Vow to beat the mud

2:23pm Wednesday 16th April 2008

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Vow to beat the mud By Lois Avery CommentLast year's festival WOMAD organisers have vowed to beat any rain storms this year by making the festival bigger and better than ever.

The festival was renamed WOMUD after torrential downpours last year meant festival goers were left in a muddy quagmire.

Now the organisers have enlarged the festival site and reorganised it on a slight slope to encourage rainfall drain off.

More camping, more parking and better access is being also provided to try and prevent the traffic chaos which resulted last year as festival goers parked in neighbouring villages.

Tickets went on sale in November and big acts such as Boy George, Finlay Quaye, Eddy Grant, Roni Size and 1970's band Squeeze, have already been confirmed.

The weekend is set to run from July 25 to 27 and it is hoped to pull in even more than last year's 30,000 strong crowd.

advertisement Mayor John Lawton, who spent last year's festival promoting the town, said: "Having seen WOMAD once, I am sure townsfolk know what to expect. It was an ideal opportunity to attract new visitors to the town.

"Hopefully the weather this year will be dramatically different."

Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Alan Woodward said: "I think people were very sceptical last time. They didn't know what was going on.

"But from what I have heard most people seemed very pleased."

A spokesman for WOMAD described the difficulties associated with presenting a festival in the wettest July ever recorded as enormous and costly.

The festival took place one week after a 1:100 year weather event and 22mm of rain fell on one day.

"For future events, there will be a much improved on-site communication system, and there will also be more supervisors of the large numbers of staff on site," he said.

"A member of our team will be dedicated to ensuring up-to-date information is always available on site in more areas and on the website."

Festival organisers have once again agreed to offer discounted tickets for those living in the SN16 postcode area. A weekend ticket for residents costs £60 and a Sunday day ticket £40.

The number of full weekend tickets available will, as last year, be capped at 2,000.

For details of the festival or to buy tickets visit www.womad.org or call 0845 146 1735.