First Womad festival

Peter Gabriel could be accused of many things in the course of his career, but one undoubted plus point is Womad, the World of Music Arts and Dance organisation that he co-founded in 1980. Their first festival took place two years later in Shepton Mallet with a line-up that included the former Genesis frontman, Don Cherry, the Beat, the Drummers of Burundi, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Chieftains, Imrat Khan, Prince Nico Mbarga, Simple Minds and Ekome. Since then, appropriately, the festival has gone global, with events in 27 locations around the world and the organisation has expanded into recordings and educational work.