WOMAD early bird tickets on sale & first acts announced

World music festival WOMAD, which takes place at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th July 2008 has put 'early bird' tickets on sale, and confirmed the first acts.

For people who attended the ... erm ... rather muddy 2007 event, these early bird tickets cost just £100, and are available to buy until 31st December 2007. WOMAD have published 'de-brief document' (here) in which they acknowledge the difficulties encountered by all those at this summer's event due to the muddy conditions, which mostly came about due to about an inch of unexpected rain on the Thursday, and led to conditions on the festival site to deteriorate rapidly that day. Improvements are planned for 2008 so that the same difficulties aren't encountered should the weather be as awful next year (which it won't be, fingers crossed!).

Otherwise, there's standard 'early bird' tickets available to anyone until 29th February, priced at £115. The full price ticket for 2008 will cost £125.

There's also a disabled "2 for 1" ticket offer, where a registered disabled person and their carer can get two tickets for just £100. There will be a dedicated space available for disabled campers within the main festival campsite, located as near as possible to the festival arena, and with Cars, campervans, caravans and tents used by disabled people allowed in this area. There are accessible toilet and shower facilities in this field. However, this space is limited 100 bookings, so to ensure availability book now!

An adult ticket entitles the adult to bring two children aged 13 and under for free, but please note that a ticket is required for these children. Further child tickets can be bought for £10.

The first acts for 2008 are confirmed, with Michael Brook with Special Guests including Djivan Gasparyan (USA/Armenia), Altai Kai (Altai Republic, Inner Mongolia), Bedouin Jerry Can Band (Egypt), Kid Creole and the Coconuts (USA/Haiti), David D'Or (Israel), Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan (India), Dulsori (South Korea), the legendary father of ska Ernest Ranglin (Jamaica), Toumani Diabate (Mali), and Andy Palacio and Garifuna Collective featuring Umalali (Belize).

More acts will be confirmed over the coming months, with the full line-up expected to feature around 100 artists from 40 countries performing over the festival weekend. There's also a full programme of adult and childrens workshops (limited spaces available - turn up early!), the cabaret tent, comedy, DJ sessions and live performance in the late night 'CLUB WOMAD', as well as a huge market of world crafts.

To buy tickets, click here.

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