stage with its state-of-the-art surround-sound experience; late night party venue Molly’s Bar; the Ecotricity stage, a cosy woodland spot for daytime respite or atmospheric after-dark shows; the magical Hidden Forest lit up by Luke Jerram’s Moon; the World of Science (a niche interest perhaps but a favourite, inevitably, of some).

So it is left to the music to carry the show and here the new compactness comes into its own, the smaller tents packed with hidden gems and standout performances of the festival which has not skimped on its musical programme at least.

The main stages offer up a mixed bag of hits and misses, occasionally mired by murky sound and drab set design.

On the World Stage the effervescent Derya Yıldırım, her voice in turns aching, wistful and full of soul, is supported by the psychedelic squelchy synth and phenomenally groovy rhythm section of her Grup Şimşek. It is sun-drenched and beautiful, augmented by her call for freedom, cultural strength and acceptance for those dwelling in the diaspora.

Bristol’s Ishmael Ensemble seem warm in their black outfits, camouflaged against a black stage and backdrop and playing directly into the sun’s heat. Perhaps this explains the low energy feel of both band and scattered crowd. Their jazz-inspired saxophone-and-synth jams with Rituals ‘Orchestra’ (comprising two violins, a harp and a cello) is lacking oomph. A smaller stage may well have inspired bigger vibes.

Reggae icon Barrington Levy is welcomed by a vast, multi-generational crowd and while there are a few unconvincing moments from a seemingly under-rehearsed band (as well as a smattering of problematic lyrical content sometimes associated with reggae that predates the 80s), his voice is as smooth and powerful as ever, his scatting as wild and his strut as convincing, especially on 2025’s ‘A Fi Yuh’.

Eventually, the crowd is galvanised into repeatedly requesting “run the track” while Levy teases ‘Black Roses’ and ‘Here I Come’ until well beyond his stage time, berating the MC for clock-watching and singing on until his mic is turned off.

The night’s headliner Greentea Peng calls “I love you Barry” and apes his vocal riffing throughout her glorious 90-minute show. An all-round class act, her band provide tasteful support for her elegant, honey-smothered r’n’b, with a high calibre all-female brass section ramping up the energy and spectacle.

On Saturday, Mixanteña de Santa Cecilia from Mexico City treat a packed Big Top to a classic slice of WOMAD with a high energy fusion of costumed dancers, ritualistic set pieces, eight-piece brass section and percussion. Their mix of cumbia, bossa nova and boleros is full of life, while joyful dancers in long-haired ram-horned headdress and twirling petticoats cause a stir when their bull puppet is sent in to dance with the crowd. It is experiences like these that keep people returning year on year.

Similarly, Bénin International Musical provide the perfect sunny soundtrack to a hot afternoon, the disco pop harmonies of Say She She floating across the field give the sense that all is right with this world of music and dance, and Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe are hotly tipped as this year’s mustn’t-miss sensation.

But it is the Sunflower stage, a stretch tent conveniently located to break up the just-too-arduous walk between the two main stages, that provides the weekend’s first nugget of pure gold. Tamer Nafar, one third of Palestinian hip hop trio DAM, is flanked for this solo appearance by a beat maker and exquisite Arabic-influenced electric violinist.

Nafar is a warm presence with powerful words, throwing out politically charged statements and personal anecdotes with equal emotive power. His latest record, In the Name of the Father, the Imam and John Lennon, references the two CDs his dad would play when driving him to underground rap clubs: the Beatles and the Quran. “But we don’t have to imagine there’s no country”, a defiant teenage Nafar said back then, but he’s retained his love of the seminal Liverpudlians.

LYR (Land Yacht Regatta, inexplicably) draw big numbers to that same tent, primarily to catch celebrity poet Simon Armitage in his new musical guise, his downbeat musings backed by pulsing bass and suitably moody, introspective soundscapes. His dry Yorkshire humour goes down well between songs and the crowd responds enthusiastically to the band’s paean to libraries, ‘The Enlightenment’, in particular.

The even smaller Village Stage, tucked away in a corner next to second mainstage the Big Top, boasts some of the best acts of the weekend.

For only their second live show, Romanian seven-piece Lăutăresele Șaraimanic pull out all the stops with high glamour and captivating dancing drawing on the Turkish and Roma heritage of their homeland. Accordionist Mituș Răducanu, the oldest group member, steals the show with his delighted toothy grins.

Later in the day, Belarusian Yegor Zabelov keeps the audience riveted with his expansive world-building, pushing the accordion to new creative limits with drones, sound walls and percussion sounds.

And sparky Portuguese solo artist Ana Lua Caiano grabs attention with her melodramatic delivery, then holds it with impressive looping of synth, percussion and voice into multilayered epics of fiery emotion. A stunned audience of all ages watch each song construction with awe, then explode in applause as Caiano expresses her deep delight and gratitude.

The sentiment was one that emanated across the site as another WOMAD was put to bed. Dynamic, welcoming, vibrating with fighting spirit and above all full of joy and connection, the 2026 edition served as a reminder of the role the festival plays in building community and educating through creativity.

Pre-sale tickets for 2027 have already sold out. Perhaps this year’s success will instil organisers with the confidence to bring back some of the site’s sorely missed old favourites; or, more in keeping with the culture of the event, to surprise us with something wholly new and unexpected.