Crowds welcome return of major festival

Up to 40,000 people are celebrating the return of the world's largest international music festival.

WOMAD is back at its new home at Neston Park, near Corsham in Wiltshire, after taking a year off.

Known as 'the world's festival', bands and singers from all over the globe are performing at the four day festival after it relocated from its former site at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury.

Festival director Chris Smith said he was "incredibly excited" to see the gates open on Thursday, adding it had been "a long journey to get here".

"We started from scratch, had a blank canvas, and I think we're nearly there," he added.

The World of Music, Arts and Dance festival, shortened to WOMAD, has always championed music from across the world, and has taken place in multiple countries.

More than 100 artists will be performing across six stages, and visitors can enjoy more than 200 free covering subjects including art, yoga and dance.

WOMAD was created by British singer Peter Gabriel and began at the Bath and West Showground in 1982.

Lady Venetia Fuller, owner of the Neston Park estate, said: "Everybody just turned up, got on with their job quietly, and overnight a festival arrived."

As for what excited her most about opening up the grounds to the festival, Lady Venetia said it was "seeing the smiles on everyone's faces".

Running for more than four decades, the festival had been based at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, since 2007.

But this year it is making a return at its brand new site at Neston Park Estate, with headline acts including Annie & the Caldwells and Greentea Peng.

"We've had people coming round, who have been coming for years, saying 'this is extraordinary," Smith added.

To add to the list of firsts, it is also the first time the festival's main stage will be powered by renewable energy stored in huge batteries.

"The whole world is trying to go green, we're getting there, but these batteries will help," said Pete Townsend from energy company Ecotricity.

"If we can cut out diesel generators from the festival lifestyle then that's what we're aiming to do."

With tens of thousands of people arriving and departing from the site, Wiltshire Council has put a traffic management plan in place until 27 July.

Speed limits on two roads will be reduced to 30mph while a one-way system will also be introduced to manage traffic, with festival-goers encouraged to arrive and depart by public transport.

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