Wonderful World, Beautiful People - Womad, 2026

 

Eight days ago we headed off to Womad, the festival of world music, arts and dance, founded by the musician Peter Gabriel forty-two years ago. Previously held in The Cotswolds, the festival took a year off in 2025 whilst the organisers searched for a new location, eventually settling on Neston Park in Wiltshire, a three hour drive from home.

After collecting our wristbands from the box office we were shown to our pitch and spent the next seven hours setting up. 

This year Womad provided dedicated trader showers, which with temperatures hitting the mid-30°s, were most welcome especially with having to wear hi-viz nylon vests and closed-in shoes for most of the day. 

Do you remember us bumping into fellow festival traders Norma and Kevin of Glitzy Vintage Jewellery on the tiny Greek island of Leros last year? When I'd posted that we'd arrived at Womad on Facebook Norma told us to look out for Clara, her daughter, who was trading there for the first time. By the time we'd walked back from our showers our neighbours had arrived and in one of life's many strange coincidences, they turned out to be Clara and husband, Kyle.  Wait till you see what I bought from their stall (coming up in my next post!)

The following day, we cracked on with installing the lighting, building the changing room and hoisting the shop sign which took us an absolute age as it was so hot and because we were distracted by numerous trader mates popping in. We also got acquainted with our other neighbours, Living Jewellery's Andy and his wife Angel. 

After a shower we had a wander around the new site which was still very much a work in progress. We called in on our pals Caroline, James and Thomas at Pilgrims Fair Trade, who we'd not seen since last summer. 

Liz and I always have a bet on what will be the first item we'd sell. Womad's was this incredible fur felt hat, handmade in San Sebastian, which went to a trader friend who makes hats. 

The festival officially opened on Thursday at 3pm with the first item to sell being a woolly jumper, an interesting choice considering it was 33° in the shade!

Here they come! 

Jon's first work outfit of the festival was a 1960s Portuguese leisure shirt with some linen shirts he'd found in a charity shop the previous week.

I'd not worn this skirt since our last Womad in 2024. Labelled Princess Florence, it is made in Italy and bears the Oscar della moda '73 label as the designer was awarded the iconic Fashion Oscar award in 1973 by Neiman Marcus. 

It was sunny and gloriously hot, the kind of weather I love but not always the best conditions for selling clothes but by the time we'd shut the shop at midnight, we'd had a pretty respectable trading day.

The temperature on Friday was already in the low 30°s when we rolled the shop front up at 9.30am. I wore a vintage lurex skirt given to me by Ann and Jos four years ago with a charity-shopped 1990s sequin bustier and an acrylic necklace Liz bought me last Xmas.

Jon had donated this 1980s Gabicci shirt to the stockroom but he decided to reclaim it. His shorts were a chazza find.

It was great to see our friends from End of the Road, always some of the best-dressed punters. 

We had plenty of entertainment on our doorstep. Abdul from Ghana ran drumming workshops and sold his handmade drums in the artisan market opposite. His sunny personality and beautiful smile were a festival highlight.

There were some beautiful rugs for sale on a neighbouring stall.

After trading for 14 hours we closed the shop at 11.30pm. 

 Saturday was shopping day and after opening at 9.30am trade was pretty much full-on all day. We took advantage of a brief lunchtime lull to take outfit photos.

This is one of Jon's favourite hot weather shirts (charity-shopped, obvs). My gold dress is also a chazza find, my mum crocheted the skull cap in the 1970s.

We were gutted to miss Say She She's set but were thrilled when bassist Morgan popped in, bought some vintage Spanish-made Cuban heeled leather boots (which he left the shop wearing) and then came back with the rest of the band!

 

We closed at 10:30pm and had a night out with our friends Nollie (the beauty in pink) and Justin of Perfectly Boo. We'd promised to see the gorgeous Lebanese woman who'd bought a 1970s sequinned top earlier performing traditional Arabic songs on the Sunflower stage at midnight and were very glad we did, her voice was incredible.

Afterwards we made our way over to the Lizard Cafe who were blasting out vintage Bollywood filmi tunes until we realised it was after 2am and we'd got a shop to open in a few hours time!

I'd been woken by rain in the night but it hadn't had much of an impact, on Sunday morning the ground was still tinderbox dry and the temperatures were again sizzlingly hot. Despite the late night we were open before 10am. 

This 1970s Hollywood Charmer maxi used to belong to my friend Cheryl and has been my festival staple for years.

Jon's 1960s orange leisure shirt was a recent charity shop find.

The Sunday parade is a Womad tradition when the festival is taken over with drums, colour and costumes. This year's theme was One World, Many Stories which celebrated cultures and traditions from around the world. Festival goers are encouraged to create their own outfits at home using sustainable materials and the World of Children area runs costume making workishops all weekend.

On Sunday night after rolling down the shutters for the final time, we packed up the remaining stock whilst musing on how Womad really is an international festival. Over the weekend we'd sold to people from Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, America, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Lebanon, France and even Walsall (hello, Deb!) 

We got up at 7am on Monday morning, dismantled the stall, hugged our friends goodbye and left the site six hours later stopping at Gloucester Services for our halfway home posh pie and frothy coffees. 

Back at home we totted up the takings and discovered that despite the intense heat we'd had our best Womad ever.

See you soon!