In 1982, the first Womad music festival was held in Shepton Mallet, UK. The organisation, which stands for World Of Music Arts And Dance, was set up in 1980 by English rock star Peter Gabriel (Genesis), Thomas Brooman, Bob Hooton, Mark Kidel, Stephen Pritchard, Martin Elbourne and Jonathan Arthur.
The first festival featured many acts who have appeared in this column, including Osibisa (the first African I saw perform at university in 1975), Kanda Bongo Man and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. At the time, the organisers said that they were keen to provide space for acts that did not get the kind of international exposure that other acts enjoyed at venues like the famous Glastonbury Festival. Womad also set up a record label, Real World, to record some of the acts that performed at the festival.
